1984 VW Golf GL

Golf I - 1974 - 1983

1974: ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest with „Waterloo“, Germany becomes football world champion for the second time and US President Nixon resigns due to the Watergate affair. Oh yes, and Volkswagen presents the first Golf as the successor to the Beetle.

In March 1974, the first Golf rolls off the production line in Wolfsburg. Advertising starts with the slogan: „The new popular sport: golf“

The figures seem modest: 3.70 meters long and weighing a good 800 kilograms, the car was powered by 50 or 70 hp. There was immense pressure on the car, which was small by today's standards, as it was intended to replace the Beetle. Thanks to front-wheel drive and much more space despite its shorter dimensions than the Beetle, the first Golf immediately hit the bull's eye, reaching the one million vehicle mark in 1976.

Audi and its competitor NSU, which VW had taken over in 1969, were consulted for the technology and the iconic designer Giorgio Giugiaro was brought in in 1970. VW subsequently simplified the designs for cost reasons.

The normal Golf I rolled off the production line in Western Europe until 1983. The Cabriolet even lasted until 1993 and, as the CitiGolf, the very last offshoots of the Golf I did not even roll off the production line until 2009. Including all derivatives such as the Cabriolet and the Jetta, which was identical in construction at the time, 6.99 million units of the first generation Golf were produced - a worthy successor to the VW Beetle.

Golf II - 1983 - 1991

The Golf II is larger and more aerodynamic, but the design remains the same. It is supposed to be a completely new car, but they didn't want to move away from the concept. The progress should lie in the details, and it does.

A radical change can be seen at the rear of the car: the tail lights of the Golf I are positioned at the very bottom, just above the bumper - on the Golf II they are moved far upwards. In 1983, no other car on our roads had this feature.

Series production of the second Golf begins at the Wolfsburg plant in June 1983. Technical innovations: the anti-lock braking system (ABS), power steering and the Syncro, the first all-wheel drive Golf. And as early as 1989, Volkswagen presented a prototype of this Golf with electric drive, the Golf Citystromer and a Golf Hybrid study. The Golf is also at the forefront when it comes to the environment: in September 1984, it is the first Golf with a regulated catalytic converter on the 1.8-liter injection engine. Five years before the introduction of mandatory catalytic converters in Germany. In November 1989, the world's first diesel engine with a catalytic converter followed.

A total of 6.3 million second-generation vehicles were produced by the summer of 1991.