The VW Golf Story (Auto Review Album Number 194, Rod Ward)

The VW Golf Story (and other cars on the same platform)  (Auto Review Album Number 194, Rod Ward)

The Volkswagen Golf hatchback was created to replace the VW Beetle, the story of which is told in Auto Review 129. It became an international best-seller in the ‘supermini’ sector, sometimes later called the ‘Golf sector’, setting the standard against which other cars were compared, and in its GTI form the Golf was the quintessential ‘hot hatch’. Approaching 40 million Volkswagen Golfs have been produced since its launch in 1974, making it the best-selling VW model, and in 2024 the Golf celebrates half a century in production. Volkswagen calculate that a Golf is sold somewhere in the world every 40 seconds.

The Volkswagen Golf owed a lot to Audi, which VW Group had acquired from Daimler-Benz in 1966. Audi already made well-regarded front-wheel drive cars before VW decided to utilise that layout for their Beetle replacement. When it appeared with the familiar angular lines of Giorgietto Giugiaro at Italdesign, the Golf used Audi-developed front-wheel drive systems and Audi transversely mounted engines, based on power units designed by Mercedes-Benz for Audi, before Volkswagen acquired Auto Union.

There have been eight Golf generations since 1974, each one adding a little more sophistication to the package. The Golf platform was so well-designed that many other Volkswagen models were built on it, as well as other VW Group vehicles in the Audi, Škoda and SEAT ranges. The story of the Golf is told in these pages, along with many of the other cars built on the same platform.