James Fuller

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James Ralph Fuller (September 17, 1938 – December 21, 1988) was an American automobile executive who worked for various foreign and domestic car companies before joining Volkswagen. Fuller was born in Boston, and grew to love cars as a boy, regularly reading Sportscar Graphic magazine in his teens. In 1962, while still in college at Northeastern University, Fuller participated in a cooperative education program at Ford Motor Company. After graduating with honors he went to work at Ford, where he conducted the launches of the Torino, Mustang II, and Granada models made by Ford's namesake brand. He later worked at Renault and American Motors. Fuller ultimately joined Volkswagen of America, where he directed the Porsche-Audi division and was able to increase sales 17 percent by 1981. He was appointed to run the VW brand in May 1982 to duplicate his success at Porsche-Audi. Fuller was credited with helping to restore Volkswagen's image as an inexpensive European car with the performance and handling typical of German car makes. At the time Fuller became the leader of the Volkswagen sales division, the Volkswagen Rabbit had been manufactured at the company's Westmoreland Assembly Plant for four years, and revisions to make it drive and handle more like an American car had compromised VW's reputation. Soon after taking over VW, Fuller succeeded in having the GTI version of the Rabbit (Golf in Europe) manufactured at the Pennsylvania plant, after the Golf GTI had been on sale in Europe for six years. Automobile magazines and Volkswagen enthusiasts in the United States welcomed the GTI to the Rabbit lineup, and Volkswagen quickly followed with a high-performance version of the Jetta notchback, the GLI. Fuller explained that he wanted Volkswagen to go farther with performance by offering good passing speed and safety-related factors like braking. The Volkswagen...