History
Like its predecessor the Volkswagen Beetle, the Volkswagen Golf Mk1 has proved to be influential. In continuous production since 1974, the Golf was one of the first widely successful front-wheel drive hatchbacks. In the USA, the Morris Mini, Honda N360 and Fiat 128 saw only limited success, but it was the Rabbit, along with the Honda Civic that sparked another generation of European-derived front-wheel drive American compacts, such as the Dodge Omni, Escort and Cavalier in the 1980s, just as the Beetle inspired Falcon and Corvair in 1960s and subcompact Vega and Pinto in the 1970s. The Golf's performance also defined the hot hatch before youth started tuning their imports.
Replacing the Beetle was a vital goal for Volkswagen's continued survival. By the early 1970s, the company had fallen into financial woe. The novelty of the Beetle had worn thin. Sales were in terminal decline. Although the unusual design features such as a rear air-cooled engine had initially proven superior to merely shrinking down conventional automobiles, the water cooled, front-engine, rear-wheel drive small cars like the Toyota Corolla had been refined enough to woo customers away from Volkswagen's noisy, underpowered engines and dated styling. The Type 3 and Type 4 fastback and squareback failed to attract much interest, whilst the NSU-developed K70 was a failure.
The solution arrived with Auto Union. They had attracted a small following with their technologically advanced Audi front wheel drive medium sedans. Volkswagen had acquired the Ingolstadt-based company in 1964 from Daimler-Benz. Audi's expertise in water-cooled engines and front-wheel drive would be essential in developing a new generation of Volkswagens. FWD offered more performance with lighter weight and more room in a smaller package. The Audi technology in the Golf would regain for Volkswagen the engineering lead over rear drive cars that Ferdinand Porsche had bestowed on the original Beetle over its large conventional peers. The small Golf had to succeed in replacing the high volume Volkswagen sedan. The upmarket Dasher/Passat would be VW's first front wheel drive car, and it was relatively well received for its lower volume market. The Golf would adopt an efficient "two-box" layout with a steep hatch rather than a formal trunk, which would be later added in the Jetta. The water-cooled engine would be mounted transversely in the front. Work on the Golf began in 1969, shortly after Kurt Lotz became head of Volkswagen.
Model history
The first Golf (VW internal designation Typ 17 ) began production in 1974, although it was marketed in the United States and Canada from 1975 to 1984 as the Volkswagen Rabbit and in Mexico as the Volkswagen Caribe . It was a water-cooled, front wheel drive design in a hatchback body style. It featured firmly sprung and damped, independent Macpherson strut front suspension and semi-independent Twist-beam rear suspension, that gave crisp handling and good roadholding, without being too uncomfortable. The Golf was Australian Wheels magazine's Car of the Year for 1975. The name is short for Golf-Strom , German for Gulf Stream; it was named for that oceanic current to reflect its international character.
The Golf was designed by Italian automobile architect / designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, of the ItalDesign design studio. Giugiaro had also designed the Alfa-Sud and the Lotus Esprit Mk1.
The car changed little before being replaced by the Mark 2 version in 1984 (Europe). However, air conditioning became available as an option on the domestic market in August 1975. The possibility to retrofit the installation, together with a larger battery, was offered to existing owners.
Contrary to popular myth, the MKI Golf GTi was not the first hot hatch by quite a margin. The Renault 5 Gordini comfortably predates the GTi, and is actually slightly quicker than the MKI Golf GTi, managing 0-60MPH in the same 9.6 seconds or so as the first 1600 GTi, but squeezing out a further 2mph over the Golf. Technically, the Renault Alpine of 1964 was also a hatchback, although this is more a technical distinction as the Alpine was far from the practical 3 or 5 door we know as a hatch back today. Nevertheless, the Golf GTi was perhaps the first hot hatch with mass market appeal, and many other manufacturers since have created special sports models of their regular volume-selling small hatchbacks. The idea behind was rather straightforward - take a basic-transportation economy car and give it a high-performance package, making it practical and sporty. It was one of the first small cars to adopt mechanical fuel injection for its sports version, which raised power output of the 1588 cc engine to 110 PS (81 kW/108 hp). In 2004, Sports Car International declared the Golf Mk1 GTI to be the 3rd best car of the 1980s.
There was a minor facelift in 1980 which saw the adoption of larger rear lamp clusters (more in line with Giugiaro's original concepts), revised bumpers, a new dashboard with a more modern-looking instrument display, and for US versions square headlights.
Golf Cabriolet
Main article: Volkswagen Golf CabrioletThe convertible version, named the Golf Cabriolet (or Typ 155 ) in Europe and Canada ("Rabbit Convertible" in America originally and renamed in 1985 to "Cabriolet"), was sold from 1980 to 1993 (a convertible version of the Mk2 Golf was not made, so the Mk1 Cabrio with slight modification was produced until the introduction of the Mk3 Cabrio). It had a reinforced body, transverse roll bar, and a high level of trim, and kept the pre-1980 style of rear lamp clusters. The Mk1 Cabriolet is of unibody construction built entirely at the factory of Karmann, from stamping to final assembly; Volkswagen supplied the engine, suspension, interior, etc. for Karmann to install. The vinyl or cloth tops were heavily insulated and manually - or beginning in 1991, electrically - operated, with a heated glass rear window.
South Africa (Citi Golf)
Main article: Volkswagen Citi GolfFrom 1984 to 2009, Volkswagen of South Africa manufactured two variants of the Mk1 Golf, the five-door Citi Golf and the Volkswagen Caddy pickup.
On September 22, 2006 in order to celebrate the continued success of the Mk1 based Citi Golf in South Africa, Volkswagen SA announced the limited edition Citi R which is powered by a 90 kW (120 hp/123 PS) 1.8L fuel injected engine with a five-speed manual transmission as well as a GTI trademark red outlined front grill.
There was a special version, named LX with 1.1L engine, which produced more power than the 1.3L engine. This version had a tuned GTI-like front grill, four front headlights, spoiler, alloy wheels and Recaro seats.
The 2007 VW South Africa Citi Golf range starts with a standard Citi Golf, in either 1.4 or 1.6 litre fuel injected models. Many variants of the standard version are/were available with different extras packages, which included the Citi Rhythm, Citi.com and so on. The range topper is the CitiRox, also available in 1.4i and 1.6i, made as sportier versions of the standard Citi to replace the previous sports version, Velociti and Citi Life. The later Citi Golfs produced feature modern features, such as a new dashboard adapted from a Škoda Fabia, and minor body "facelifts" such as revised tail-light clusters.
The 2009 VW South Africa Citi Golf range consists of four new models:
- CitiRox 1.4i and 1.6i
- CitiSport 1.4i and 1.6i
- TenaCiti 1.4i
- CitiStorm 1.4i
Production of the Citi Golf ended on 2 November 2009, after 377,484 cars.
North America
In 1978, Volkswagen began producing the North American "Rabbit" version of the Mk1 Golf in New Stanton, Pennsylvania, thus becoming the first European car manufacturer since Rolls-Royce in the 1920s to produce a vehicle in the United States. (The plant was called Westmoreland due to New Stanton being located in Pennsylvania's Westmoreland County.) Former Chevrolet executive James McLernon was chosen to run the factory, which was built to lower the cost of the Rabbit in North America by producing it locally. Unfortunately, McLernon tried to "Americanize" the Golf/Rabbit (Volkswagen executive Werner Schmidt referred to the act as "Malibuing" the car) by softening the suspension and using cheaper materials for the interior. VW purists in America and company executives in Germany were displeased, and for the 1983 model year the Pennsylvania plant went back to using stiffer shocks and suspension with higher-quality interior trim. The plant also began producing the GTI for the North American market. ('Rabbits' were built in Pennsylvania until 1984). The first VW Caddy pick-up, based on the Mk1 Golf, was also created at the Pennsylvania plant.
The Volkswagen Rabbit GTI, the North American version of the high-performance Golf GTI, debuted in Canada and the United States for 1983 model year. Assembled from parts made in Mexico, Canada, Germany and the U.S. in Volkswagen's Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania assembly plant, it had the same Mk1 chassis, and the same A1 body type
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Golf 1 and 2 stay the best IMO.. i dont really like those round cars