The American auction site Cars and Bids had to withdraw the sale of a Kei Car when Volkswagen threatened the YouTuber behind the platform to silence him.
In the US, the Volkswagen importer has become so angry about a South Korean Kei Car that it has banned its sale.
In fact, the German brand has demanded that the auction site Cars and Bids immediately cancel the bidding for the car. Which has already happened.
Volkswagen has been furious that the South Korean car, a Daihatsu Atra from 1998, looks very similar to a Type II. Also known as the Rye Bread.
The car is not the work of Daihatsu, however. The car has been redesigned since it rolled off the assembly line almost 30 years ago, to resemble the classic VW. But that's too much of a good thing for the North American importer.
– Earlier this week we received a letter from Volkswagen in North America demanding that we stop the auction because the car violates several of the brand's protected trademarks – including the design and the logo on the front.
– We do not believe that Volkswagen has anything to do with (the allegations, ed.). But we want to make sure that neither the seller nor the buyer gets into trouble. And that is why we have made the difficult decision to stop the auction, says Cars and Bids .
Since then, all videos of the car have been removed from, among other things, the auction site's own platform and YouTube.
It was YouTuber Doug DeMuro who founded the auction site in 2019, which has since grown into one of the largest in the United States. DeMuro later sold the majority of the company behind the platform to private equity firm The Chernin Group for a considerable sum of millions. Read more about it here .
Regarding the now banned Daihatsu, DeMuro himself has said that it will definitely make people turn around. But that was before Volkswagen did the same and muzzled him.
This isn't the first time a celebrity has been branded with a car badge. Another YouTuber previously drew the ire of Ford for converting a Mustang. Read more about it here.
And in 2020, a third YouTuber known as B is for Build was sued because he wanted to build a version of the famous Mustang Eleanor. You can't do that without a license first.
The case meant that the police in the US came after the car, which was supposed to resemble the 'star' in the remake of the car movie Gone in 60 Seconds from 2000. The case ended in a settlement, where the company with the rights to the real Mustang Eleanor took over the car.
