GOLF

About the Golf

In 1974 the press called it 'the little saviour'. Beetle sales were falling and Volkswagen was losing money. Series production started in Wolfsburg on 29 March 1974, and the Golf was everything the Beetle wasn't: transverse front engine, front-wheel drive, water cooling, a tailgate and a Giugiaro body 165 kg lighter. Americans met it in 1975 as the Rabbit. The millionth was built by October 1976. After that the Golf's job was to make new hardware normal: catalytic converters, ABS and syncro all-wheel drive in the Mk2, the VR6, TDI and airbags in the Mk3, DSG in the Mk4, MQB and up to 100 kg less weight in the Mk7, mild and plug-in hybrids in the Mk8. The 1974 brochure promised maximum space, a low beltline and a rear window that made reversing easy, and Volkswagen says every Golf since still meets that brief. More than 37 million have been built in eight countries, and Volkswagen calls it the best-selling European car of all time. The GTI, which started here in 1976, now has its own page.