VW Golf GLI Cabrio D&W Edition

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.