In the spring of 1969, the waters ran high in Neckarsulm. At first it was just a rumour, then a headline in the Bild newspaper, and finally certainty: the giant VW would swallow the dwarf NSU. The NSU news were more promising than ever: five hundred and ninety cars a day were not enough to meet demand without delivery deadlines.

Sales had increased by 23 percent compared to the previous year, the RO 80 confirmed Neckarsulm‘s pioneering spirit and sold well, the Wankel idea listed more and more licensees. Admittedly, the previous NSU Prinz automobiles had to be supplemented by a larger mid-size car, the later K 70, the RO 80 made acquaintance with negative headlines and required further intensive fine-tuning. and required further intensive fine-tuning, an expansion of the model range seemed unavoidable. However, there was a considerable lack of capital for this.

As early as 1965, NSU‘s main shareholder, Dresdner Bank, had encouraged the chairman of the board to look for a larger partner. After sounding out Ford and Fiat, VW offered itself. The Wolfsburg company increased NSU‘s capital from DM 87 million to DM 215 million and at the same time decided to merge with its wholly owned subsidiary Auto Union GmbH in Ingolstadt. With the tongue-twisting name Audi NSU Auto Union AG, the new company established itself with its headquarters in Neckarsulm. There they were quite happy about the way things were going when RO 80 sales fell sharply in the face of unsolved problems, disappointment about the rotary piston concept spread internationally and finally the K 70 was launched on the market as a VW product.