Bare
大众 means 'the masses' / 'the general public' — a direct calque of German Volkswagen ('people's car'). The
汽车 suffix disambiguates the automaker from the everyday noun. Through its two Chinese JVs (
上汽大众 since 1984,
一汽大众 since 1991), VW dominated the Chinese market for decades — the Santana (
桑塔纳) was the default sedan of 1980s-2000s China.
