Old vs new VW Golf

A couple of years back while attending the international launch of the Volkswagen Amarok pickup in South Africa I managed to score a test drive of an almost new, very old Volkswagen Golf.

That seemingly contradictory drive was due to the fact that a model called the Volkswagen Golf Citi – a mildly upgraded Golf Mark 1 – was still being built in South Africa as a low cost option to the current generation Golfs it coincided with over many years.

The VW Citi was sold for some 25 years after the first Golf was discontinued everywhere else and with upgrades to the mechanical systems to keep it up to date on driving and emissions regulations. In the meantime Volkswagen has sold about 25 million Golfs, making it by far the most successful model ever produced. Just over 15 million Volkswagen ‘Beetles’ were sold in total but, as with the Golf, there’s virtually nothing interchangeable from the first to the latest models.

Volkswagen apparently spotted my report on the new / old Golf so came up with a more formal arrangement for a number of Aussie journalists. We were in Germany to carry out the first road test reviews of the seventh generation Volkswagen Golf. Having arrived in the country of the car’s birth a few days ahead of the global launch Volkswagen brought several examples of previous generation Golfs from the company’s museum for us to look over in detail.

The original Golf is significantly smaller than any of the other models. Though each new one, seemingly inevitably, is larger than the one it superseded the size differences aren’t all that great. Some of the extra size in the newer Golfs is taken up to provide occupant, and later pedestrian, safety so the interior of the older models isn’t as much smaller as you might anticipate.

Again, the Golf Mk 1 has quite a difference in styling to the ones that succeeded it, with sharp lines and a real character in the shape. From the Golf 2 onwards there’s an obvious similarity in appearance on the outside.

The one feature that all cars, including the Mk 1, do have in common is the distinctive dogleg shape of the C-pillar. Indeed, Volkswagen designers now feel duty bound to carry on the tradition from the almost 40-year-old design by Giorgio Giugiaro.

Cleverly, interior style in each model follows a similar theme so that a potential buyer of a new Golf immediately has a feeling of familiarity. The instrument layout stays the same, with a pair large dials for speedo and, in older cars a clock, in more recent ones a tacho. 

The windscreen is relatively flat and though the A-pillars have thickened for crash safety over the years visibility outwards remains good even in the Golf 6. The oldtimer Golfs fell clearly into two categories when it comes to sophistication. Mark 1 to Mk 3, then Mk 4 onwards.

That is 1974 to 1997, then 1997 until the about to be superseded 2012 model. Indeed, anyone without the cash to afford a Golf 6 will find that Golf 4 is more than acceptable in ease of driving and overall noise, vibration and harshness control.

Most fascinating of all was our drive in a special high economy version of the Golf 3 that in the early 1990s carried many emission reduction features that are only now coming into some new cars. The turbo-diesel engine had a stop-start system to cut its engine when the car was stationary. It even used a coasting function similar to that now fitted to the 2012 Volkswagen’s Passat, Tiguan and Touareg.

As I write this we are off to the Paris Motor Show to witness the worldwide launch of the all-new Golf 7, and to fly to Italy the next day to drive the cars on demanding roads in Sardinia. We will bring you a complete report on that car immediately afterwards.