The VW Golf: 50 Years of the Most Successful European Car

The VW Golf, the

most

successful

car in the world! Extraordinarily ordinary. But what is special? "Nothing! There is nothing exceptional, but everything fits." An iconic German car that has remained faithful to itself for 50

years

. Spectacularly little spectacular. "A

golf

in its various generations was always recognizable as a

golf

." "You knew what you had." The golf, the

most

successful

German car of all time, attracts both young and old. He has found more than 35 million buyers worldwide, in all social classes. "The superior doctor led to the clinic in a golf, the card carrier led one to work in the morning and then delivered their cards in another golf.

No matter its social class or its work, it is just a normal car." Golf has conquered the entire world. From Brazil to South Africa, in many places it has become part of the national culture, and survived political agitation. "During the apartheid it was inaccessible for many of the oppressed. But then, after having our freedom, it was accessible to anyone." "Volkswagen means a lot for Brazilian culture, especially for golf models, which we have here." And what follows for golf? There is a heated and divisive debate about that on your 50th birthday. "The challenge now is to continue this success story." "You don't have to revolutionize everything if you think what is so bad." "Golf is, in a way, a symbol of tragedy, which is actually happening in the automotive industry." "People still love the shape and size of the golf.

Who designed golf, did a good job. It was a revolution in car design." And this revolutionary stars designer comes from Italy: with the South European style, Giorgetto Giugiaro broke all conventions in the early 1970s to create a sensible compact car. Its form, architecture and technical functional framework are like the harmony of a successful song. They are well -paired notes that create a harmony when you together. Giugiaro, who was chosen designer of the century for creating unique and legendary vehicles for a wide variety of car manufacturers, was commissioned by Volkswagen to develop a successor of the beetle.

And he did it radically different from the perennial beast: angular instead of round, front instead of rear -wheel drive, water refrigerated instead of air refrigerated. Golf was smaller than beetle abroad, but much more spacious inside. The key feature of golf, I will show you here: it is the pillar to inclined and the bell inclined, while the belt line is lower. They are the facets of these notes such as those used to compose music. And they surprise those who look at him with a harmony that is not perceived with the conscious mind, they simply feel it. And people immediately felt the benefits of the car.

VW soon launched the GTI Golf for drivers who liked Deportivo. Since then, golf has constantly been the best -selling car in Germany, often in Europe and in some

years

even worldwide. "Yes, I think that golf really managed to fold the spirit of the industry in the sheet. A proven technology that was very solid, in which you could trust." Golf is now in its eighth generation. A car that changed the industry and even established a new category of vehicles, the "golf class." In essence, golf has not really changed in 50 years. "They have actually managed to change golf very gradually, slowly, in an evolutionary way, so that the new generation reminds the previous one.

Customers have not been scared by a completely new design." "That is why there is a very strong customer loyalty to this car, because you knew what you had." The best description of the automobile development can be found in the world's private golf collection in the Austrian city of Stockerau. Josef Juza has gathered 114 golfs, ranging from the most unusual, ((06:02)) with sliding doors, to the fastest and fastest and tuned GTI models. It is the life of the golf fan life. "The golf because it was the first vehicle where everything was really well. It used to drive all brands, almost all brands, when I was young.

Golf was really the car in which you sat down and everything was fine. The perfect car, as if it had been built for me." Many golf fans formed clubs to cultivate their passion. Only the owners of the first model series of the 1970s meet at the meetings of one of those groups called "Original Golf 1". But the people of all areas of life join here. "The superior doctor led to the clinic in a golf, the carrier of letters led one to work in the morning and delivered their cards in another golf. And the secretary's secretary led a golf, and the boss's wife may also have had a golf as a private car.

It is a classless car, understood, reliable, practical. In essence, it offers everything you should get from A a B a b ". There are even some golf owners 1 who bought their cars in ancient Eastern Germany. In 1978, Volkswagen delivered 10,000 golfs there in exchange for sheet metal, heating oil and tires. It was not easy for people there to get a golf. Reinhard Martínez was lucky because he had registered with the authorities for an Eastern German car much earlier. Western in which I could work in his garden. But he wasn't a comrade, so ... I approached him optimistically. I thought, you have to have this car in your hands.

So, of course, I resigned from the lada he had registered for 12 years to obtain it. "The golfs were fashionable not only in Eastern Germany, but also in communist Yugoslavia. The foundations for golf enthusiasm in the Balkans relaxed in the 1970s and remain in place today. At that time, Volkswagen produced the first golf models made in Sarajev Bosnia, as part of a joint company. Bosnia between 1992 and '95. It is emotion. Emotion that Bosnian peoples and others have in their hearts. They are emotions over the rich years before war, about survival during the war. And after the war it was an opportunity for people to feel again as normal people, that we are again in that condition as before. "Also in South Africa, the Gulf has survived a change in political systems and is now part of the country's culture, as a witness of history, joined the long journey of the black population from the oppression of apartheid to the present." During the apartheid it was inaccessible for many of the oppressed.

Maybe it was still expensive for those who were oppressed. But then, after obtaining our freedom, it became accessible to almost all. "A very special golf model was built in South Africa. Because Golf 2, which replaced 1 in 1984, was too complex and expensive for South Africa, Golf 1 simply continued to build there in a slightly modified way, under the name of Citigolf. This is how it looks from the inside. When Citigolf production was finally suspended in 2009, the entire country said goodbye to its favorite car with emotional effects. "I think he will never die. In South Africa he will never die, because there are people who take care of them, he will live forever.

I will keep one for my son, he is still 2 years old. He will find it perhaps, when he is 18 or 21 years old. If he is interested, he will have his own, if he is not interested, he keeps him for me." There is also a golf model that was built especially for Brazil between 1980 and 2023. The goal is somewhat smaller and technically simpler than the original golf, but carries the genes of his older brother. "Volkswagen means a lot for Brazilian culture, especially for golf models, which we have here. They created goal to be a cheaper car for families, for simpler people, which is the base of Brazil." Either the small golf or the largest golf, for Brazilians, its Volkswagens are much more than just cars. "They created a timeless car.

If you choose a 1994 golf, it is still a good car. Culture, the way it occurred, the lines they used, engineering, all this created this timeless piece. You know, so golf means more than a car. It is like a culture." And even in France, people take away the hats of golf. A special exhibition in Retromobile Classic Car Show in Paris commemorates the history of golf. Probably the only foreign car that has seriously compete with the French local favorites. A abroad car that left his mark in the French. Suddenly he was driving a car that was incredibly young.

The Citroen 2 CV, for example, was a comfortable French car, but none of our cars had that dynamism. A golf is really more than a car. Golf represents a way of life, almost a profession of faith. "You live with him, you identify with Him. Then, in a way, the expression" generation golf "makes sense." The Volkswagen marketing department also adopted that phrase, which author Florian Illies chose as the title of a novel published in 2000 that sold more than six million copies. In it, it describes people born in Germany between 1970 and '85, most of whom lead. "Generation Golf is also really the generation of an average citizen that is slow to change, which is not radical, that does not shake the boat.

And to some extent, that is what golf represents." "The golf is in the middle, it is in the middle in a very pleasant way: with the ambition to be the best of the medium." I have tried everything in my life, from psychokinesis to television purchases. But nothing helped. Then I read this chaos theory and the impact of the principle of cause and effect. And the first thing I did was buy a new car. "I do not necessarily believe that it is a defect that a generation is not revolutionary. It probably also marks me as belonging to that generation, because you do not always have to revolutionize everything if you think what is not so bad." After 50 long years, the days of golf seemed to be numbered, since Volkswagen prepares for a new era of mobility, electromobilility, with the development of the series of identification models.

But do not count the golf yet: "Now there has been a change in the product strategy in Volkswagen: ID 3, which is positioned in the same kind of vehicles as golf, could not build on the success of golf A success story with this success of success. thoroughly. "We bought the golf due to the meaning of it. And in a new world, which is the one that we approach, there should be new meanings. "Could it be time for Giorgetto Giugiaro Rediseñe radically Do you understand? Absolute. Let us know in the comments below and do not forget to subscribe to our channel!