The first series-production Volkswagen Golf rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg in March 1974 and was available at dealerships from May in the same year.
A new era definitively began where the Beetle had dominated the scene with its rear-mounted engine and rear-wheel drive for many decades: the era of the front-mounted engine installed across the body and front-wheel drive. The Scirocco and the Passat, introduced in 1973, had kicked off this trend shortly before.
With the Golf, the class produced in the highest volumes had also been converted to the new technology. As the successor to the legendary Beetle, of which more than 21.5 million were produced, the VW Golf Mk1 – developed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Volkswagen – had immensely high expectations to live up to if it was to continue the story that the Beetle started – the most successful car in the world ever, at that point.
As it turned out, the modern and safe drive system concept, great flexibility offered by a tailgate and folding rear seat backrest, and of course its design, were so convincing that by October 1976, it was already time to celebrate the millionth Golf produced. 6.99 million examples of the first generation of the Golf – including all derivatives and the (at the time) structurally identical Jetta – were sold on all of earth’s continents.
