Volkswagen Golf

The Volkswagen Golf launched in May 1974 as the successor to the air-cooled Beetle, and was the car that re-established Volkswagen as a mass-market manufacturer after the Beetle's decline. The first-generation Golf was the first water-cooled, front-engine, front-wheel-drive Volkswagen — a complete architectural reset. The Golf established the C-segment hatchback template that European and Asian competitors have followed for fifty years.

Across eight generations the Golf has been offered in increasing variety: the GTI hot hatch (continuously available since 1976), the R / Rallye / R32 high-performance variants with all-wheel drive, the diesel TDI, the plug-in hybrid GTE, the fully electric e-Golf (Mk7 only), and the GTD performance diesel. The Golf has been the best-selling car in Europe in many years. Production is centred at Volkswagen's Wolfsburg plant in Germany, with the long-discontinued North-American Golf having been sourced from Volkswagen de México in Puebla.