The German car company Volkswagen celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Golf on Friday. Since the first models rolled off the production line in 1974, more than 37 million units have been sold worldwide. “Over the past fifty years, more than 2,000 people have chosen a new Golf every day,” Volkswagen calculates in a press release.
On March 29, 1974, Volkswagen started production of the Golf: the angular car succeeded the curvaceous Beetle. The Golf is still made in Wolfsburg, Volkswagen’s historic stronghold, as well as at other production sites in Germany and seven other countries. It is also in Wolfsburg that a special exhibition opens on Tuesday, shedding light on the fifty years of the Gulf’s life.
In fifty years, eight generations of the Golf have seen the light of day, the last in 2019. This year, Volkswagen presented the latest update of the Golf 8, which is also available as a plug-in hybrid. It comes with a “fully electric range of 100 kilometers” in addition to “voice control and automated conversation partner based on the artificial intelligence of Chat GPT,” says the car company.
In 2023, the Golf was the best-selling Volkswagen model in Germany with 81,000 cars sold, the German market analysis agency Statista calculated. According to the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), almost a fifth (18 percent) of the cars registered in Germany last year were Golfs.