The VW Golf turns 50 – The car for everyone
Published: Friday, Mar 22nd 2024, 12:20
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Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock used to have one, musician Peter Maffay had several, and VW Works Council Chairwoman Daniela Cavallo had one anyway. The Volkswagen Golf is by far the most popular car in Germany. Entire generations got their driving license in the classic from Wolfsburg. Now the successor to the Beetle is 50 years old.
It premiered in 1974 as the Golf I. The very first Golf rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg on March 29. Compact and angular on the outside, yet spacious on the inside, with front-wheel drive, folding rear seats and a large tailgate. The departure from the Beetle, which VW had held on to for almost three decades, could hardly have been clearer.
Golf saves VW from the end
It was a fateful year for VW, which was to result in a loss of 807 million Deutschmarks and a five percent reduction in the workforce. The reasons: Declining sales, currency fluctuations and, above all, rising costs for materials and personnel. The brand had held on to the Beetle for far too long, which was selling less and less, says car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the Bochum-based Center Automotive Research. The new beacon of hope, the Golf I, was doomed to success - and it delivered. "Without the Golf," says Dudenhöffer, "VW would probably not exist in this form today."
More than 37 million "Gölfe", as the majority are affectionately known in Wolfsburg, have been sold worldwide since the launch. The eighth generation is now rolling off the production line at the plant. "It's not often that an icon reaches the age of 50 and reinvents itself again and again," says current brand boss Thomas Schäfer, who was about to celebrate his fourth birthday when the model was launched. "That's quite a phenomenon."
Above all, because the car scores points across all buyer groups. "The Golf has always been truly classless," says Schäfer. "Anyone can drive it. From lawyers and CEOs down to ordinary workers. There are few cars that have managed that." He also drives a Golf in his private life, of course.
Founder of the golf class
The Golf has left its mark on an entire class. What the Federal Motor Transport Authority calls the compact class is simply called the Golf class in the industry. In his bestseller "Generation Golf", Florian Illies even named the entire age group born between 1965 and 1975 after the car. "What was actually intended as the definition of an automotive lifestyle became the appropriate upholstery cover for an entire generation," says the author.
The city of Wolfsburg renamed itself "Golfsburg" on its town signs for a few months in 2003. And in 2015, it erected a monument to the model with an oversized Golf sculpture donated by VW, which has now been decorated with a golden ribbon to mark its 50th birthday.
The current CEO Oliver Blume, who grew up in Braunschweig, was already in a Golf as a child. His father had one of the first Golf GTIs in the seventies, with which the brand trimmed the compact car for sportiness in 1976. Together with his father, he painted the dark green GTI with silver side stripes at the end of the seventies, recalls the 55-year-old. And at the weekend, the car was washed together, "with the Bundesliga football conference on the radio", as the self-confessed fan of Eintracht Braunschweig adds.
Overtaken in Switzerland by Skoda and Tesla
The Golf has been the best-selling car in Germany for years. But its throne is shaking. In 2023, it was still able to defend the top spot in Germany, but in Europe it has since been overtaken by Tesla's Model Y.
The Golf was also the best-selling car in Switzerland for decades. However, it gave up the top spot in 2017 to the Skoda Octavia and later to Tesla's Model 3 and Y, according to figures from the industry association Auto Schweiz. Since then, it has been on a steep decline.
In 2023, the Golf was only the 10th best-selling model. In the first two months of 2024, the Golf returned to seventh place in the sales statistics with just over 500 new registrations. However, more than twice as many Skoda Octavia and Tesla Model Y cars were newly registered in Switzerland.
Next Golf goes electric
Will there be a ninth generation after the current Golf 8? "Definitely," says Schäfer. But no longer as a combustion engine. "The next generation will be electric." And it will be called Golf again, not ID like the previous e-models. "That's what I stand for." But it will take until the end of the decade before that happens. "It also has to be a vehicle that matches the Golf's values. Otherwise it doesn't make sense."
Will the plan work? Expert Dudenhöffer has his doubts. "The Golf is a great car. But every car has its time." Today, SUVs are more in demand. And customers primarily associate the name Golf with combustion engines. "The question from the customer's point of view is: how credible is an electric Golf?" The step of turning the Golf into an electric car would definitely involve risks for VW. "It would be like going back from the Golf I to the Beetle. That wouldn't have worked."
VW is now giving the current combustion-powered Golf another extensive facelift for its birthday. "This puts the vehicle in a good position for the next few years," says Schäfer. "And then we'll have to see how the ramp-up of electromobility develops."
If sales of electric vehicles remain as weak as they are at present, another facelift could be added to the combustion engine at a later date. But, Schäfer emphasizes: "There will not be another completely new vehicle as a combustion engine."
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