Has anybody visited this place? Its VW's complex, from what I understand. I was hoping to take my son to the BMW motorcycle factory while in Berlin but they aren't offering any tours in English while we are there. Now, I'm trying to find some other car related thing for us to do. He is 16 and extremely into cars and history.
Posted by
Portland OR
76 posts
I visited the VW Autostadt in the summer of 2016. I also made arrangements to go on the VW factory tour the same day.
https://www.autostadt.de/en_US/vehicle-collection/my-vehicle-collection/volkswagen-factory-tour
I took the train from Berlin and spent most of the day walking around the Autostadt grounds. There is a museum and Pavilion buildings for Volkswagen, Porsche, Bentley/Bugatti, Skoda, Lamborghini, Audi and SEAT vehicles. There are two 200 ft tall glass building vehicle silos storing new VW's produced next door.
If your son is really into motorcycles, you might reconsider the BMW motorcycle factory tour even if it is in German, watching the production process can be very interesting. You may also be able to use your phone to translate on the fly.
Posted by
OP
Port Townsend, WA
33 posts
Thank you Scott. I did consider taking the BMW motorcycle tour in German but they aren't offering any tours for the week we will be in Berlin. Is the VW Factory tour close to the Autostadt? I find the Autostadt website quite overwhelming/confusing. I'm trying to understand if this is worth the trip from Berlin. Did you think it was worth it?
Posted by
Portland OR
76 posts
The Wolfsburg VW factory is located next to the Autostadt. From the train station you can walk to the Autostadt entrance, or walk the other direction to an underground tunnel that takes you to Gate 17 (Torr 17) where the factory tour begins. The tour is only an hour long, and not as comprehensive as the BMW, Audi and Porsche factory tours I have taken in Germany. At Wolfsburg you ride in some open shuttle vehicles inside the manufacturing areas. I took the factory tour at 2:30PM on a friday, after the tour I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Autostadt. The train from Berlin takes about 1 hour 15min.
You may want to have your son look at the Autostadt web and Wiki pages and other web photos of the exhibits to see if he would find it interesting. I grew up around the VW beetle and was part of a VW club many years ago, so going to Wolfsburg was a sort of pilgrimage for me. I can send you a private message (PM) with a link to some photos I took during my visit if you are interested.
Posted by
OP
Port Townsend, WA
33 posts
Hi Scott- We'd love to see some images of your trip to the Autostadt. Thanks for offering.
The VW Factory Tours are completely sold out for the rest of 2024, unfortunately, so if we go it'll be solely for the the Autostadt. I see that you are in Portland. If you haven't been to it yet, the LeMay Auto museum in Tacoma is really great. My son and husband really love it!