Golf 1st Generation

The first-generation Volkswagen Golf, internally the Typ 17, marked a turning point for the whole company. When it was shown in March 1974 it replaced the Beetle, which had carried Volkswagen for more than thirty years, with a car that was the opposite in almost every technical detail: a water-cooled engine at the front, front-wheel drive and a practical hatchback body. The shape was drawn by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign, and it was clean, square and compact. In North America the same car was sold as the Rabbit.

The story of the Golf began with a company that badly needed a successor. Volkswagen had already launched the Passat, the Scirocco and the Polo on the same new thinking, and the Golf became the center of that family. It was only 3,705 mm long with a wheelbase of 2,400 mm, and weighed from about 790 kg, but the cabin and the boot of about 350 liters were roomy for the time. Production started in Wolfsburg and later spread to Brussels, Westmoreland in the USA, Uitenhage in South Africa, Puebla in Mexico, Sarajevo, Clayton in Australia and Shah Alam in Malaysia.

A defining characteristic of this generation is the variety that grew from one simple platform. The petrol engines were the 1.1 with 50 PS, the 1.3 with 60 PS, the 1.5 with 70 PS and the 1.6 with 75 PS. Diesel versions came from 1976: the 1.5 D with 50 PS, the 1.6 D with 54 PS and later the 1.6 turbodiesel with 70 PS in the GTD of 1982. The Golf GTI, shown in 1975 and sold from 1976, had a fuel-injected 1.6 with 110 PS and later a 1.8 with 112 PS, and created the hot hatch class. A 4-speed or 5-speed manual and a 3-speed automatic were used, with front discs and rear drums.

Beyond the hatchback, the platform spread into other forms: the Jetta sedan from 1979, the Karmann-built Cabriolet from 1979 to 1993, the Caddy pickup and the Citi Golf, which was built in South Africa until 2009. In Germany the Mk1 gave way to the Mk2 in 1983. Today a clean Mk1, and above all an original GTI, is a collector car. It remains a very simple car to understand and repair, but rust, tired mounts and years of modifications decide the value, so the condition and the history of a single car matter more than its badge.