The VW Golf mk1 Story

Volkswagen refreshed its entire range in the early 1970s, but the most important of these cars must have been the replacement for the venerable Beetle – the Volkswagen Golf. The Beetle was such an important part of VW’s history – for a long time it was the only vehicle that they offered – so it would be a tough act to follow. Yet the replacement thrived – selling over 37M cars over 8 generations, and counting. That’s compared to 21M Beetles over a longer period. So, sit back, grab your favourite

beverage and join me for the first generation Volkswagen Golf story. [music] In the 1960s Volkswagen was slowly gaining financial muscle, selling a surprisingly large amount of cars given they’d only ever produced four distinct vehicles, and each one used variations of the same air-cooled engine mounted at the back. But Volkswagen’s secret weapon was their reliability. The Beetle had started with lots of problems, but Volkswagen had systematically found and eliminated almost all of them. It’s n

ot that Volkswagen hadn’t thought of replacing the Beetle – I’ve got a whole video talking about their failed attempts to replace it. By the late 1960s the Beetle, like the Mini in the 1990s had gone from being seriously out of fashion to back in fashion, but nostalgia only gets you so far and to thrive Volkswagen needed a modern replacement. Porsche had done VW’s engineering work for many years, as Volkswagen ran their development team on a shoestring budget. The company behind the 911 had star

ted work on a small car in 1966, but soon it was offered up to Volkswagen as a potential Beetle replacement. VW agreed, and made it clear they wanted it to be zippy, comfortable, safe to drive, spacious and compact. The designer was Ferdinand Piëch and a few decades later he would go on to run Volkswagen. He, maybe naturally, designed something with strong Porsche influences. The car was mid-engined, with the large 1.6L power unit tucked underneath the rear seats. This would likely have produced

a high rear seat like the Volvo 300 series that put the transmission and fuel tank in the same place. It would also probably have been pretty noisy and that engine would produce a warm rear seat that wouldn’t have been very comfortable in the summer. To be fair, if you ask Porsche to design a car, they aren’t going to put the engine up front! The weight balance would be all wrong! But although the engine placement might seem strange today, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for VW’s range – all

their cars were rear engined with a boot up front. At the same time Volkswagen were working on a Beetle replacement of their own. It used the old Beetle engine, but VW were moving with the times. The engine was situated up front, with front wheel drive and a rear hatchback. The 1.6L fuel injected engine on Porsche’s offering would make it an early “hot hatch” – getting to 116mph (187 km/h). Volkswagen’s version of the car used the decidedly more pedestrian 44hp (33 kW) Beetle engine and gearbox

, with equally pedestrian looks that were never going excite the buying public. But the goal here was to save development costs and maintain reliability using existing parts, and Volkswagen was shrewd enough to realise that customers in the 1970s wanted a small, practical hatchback with bags of interior space. It would be natural to think VW was competing with hatchbacks like the Fiat 127 or the Renault 5, but these cars hadn’t yet been released. Volkswagen’s sights were aimed squarely at Fiat’s

larger 128 and they’d stripped one down to its component parts to see how it ticked. Both of these projects had been started by VW’s long-time chief Heinrich Nordhoff but his untimely death in 1968 led to a new boss - Kurt Lotz. NSU was in financial chaos due to the wankel rotary engine that failed to live up to expectations, and he snapped up the company. NSU knew rotary engines, but they were also adept at front engined front wheel drive cars, something which Volkswagen had almost no experien

ce. They also had a design department that would flesh out Volkswagen’s small operation. The internal Beetle replacement project morphed into a new project – EA337. The big change for this new project would be the engine. The Beetle’s air cooled flat four was alright for the 1930s, but times had changed. NSU had been developing a new supermini that would launch as the Audi 50. Its modern engine would be ideal for the new car and kept development costs low, and the larger 1.5L engine from the Aud

i 80 would round out the range. But who should style this car? Kurt Lotz visited the Turin Motor Show and found some of his favourite designs were by Giorgetto Giugiaro. Going with what you like and not what the target market likes can be a recipe for disaster, but in this case it proved to be an inspired decision. Giugiaro was commissioned to style VW’s Beetle replacement, and the improvement over their original design showed what happens when you put a truly great stylist on the job. Volkswage

n liked his ideas so much they decided to use him to style the replacement for their new large car – the Passat, and the Karmann Ghia replacement – the Scirocco. The Giugiaro “folded paper” design would become Volkswagen’s new family style, curiously with a BMW-like Hofmeister kink. The Passat would be the first car to be designed and released and would be followed up by the Scirocco. Surprisingly the Porsche project hadn’t yet been cancelled. Maybe Kurt Lotz was hedging his bets over which proj

ect would be the correct way to go. We’ll never know which one he would have chosen though. Mr. Lotz managed to annoy union bosses and important partner Porsche, and Volkswagen’s cash flow was in crisis. To his many detractors Kurt Lotz was known as “Lotz of trouble”. He was forced out in 1971 to be replaced by Rudolph Leiding who wasn’t a fan of Giugiaro’s car – he thought it was ugly. Giugiaro was soon sidelined and would only style two other Volkswagen cars – the Jetta – a booted Golf and the

W12 concept in 1997, many years after Rudolph Leiding had retired. VW’s boss would like to cancel these projects, but by this stage the Passat and Scirocco were too far along, and the Beetle replacement shared a lot of their components. He made the call of canning the Porsche small car project – it was too expensive to produce, and it would be a lot harder to turn this rear engined car into a saloon, estate or a pickup. So, the new Beetle replacement would be EA337. If they could get it to mark

et that is. Volkswagen was running on financial fumes after sales had collapsed and the Type 4 had flopped, so had to go cap in hand to the German Government for money to fund Golf development. This Beetle replacement was truly a make-or-break car. Thankfully Giugiaro understood how to do great styling on a budget – he understood the impact of his shape on the production process. This new car would be a lot cheaper to produce than the outgoing Beetle. But they soon found it had to be altered for

new US crash legislation, so the windscreen angle was increased and 6cm (2”) added to the bonnet length. When the car launched in the US it gained ugly oversized bumpers for the same reason. The goal was to use rectangular headlights to mirror the rear light cluster, but that proved too expensive and didn’t match US legislation. No matter, friendly round headlights were used, which provided a subtle nod back to the Beetle. Giugiaro was never happy with these changes which he thought detracted f

rom the original design. The Golf, as we all know was named after the sport. Like the Polo, right? Except there’s those who say it was named after trading winds – Golf for gulf stream, Passat apparently means “trade wind”, Scirocco is also a wind, Polo means polar winds, well, at least according to Road & Track. I’ve never found a Volkswagen source stating definitively what the car was named for, and at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter. It’s a quick, short word that is easy to say and

hard to get wrong. [music] The Volkswagen Golf launched in 1974 and there was immediate praise from the motoring press. Here was a car that was spacious inside and practical. And it launched just when everyone was thinking about fuel economy just after the 1973 fuel crisis. Volkswagen hit the nail on the head with a pair of frugal yet peppy engines allied to a manual or automatic gearbox. You could have your cake and eat it too in a range of funky colours that were more interesting than today’s

black, white, silver and grey. Yet the Golf wasn’t a smash hit with the public from the outset. It was outsold by Opel’s new rear-wheel drive Kadett. And there was always a worry customers would equate a hatchback with a utilitarian estate car – a vehicle without much panache. But the sloping hatchback had more of a coupé vibe while still being practical, and this new shape caught on. Sales grew as people started driving and recommending the car as a good all-round vehicle with room for 5 and t

heir luggage. My parents bought a Golf in 1980 after owning a Polo and it was a fantastic car. I got to own my own first generation Golf in the late 1980s. It was a 1.3 LS with a colour that I could only describe as “snot green”. I loved how it drove though. My friend Russ is a true petrol head. He must be – he owns an Alfa Romeo! He also owned a first generation Golf, and has agreed to talk a little about the experience of driving one: Thank you Andy, I’m privileged to be a special guest on Big

Car! Of course, I’m mainly here on the vague promise of keeping this Big Car t-shirt. When you said you were doing an episode on the Volkswagen Golf mk1, well my heart just melted into pool of sentimental goo and very black oil. And that’s because my first car, bought with my own hard earned cash, was indeed a Volkswagen Golf mk1. A bright yellow 4 door 1.1L 50hp (37 kW) 1974 Golf. No matter I waited 13 years to buy that particular car. It was my pre-owned, pre-loved and I was to discover, pre-

unmaintained joy for a few years. I could say I even named her – Daisy – but that would be embarrassing, so we’ll skip past that. So, let me recap just a little of my experience, with Daisy… I mean my mk1 Golf. The first thing to like even though it was old was that it looked modern. Crisp lines from any angle, no flab, no wasted overhangs. Not just a looker, it was also a bit of a handler. In those days I made many journeys on the A and B roads of the glorious British countryside. To get it mov

ing at any pace made me feel like Mansell or Senna of that era. You had to keep the revs up and make full extensive use of the 4 gears, but I could use full power out of those roundabouts for a long, long time. All the way up to 60mph (100 km/h) in fact. But the most fun was certainly that handling. Of course, it understeered a bit being front wheel drive, but through fast corners in the wet it would gently slide sideways, evenly and predicably. Of course, this was mostly about the tyres. You kn

ow those little skinny tyres, the emergency ones you get on cars travelling at 35mph (56 km/h) in the slow lane? Well that was pretty much the rubber for all corners of the car - just 145mm (5¾“) width. So, as a result it was a blast when the rain came down. The thing I love about all Golfs is the simplicity and ergonomic design of the controls. My mk1 took simplicity to the next level. You remember when cars had a few rows of switches and then a couple of blanked out spaces? Well, my base 1.1 h

ad a row of blanked out spaces and then a couple of switches. One for the heated rear window and one for the hazard lights. But they were nice and tactile just like the steering wheel and the gear stick. It was all you needed in those days. Now I have to say it was not all sweetness and light for travelling. Something was up with the noise insulation. They either forgot to fit insulation at Wolfsburg, or it degraded very badly over the years. I resorted to no less than 2 layers of thick house ca

rpet in the floor wells. It still made a droning noise above 50mph (80 km/h) but at least conversation was possible by shouting. The aftermarket radio and speakers were pretty bad too, so it was really just best to sit back and enjoy the scenery. Then there was the oil problem. It would both leak oil and burn it. I managed to get the leak fixed eventually – after some slightly embarrassing overnight parking in available spots on the street. But the burning was the piston rings and that was expen

sive. It only happened when it was hot and pulling from standstill. So, in a traffic jam there was a long line of cars, then me, then a big gap to another line of cars. I’m honestly ashamed of telling that now. I think I caused a quarter of the air pollution in Britain in the late 80s. But I won’t end on a down beat. Daisy, my mk1 Golf was an awesome car. My most fun car up to owning a Jetta GLI many, many years later. But that’s for another episode. Back to you Andy, and the rest of the mk1 Gol

f story. Now I’m going to run with my Big Car t-shirt! Volkswagen expanded sales to the UK, then in 1975 to North America where the car would get a new name. Marketing men figured the name “Golf” wouldn’t go down well. Although the car was named after a wind, or was it the game, people there would definitely associate it with the game which might be good for some, but would be a turn off for others. Better then to pick a name no one could find fault with. So, like its predecessor had been given

the cute “Beetle” or “Bug” name, the new car would be known as the Rabbit. Volkswagen added air conditioning in time for the North American launch, helpful in the hotter parts of America. The success of the Rabbit launch meant Volkswagen soon moved production to the US to reduce their exposure to exchange rate fluctuations, but the factory manager, an ex-Chevrolet man decided to Americanise the car by softening the suspension, and increasing the profit margin by using cheaper materials for the i

nterior. Volkswagen management in Germany weren’t happy when they found out and the second generation Golf would be produced the same as those in Europe. The Golf also made it to Japan, and soon British customers were being reminded that it was the best selling imported car in Japan by Burt Kwouk deftly avoiding falling Volkswagens. It’s something he failed to do when recreating the moment in a U2 promotion for its “Achtung Baby” album, but then there was more shrapnel to deal with! Audi had lau

nched NSU’s small car as the Audi 50 the year the Golf launched. Volkswagen boss Rudolph Leiding, who’d never been a fan of the Golf had plans to rebadge Audi’s small car as a Volkswagen when the Golf failed to excite customers. That hadn’t happened – 1M would be sold in the first 2½ years, but he carried on with his plan to rebadge the Audi 50 as a Volkswagen. It would launch in 1975 as the Polo with a surprisingly common look between the two cars, given they’d been designed by two different pe

ople for two different car brands. It would be easy to think the Polo would cannibalise sales from the Golf, but Volkswagen got lucky. Small hatchbacks were the talk of the town in the 1970s, and Volkswagen had a full range to choose from. Both cars sold well and both would be in VW’s lineup 50 years later. Fast versions of small family cars weren’t a new concept – the Mini Cooper had been delighting drivers in the 1960s. Over in the US AMC gave their Gremlin a 5.0L V8 engine for laughs and gigg

les, meaning it could best many Ford Mustangs of the time with a 0-60 of 7.7s. Over in Europe Simca produced the 1100Ti with 82hp (61 kW) and Alfa had a go with their Alfasud. Volkswagen had a go themselves, producing a bonkers fast close out special Beetle, but 1973 was probably the worst time to do it with fuel prices quadrupling. That experience singed Volkswagen’s wings, so the idea of making a hot Golf, heck a hot anything like a Scirocco seemed like a bad idea. But the desire for speed is

strong, and Volkswagen engineers started a secret skunkworks “hot hatch” project. New parts were submitted for testing under the guise of parts for the regular car. Their first test car was based not on the Golf but on the Scirocco as they were very similar underneath. It used two carburettors and didn’t inspire. The eureka moment came when the team transplanted the Bosch fuel-injected engine from the Audi 80 GTE and the GTI, or “Grand Tourer Injection” was born. It was revealed to management in

1975 who agreed to a limited run of 5,000 cars – enough to recoup the development cost. The 110hp (82 kW) Golf GTI launched in 1976 with a top speed of 113mph (182 km/h). A 0-60 of 9 seconds might seem pedestrian today, but at the time it was something special. Inside there were playful touches like a golf ball gear knob that settled the argument once and for all – the name Golf was named after the sport! If you were unkind you’d say the tartan seats were influenced by golf player’s gaudy trous

ers, but it came from interior designer Gunhild Liljequist’s love of British fabrics – in a way it celebrated British sportiness. The public loved it, especially as it wasn’t that thirsty compared to a regular 1.5L Golf. The initial 5,000 run sold out and by 1977 20,000 cars had been sold. Early British examples would be left-hand drive only, but by 1979 the first right-hand drive models were available. Volkswagen would go on to sell almost half a million first generation GTIs. The GTI has becom

e so popular in the intervening years that when Volkswagen decided to stop selling the Golf in the USA due to lack of demand, they continued selling the GTI and I was a happy owner of one of them. Not bad for a skunkworks project that management didn’t see as important. More frugal customers had the option of a diesel engine, something new for Volkswagen. It was based on the petrol engine and allowed the company to offer it on the Passat and eventually the Audi 80. The 1.5L engine produced the s

ame power and similar performance as the 1.1L petrol engine, but was a great deal more economical, if you could stand the harsh diesel rattle it produced. The relationship between East and West Germany wasn’t the best during the 1970s, but in 1977 there was an agreement to swap 10,000 Volkswagen Golf’s for some machine tools, and a projector for the planetarium in VW’s home town of Wolfsburg. The result was that most cars ended up on the roads of East Berlin and became a common sight before the

Berlin wall fell in the late 1980s. The Golf was renamed in the USA, and when it launched south of the border it got another name – the Caribe. No matter what it was called, Mexicans warmed to it as others had. It was produced at Puebla in Mexico where Volkswagen continued to produce the Beetle. One thing we know about North America though is they love trucks! With Rabbits multiplying over there, it made sense to look at what else could be done with the platform. Volkswagen of America launched t

he Rabbit Pickup in 1978 using a 1.6 diesel and 1.7L petrol engines. Three years later it was introduced in Europe as the Volkswagen Caddy where it was used with a covering as a light van, and it was even used as a new VW camper van! But in Europe customers were much more interested in saloons, and Volkswagen obliged with the Jetta. Given the theory Volkswagen’s of this period were named after winds, it's presumed this related to the jet stream, although Volkswagen has never officially announced

what the name refers to. The Jetta got the rectangular headlights Giorgetto Giugiaro had wanted for the Golf, and it helped differentiate it from its sibling. Another differentiation was a more upscale trim level inside. Burt Kwouk was back with more cars being dropped next to him. This series of adverts was a very effective way of fending off the threat of reliable Japanese cars, making the argument that German cars were just as reliable. Volkswagen, and Burt were also keen to tell customers t

he Golf was still the number 1 imported car in Japan, even though Burt was Chinese by descent. Americans weren’t aversed to a saloon, or sedan as they like to say, and the Jetta would become Volkswagen’s best-selling car in Canada, the USA and Mexico. Karmann had a close relationship with Volkswagen, producing the Karmann Ghia in the 50s, and assembling the Volkswagen Scirocco. They presented a Golf cabriolet to Volkswagen management in 1976 but it would take until 1979 until the car was availab

le for sale, replacing the Beetle Cabriolet. You could get a GTI cabriolet, but it was called the GLI for reasons best known to Volkswagen. The car was produced entirely at Karmann’s factory and would continue into the 1980s after the second generation Golf launched. In fact, the first generation Golf Cabriolet would continue to be sold until 1993 when a new cabriolet was produced based on the third generation car. Over time the main Golf underwent some updates to keep it fresh. In 1978 it got b

etter rustproofing and sported plastic bumpers. There was the option of a 5-speed manual transmission in 1979 which helped the GTIs performance, and also fuel economy on long motorway drives. Giorgetto Giugiaro’s larger rear lamp clusters appeared, and US Rabbits also got rectangular headlights. The dashboard got an update with a modern instrument panel featuring LED warning lights. With another fuel scare in 1979, the Polo and Golf got a special “Formel E” version in 1981 that had a long top ge

ar which helped fuel economy. It featured an “econometer” that helped drivers learn to hypermile, and an annoying light that nagged you to change gear. The GTI got a larger 1.8L engine in 1982, but it was essentially the same speed as the original 1.6L car after emissions rules had robbed the car of some of its speed. But if you wanted a bit of fuel economy in your hot hatch, then Volkswagen had the perfect car for you – the GTD that launched in 1982. The 1.6L turbodiesel wasn’t that sprightly,

getting to 60 in 14 seconds, but of course got much better fuel economy – better even than the entry level 1.1L car. Volkswagen learnt how to make a better diesel car – the loud rattle was dampened making it a little better to live with. But all good things must come to an end, and the second generation Golf launched in 1983. Almost 7M first generation cars would be produced. I say “would be” – the first generation continued to be produced in Yugoslavia and Mexico. The Mexican Caribe would get a

n updated dashboard in 1983, and in 1984 Mexicans would get their own GTI – the Caribe GT. No “I” in the name because the car still used carburettors but the 85hp (63 kW) engine was still lots of fun. They would get the second generation Golf in 1987, and this time it would be called the Golf. It was also renamed in North America – the Rabbit name was retired. Well, almost retired – it made a fleeting return in 2006 before Volkswagen realised the whole thing didn’t work and reverted to calling i

t a Golf in 2010. The Golf had been produced in South Africa since 1978 and like the rest of the world it was replaced by the second generation model in the early 1980s. But the new car didn’t sell well. Volkswagen of South Africa did something that’s rarely done – they reintroduced the cheaper first generation car. But what to call it? The first idea was the “EconoGolf”, but they decided, maybe not wisely on the Citi Golf: “Welcome to City Wok. Would you like to try some City Chicken today?” Th

e Citi Golf would get a minor facelift on the outside and more major updates inside, particularly in 2004 when it got a new dashboard from the Škoda Fabia. The GTI was reintroduced in 1990 rather cleverly as the Citi Golf CTi. There would be a saloon sold as the Fox, as well as the Caddy. The Citi Golf would continue to be produced in South Africa until 2009 – 35 years after the Golf launched. Volkswagen didn’t learn their lesson with the name though – the Citi Golf name would be used in China i

n 1995 and Canada in 2007. You’ll be pleased to know there was also a City Jetta. Maybe realising their faux pas, Canada’s City Golf was renamed the Golf City in 2009. VW boss Heinrich Nordhoff is seen with such fondness. He turned a battered company with literal holes in the roof into a successful carmaker. He slept on the factory floor in the early days when he didn’t have a place to live. But his untimely death meant he didn’t own up to the mistakes he’d made in the 1960s. The Type 3 and the

Type 4 didn’t sell well. He clung on to air cooled engines driving the rear wheels for far too long, and when the economic storm clouds came in the late 1960s Volkswagen was found wanting. Kurt Lotz might have annoyed almost everyone of importance around him, but he did one thing right – he bought NSU for a knock down price and got instant development expertise in front wheel drive cars, with excellent four-cylinder engines. And he chose a great stylist at the top of his game. This set Volkswage

n up for a phoenix-like rebirth in the early 1970s, but not under his watch. The Golf was the crowning achievement in that transformation. Over 6M cars were produced in 9 years and it went on to overtake its iconic predecessor, the Beetle, in 2002 after only 28 years. It was a collision of the right parts at the right time that created something truly special. Like Hanibal Smith once said – “I love it when a plan comes together”. If you want to learn the history of the Scirocco, there’s a video

on the right, and if I make a video on the second generation Golf, I’ll leave a link to that as well. And a special thanks to Russ for his thoughts on the Golf. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next video!