Sejarah Volkswagen GOLF

VW Golf

Tahun 1974 generasi pertama VW Golf masuk dalam pasar perdagangan yang didesain oleh Ital Giugiaro. VW Golf VI yang ada saat ini dirancang berdasarkan pada pendahulunya. Model rinci dari generasi baru VW Golf dibedakan dengan ruang yang lebih besar, tetapi memiliki banyak modifikasi. Adanya perlebaran pada AC VW Golf.

Model yang tidak hanya berdasarkan tiga atau empat pintu, tetapi perbedaan style body: high roof version yang disebut “Golf Plus”, kombinasi beberapa varian Golf. Selain itu ada sebagian off-varian yang menggunakan model Atlantic.

Why did Volkswagen decide to call the new front-drive small car it called the "Golf" everywhere else in the world the "Rabbit" in America? Go ahead and guess, because VW has never offered an official (much less believable) explanation.

The Golf debuted during 1974 in Europe but didn't make it to the US as the Rabbit until the 1975 model year. While it was clearly intended as a successor to the Beetle, it wasn't VW's first attempt at replacing that icon. "So many new models have been hailed as Beetle successors without ever even approaching its production figures," wrote Road & Track on its first exposure to the European Golf, "that we have learned to be careful. But probably no car in the VW range has ever had a better chance of taking up where the Beetle might leave off. Volkswagen expressly says that production of the Golf will not interfere with the Beetle program — at least for the time being. This sounds quite reasonable, for you don't drop overnight a car of which 5,000 units are produced daily — 3,000 in Wolfsburg and about 2,000 in other branches of the company — especially when it's the only model on which you make money."

So, conscious of its own profitability, VW was hedging its enthusiasm for the new Golf/Rabbit by keeping Beetle going full bore. But to buyers, that the Golf was a radically better product than the then nearly 40-year-old Beetle was obvious.

The Golf formula was essentially the polar opposite of the Beetle's. In place of a rear-mounted, air-cooled flat-four engine driving the rear wheels, the Golf used a front-mounted, water-cooled inline four driving the front wheels. In place of the curved metal that defined the Beetle's appearance, the Golf had sharply creased lines drawn by the famed Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. The Beetle was a two-door with a dinky trunk in the front, while the Golf was available as either a two- or four-door and both opened up for maximum cargo hauling thanks to a large rear hatchback door. The Beetle was built atop a stamped steel chassis, while the Golf had a simple unibody structure. But the two at least had this in common: Just as the Beetle's layout was the most efficient possible considering the limitations of 1930s technology, so too was the Golf's design the most efficient possible in the 1970s.

At just 146 inches long, the first Golf was a small car even by European standards. But the wheelbase was a relatively long 94.2 inches and that effectively put the wheels at each corner of the car, and at 63.5 inches it was pretty wide for its size and era, too (a contemporary Toyota Corolla was 3.6 inches narrower). The result was excellent space utilization and an interior that felt huge — because it was huge — in comparison to the competition. And the interior was comfortable and contemporary with a simple instrument pod in front of the driver and bolt upright seating.