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Do you have a link to the article which details the upcoming movie and VW's objections?
As far as protecting copyrights in general, it's not just VW. It's everybody. With the success of retrocars, Ford is going to do a limited production of their famous GT-40. What's it going to be called? The Ford GT. Why? Because Ford stupidly let their copyright to the GT-40 name run out, and now someone eles owns the right to that name.
More recently, GM strong-armed a kit car manufacturer to not call its product the HummBug because it resembled the Hummer too closely and was infringing on its name. The product changed its name to the Wombat and had to change its "grill" to having horizontal slats rather than the verticle slats of the Hummer (because the slats were ornamental on the air-cooled, VW-based kit car). Interestingly, VW did not lodge a legal complaint against the "Bug" part of its original name.
As far as toys go, all manufacturers must get permission from the originating company. Ferrari did not let Aurora make slot cars with their name back in the '60s for example. Manufacturers are very protective of what toys, etc. are conveying as far as their product is concerned. This is nothing new.
Please note: I am not offering an opinion on whether Volkswagen is smart in not allowing a toy to be made using one of its cars. I know as much about Transformers as I do on brain surgery. Copyright protection, though, is very important and very essential to all companies ... and it has been going on for a long, long time. (Is there another car shape as distinctive as the Beetle?)
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