VW Golf at 50: the brand new mannequin, and a glance again on the pioneering small automotive

The VW Golf is 50 years outdated in 2024. Initially supposed to be an replace and alternative for the beloved VW Beetle, the Golf ended up as an icon in its personal proper, the epitome of the forward-thinking, compact household automotive ethos that when underpinned Volkswagen. By eight generations, the Golf has tracked developments in expertise and cultural developments, rising ever bigger and extra subtle. 

VW Golf in 2024

This month (January 2024), Volkswagen introduced the newest improve, giving the eighth-generation mannequin a radical overhaul to take it by the subsequent few years. First launched in 2019, the Mk8 Golf embodied the thought of a single mannequin masking each conceivable market, from property automotive and hybrid by to the cultish GTI.

Styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Golf’s fashionably creased bodywork ensured it was diametrically against the pleasant curves of the Beetle. Because the mannequin wore on, a extra rounded kind was adopted; solely lately has a finer line prevailed. As one of many first ever hatchbacks, the Golf set the usual for the category.

A brand new GTI is without doubt one of the fashions used to herald the newest replace. The very first Golf GTI was launched in June 1976 and acquired prompt acclaim. With its tartan seats and crimson and black trim launched by inside designer Gunhild Liljequist, the GTI wasn’t initially anticipated to do very nicely. VW reckoned it may promote round 5,000; in the long run, 462,000 Mk1 GTIs have been bought.

Thus far, VW has bought over 37 million Golfs in all, with its scale incrementally growing with every era (the Mk1 was 3.7m lengthy by 1.6m huge, making it across the identical measurement because the tiny VW Up!; the newest Golf is 4.2m x 1.8m huge).

Bigger measurement equates to extra refinement and gear, and even in its lowliest kind the latest Golf could be very a lot a premium product. From the late Nineteen Eighties onwards, VW launched into an bold promoting marketing campaign that bought the Golf because the good selection of the discerning and well-heeled. The most recent model will are available in petrol, diesel, hybrid and pure electrical variations, in addition to the aforementioned GTI and property variations, and the forthcoming flagship Golf R.

The New Golf’s most substantial updates will are available in software program kind, an space the place VW has struggled lately with a lot publicised points with the interface and tech rolled out with the unique ID.3. All this – and extra – is ready to be sorted, with a return to common buttons somewhat than the loathed capacitive contact buttons that got here with the Mk8.

VW has already mentioned that the brand new mannequin will come bundled with a ChatGPT-enabled voice assistant, and different advantages embrace a hybrid mannequin able to travelling over 60 miles on battery alone.

VW’s greatest problem going forwards is self-cannibalisation. The Golf is virtually on a parity with the marginally smaller Polo, while the ID.3 EV additionally occupies the identical area of interest. The forthcoming ID.2 EV (which could be a Polo alternative) provides much more confusion. Throw within the many different VW Group firms that use the Golf platform to construct equally sized and pitched automobiles, and you’ve got potential confusion. Nevertheless, the Golf title ought to have the cachet, heritage and credibility to rise above all of it.

Volkswagen New Golf, deliveries begin spring 2024, particulars and costs at Volkswagen.co.uk