Volkswagen is a German car company and the cars it makes — one of the biggest carmakers in the world, based in Wolfsburg. Its most famous models are the Beetle, the small round car that became a symbol of the 1960s, and the Golf, a practical family hatchback that has sold for fifty years. In English the name is used two ways: for the company ("Volkswagen announced a new electric model") and for a single car ("He drives an old Volkswagen"), with the plural Volkswagens. It is very often shortened to VW, said "vee-double-you", and casually people say "a Volksie" or just "a VW". The brand has a reputation for being solid, sensible and well built — the sort of car that keeps going — though that reputation took a real knock in 2015 when the company admitted cheating on diesel emissions tests, and English speakers still refer to that as "the Volkswagen scandal" or "dieselgate". As a proper noun it always takes a capital V. English speakers usually say it "VOLKS-waggon", not the German way, so do not worry about sounding German.