The Volkswagen Golf has been a hard sell in the United States since, back in its days with the Rabbit name, it gained a reputation for less-than-stellar reliability and Americans realized that they didn't really like hatchbacks once falling gas prices meant they didn't have to buy one. So my efforts to get Volkswagen of America to sell the eighth generation of the base Golf here are going to be tough - especially since I'm only one person and it's difficult to get anyone to join me. The VW enthusiasts only care about the GTI or R, which are coming, and casual VW customers are too busy checking out Tiguans and Atlases. And it turns out that Volkswagen may be undercutting its own product - not just in hatchback-hating America, but in Europe in other markets. Its Tiguan SUV is actually gaining in popularity in the Old Country, as is the European T-Cross SUV, and Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess is gambling more on electric vehicles, which threatens to challenge sales of the traditional, fossil-fuel-powered Golf. And the inclusion of hybrids in the Golf lineup itself in Europe has muddied the waters further for the model, as evidenced by the very special Golf you see below.
This is the all-new, eighth-generation Volkswagen Golf GTE, and as its name suggests, it's a plug-in hybrid high-performance model, and it may actually upstage the time-honored GTI. Its 1.4-liter gasoline engine and 13-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery setup pack combine to produce 242 horsepower - more than the Mark 7 GTI produces - and its 0-60 time is supposed to eclipse the outgoing seventh-generation hot hatch. The seventh-generation GTE was more of a sideline for VW than this one appears to be. Rumors of the coming Mark 8 GTI's power are just that - rumors - and, though it's likely that the next GTI will be more powerful than the new GTE, the GTE suggests where Volkswagen is headed. It's hoping to accentuate its electric-vehicle and hybrid portfolio in the coming decades as climate change becomes more of a reality and VW enthusiasts may start feeling guilty (you can't spell "guilty" without "GTI") over polluting the air with their hot hatches.
All of this suggests that VW's product is in flux as less traditional vehicles like SUVs and electric cars pick up more of the slack. Hannover-based equity analyst Frank Schwope even said as much to Fortune magazine. "The Golf is falling behind and risks becoming obsolete, on the one hand due to the trend towards SUVs like the Tiguan and T-Cross and on the other with Diess betting so heavily on electric vehicles," he said.
So, VW seems to be undermining the very highway the Golf rides on. But the Golf, still popular in Europe, isn't done yet - rumor has it that the possibility of Volkswagen of America president Scott Keogh adding the GTE to the U.S. lineup has been floated, though I'll believe it when I see it - and I still think the base version would do just fine if it's offered in the States. American VW loyalist customers still regard the Golf as the embodiment of Volkswagen in the post-air-cooled age, and it showed in sales of the seventh-generation Golf in 2015, its first full calendar year of availability in the U.S. - 19,257 base Golfs were driven off the lots of American dealerships that year. And though only 5,012 base Golfs have been sold in the U.S. so far for 2019, that may be due to a combination of the car's aging design, lack of advertising, and very limited availability - take it from someone who was considering a 2019 Golf and tried to find a dealership that had at least one (but I finally got the stalling problem fixed on my 2012 Golf, so I'm good). As they did in 2015, American VW fans who want a quintessential European hatchback but don't want to cough up extra scratch for a GTI or an R will gladly purchase a new Mark 8 Golf the second it's available . . . if Keogh decides to offer it. He hasn't made the final decision on that, and so the fight to bring it here goes on, thanks to my Facebook page.
And it would be, to use Keogh's pet phrase, cool as hell if he did bring over the Mark 8 GTE while he was at it. It would be the ultimate electric bunny. ;-)
The eighth generation of the the globally bestselling Volkswagen Golf, which is set to debut on October 24, is easily the most eagerly awaited new car of 2019 . . . unless you live in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. The standard version of the hatchback is still a question mark for the U.S. market, with many a smug automotive journalist eager to answer it with an emphatic "No!" In fact, a decision on whether or not to offer the standard Mark 8 Golf in These States has not been made, although the traditional American disregard for hatchbacks in general and Volkswagen hatchbacks in particular that began after the old Rabbits ended up consuming way too much motor oil doesn't bode well for those of us silly Yanks who actually share the rest of the world's superior taste in automobiles. Right now, Volkswagen of America is touting the new Atlas CrossSport SUV. I'll pass.
Interestingly, if the base Mark 8 Golf isn't offered in America, this wouldn't be the first time a Golf model hasn't made it to the States. Several Golf variants have failed to make it over here, and to Canada as well (though the next standard Golf has been confirmed for the Great White North). Here are twelve Golf models that never saw the inside of a Volkswagen dealership in the New World.
The Rallye Golf. I've already mentioned this car before, but I mention it here again for the sake of completion. Though, I can't say anything about the 1989-90 Mark-2-vintage Rallye Golf that I haven't already said. With a supercharged 160-horsepower engine and all-wheel-drive, it performs aggressively as it looks, and even though Rallye Golfs are legally entering the United States thanks to the fact that they've passed the 25-year minimum age required for importation into this country, some Americans got to experience the car's prowess when it was first new. New Hampshire rally racer Tim O'Neil, in the late eighties and early nineties a factory driver for Volkswagen, got to acquire and race in one back then, and he still keeps it in his fleet in his current profession as a driving instructor.
The Golf G60. The Mark 2 Golf-based G60 (below) was a kinder, gentler variant of VW's supercharging program. It was less potent than the Rallye Golf but its performance was still nothing to sneeze at, with front-wheel drive and a normal eight-valve engine and bearing the same horsepower rating as the Rallye Golf. Emissions standards in the U.S., however, prevented its inclusion in the American market, and it was forbidden fruit in Canada as well.
The Golf Country. This is without question one of the weirdest Golfs ever conceived. A part of the Golf's second generation, the Golf Country was shown at the 1989 Geneva Auto Show as a concept car, but it was so loved by the auto press that VW decided to produce it.
Volkswagen would make Golf Country vehicles in Wolfsburg and then send them to the Austrian truck builder Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Austria to be outfitted with a special version of VW's Syncro all-wheel drive system, with a 8.2-inch ground clearance, along with a skid plate protecting the engine bay, bullbars at both ends, and a spare wheel appended to the rear. It was essentially VW's equivalent to the four-wheel drive Eagle sedan and wagon produced by American Motors in the U.S. in the 1980s.
The Golf Country was a part-time all-wheel-drive car, but it could tackle almost any off-road terrain when the Syncro system was turned on. Only about 7,700 Golf Country cars were built in 1990 and 1991, and had VW sent any of them to the United States, it would likely have generated more showroom traffic than the standard Golf - or the Jetta - was generating at the time.
The Mark 3 Golf Variant. Again, I mentioned this before, but I include it here for the sake of completion. Volkswagen apparently didn't think the station wagon version of the third-generation Golf - the first Golf wagon ever produced - would sell here, and so we missed out on it. But its successor did make it here as a Jetta wagon, and the Golf Variant was sold as a Jetta through the fourth, fifth, and sixth generation, assuming the Golf badge in the U.S. with the seventh. But the Golf wagon has come full circle and so won't be available in the U.S. in the eighth generation - but then, you know that.
The Golf Plus. The Golf Plus was essentially a standard Golf with minivan-like proportions. It looked sort of stubby, as if both ends had been compressed against the center, but it clearly had plenty of headroom and a little extra room for tall objects in the back. The Golf Plus was a part of the fifth and sixth generations; above is a fifth-generation model.
Its proportions would undoubtedly have been seen as bulbous and awkward in North America at the time, yet the Chevrolet Trax, based on the Sonic, is the same general idea (though the Trax is officially a "crossover.")
The CrossGolf. And speaking of crossovers, Volkswagen produced this Golf-based crossover vehicle specifically for the European market. Because it looks more like a hatchback on steroids than a crossover, I doubt that this would have found much of a customer base in North America. Like the Golf Plus, it lasted two generations (the fifth-generation-based CrossGolf model is shown above).
The Golf GTD. Like the GTI, but with a diesel engine. It was introduced in Europe as an alternative to the gas-powered hot hatch at a time of rising fuel prices. Even without the TDI scandal, which pretty much put an end to diesel-powered passenger cars in the States, it would never have made it in America, where a diesel-powered sport compact is considered a contradiction in terms.
The Golf GTE. Like the GTI, but with a plug-in gas-electric hybrid system. It was introduced in Europe as an alternative to the gas-powered hot hatch at a time of environmental awareness. Americans would have likely found this to be an even bigger contradiction in terms than a GTD. And to think a Mark 8 version of the GTE might yet make it to the New World. (Both the GTD and the GTE shown here are seventh-generation models.)
The Golf Mark 6 Cabrio. Almost forgot about this one, didn't we? Only the third Golf to be developed into a convertible, the droptop version of the sixth-generation model was not sold in America so as not to cannibalize sales of the modern Beetle convertible. The Mark 6 Cabrio has since been discontinued.
Did I happen to mention that there was an R variant of the Mark 6 convertible as well? :-O
The Golf R wagon. Yes! A Golf R wagon, part of the seventh generation! A station wagon that's actually desirable! And VW didn't give it a chance here?
This would have made a whole lot more sense for the U.S. market than that silly Alltrack. Of course, for Americans who want a real German sports wagon, there will soon be the Audi RS6 Avant.
The Golf Sportsvan. Basically the same as the minivan-style Golf Plus, a derivative of the seventh-generation car, and as always, for people who wanted a minivan but wanted something closer to a standard Golf. Volkswagen's press release for this model summed it up like this: "With its raised seating position and a rear seat designed for longitudinal adjustment, the compact Golf Sportsvan boasts interior features that are normally only found on larger vans. This way, the Golf Sportsvan is popular with customers who want to sit a little higher, travel with children, need flexibility for their leisure activities or appreciate a large cargo space." In other words, a lot like the SUVs that are taking over in America and even in Europe. Which is why there will be no eighth-generation equivalent to this vehicle.
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How do these cars differ from the standard Mark 8 Golf, which may yet join this list of forbidden fruit for Americans? Mainly in this way; they're all special variations on or special high-performance versions of the basic Golf model. But the basic, standard Golf has always been a part of Volkswagen's U.S. lineup since it debuted here as the Rabbit. It's a simple, unpretentious car that isn't calibrated to run with a Porsche and doesn't pretend to be anything other than the no-nonsense hatchback that it is. It's the basis for every special Golf model Volkswagen has ever developed, from the GTI to the R, from the wagon to the Sportsvan. The special models are perfectly fine; they've been the fancy dishes meant for people who want something more than meat and potatoes. I see the base Golf as the meat and potatoes of not just the entire Golf lineup but of the entire Volkswagen brand. A U.S. lineup with the GTI and R variants of the Golf but not the base car is a hollow shell. And that's why I am going to continue to speak out for the base Golf 8's inclusion on the U.S. lineup.
A recent report from Automotive News seems to have confirmed earlier rumors that the next generation - the eighth - of the standard Volkswagen Golf will not come to the United States and maybe not even Canada. Volkswagen of America is said to have definitively told its dealers that the standard Golf and the Golf wagon are being dropped from the lineup here.
The Mark 8 Golf, shown above at a McDonald's (yes, they have McDonald's over in Europe!) during testing, will be made exclusively in Germany, whereas U.S.-spec Golfs of the seventh generation have been made in Mexico. It's no secret that Mexican-built Volkswagens cost less to bring over here than German-built VWs - no transoceanic shipping, lower labor costs - and with the GTI accounting for 42 percent of Golf sales in America, it's worth it for Volkswagen of America to import it, but after a brief enthusiasm in the sales charts for the base Golf when it debuted in America in the summer of 2014, sales of that car have plummeted, and Volkswagen of America appears to have decided that the car is so expensive, it's not worth bringing over from Wolfsburg. And Trump's threatened tariffs on all imported cars isn't doing anyone any favors.
However, the base Mark 8 Golf could still come to the U.S., because it turns out that it's the best-selling Volkswagen in Canada. That's right, even Canadians like the base Golf better than we do. But a source close to Volkswagen of America told Automotive News that "if VW Canada can make a business case for the car, it could continue in the U.S. and Canada." Continued imports of the base Golf to Canada, therefore, would make in convenient for Volkswagen of America to offer the same car south of the 49th parallel. Volkswagen of America and Volkswagen Canada have traditionally acted in concert with each other, so this is a positive development in an otherwise depressing story.
In the meantime, I chatted with someone online at Volkswagen of America to ask about this story and to express my displeasure with the mere suggestion of canceling the base Golf in America. She assured me that the 2020 and 2021 model year lineups in America have not been finalized yet and that this media report is wrong. So there's still hope for the base Golf in America for the eighth generation. To all my fellow Golf fans, I urge you to keep your fingers crossed day and night that it comes and also go here to contact someone at Volkswagen of America online, or call Volkswagen of America at 1-800-822-8987, 8 A.M. to 9 P.M. Eastern Time, from Monday to Friday, to urge that the base Golf be continued in VW's U.S. lineup.
As with every successive generation of the Volkswagen Golf, I have been following news about the upcoming eighth-generation model since development on it first began in Wolfsburg. I haven't been planning to buy one, but I know I might need a new car in the next few years. When it became apparent that Volkswagen wouldn't have a two-door model for this generation, I accepted the reality that cars without rear passengers doors are fading into history. When Volkswagen announced that so much computer technology was going into the new Golf - with all sorts of digital readouts on the instrument panel and numerous driver-assistance features - that even a standard Golf would cost a pretty penny like the GTI and the Golf R, I begrudgingly accepted that reality, too, because a standard Golf would still be more affordable than a GTI or Golf R.
Now comes word that the United States may not get a standard Golf at all when the eighth generation debuts.
WHAT???????????
The standard Mark 8 Volkswagen Golf, shown above in a spy photo, may not be available in American VW dealerships, even as the next GTI and Golf R variations are a definite part of VW's U.S. lineup. The reason is quite simple; Americans hate basic hatchbacks, preferring SUVs and crossovers instead. They still buy sport hatchbacks, but they can't be bothered with basic family hatchback sedans. Or, for that matter, with traditional station wagons; the next iteration of the Golf wagon, the Golf wagon being the spiritual successor to the old VW Squareback of the sixties and seventies, may not make it here either. And Volkswagen has obviously concluded that the Tiguan and the Atlas SUVs don't sell enough units to allow VW to continue offering the basic Golf as a loss leader. (The Tiguan, by the way, is now Volkswagen's U.S. bestseller.) Volkswagen of America has only sold about six thousand units of the 2019 standard seventh-generation model, and VW's American operation has acknowledged its unpopularity in These States in subtle ways. At the 2019 New York Auto Show, only a Golf R was on the floor at the VW display, not a standard Golf. The standard Golf isn't mentioned in today's American VW advertising. And I'm willing to bet that when I take my own Mark 6 Golf to my dealer for service soon, I won't see a standard Mark 7 Golf in the showroom.
This possible move to delete the standard Golf from VW's U.S. lineup is an abomination to every American VW loyalist who helped keep Volkswagen alive in this market the last time William Barr was Attorney General. In the early nineties, when it looked like Volkswagen would have to quit the U.S. market, there were enough die-hard VW fans to sustain the brand, and a lot of us may have bought Jettas at the time, but many of us still bought Golfs - standard Golfs as well as GTIs - in appreciation of its hatchback versatility and in recognition of its importance to the brand. To us, the standard Golf isn't just another Volkswagen - it is Volkswagen in the liquid-cooled-engine age and will remain so even after the I.D. electric vehicles debut in a few years. Volkswagen without a standard Golf is like a hollow shell. Don't get me wrong, I love the GTI and the R models, but I can't afford either one of them. And while I could easily adapt to a Jetta should I need a new car in the near future, it's a larger car than the Golf, and its not as versatile. But I'll be damned if I buy a Tiguan. I actually drove one as a loaner while my Golf was being repaired this past fall, and I just couldn't get into driving it. I just don't like SUVs. Sadly, I live in a country where practically everyone else does.
This isn't the first time there have been rumors of about the standard Golf being dropped from the U.S. lineup. I remember similar rumors about the Mark 5 Golf - called the Rabbit in the United States, as the original Golf had been - being dropped in favor of the GTI, but that obviously didn't happen. But back then, in 2006, SUVs, though popular, weren't as popular as they are now. They now account for a solid majority of all new cars sold in America, and with even notchback sedans becoming less popular, Volkswagen sees no incentive to keep the standard Golf available to die-hard Golf fans who don't want to pay extra for a sport model and just want a decent city car to drive around in.
Right now, Volkswagen is trying to get the Mark 8 Golf ready for a debut at the biennial Frankfurt Motor Show, which I'll have to miss again on account of the fact that I still can't afford to travel to Germany to see it (aw, heck, it's only the nineteenth Frankfurt show in my adult life, and besides, there's always 2021). But Volkswagen may miss Frankfurt this year too. See, VW is putting so much technology in the car - a 48-volt electrical system, a sophisticated touchscreen, and complicated computer systems - that it's having trouble getting everything to work right or work at all. This means it might be ready too late to debut at Frankfurt. To be honest, I started having doubts about this new Golf because of all this, but I was willing to give Volkswagen the benefit of said doubts and see how a standard Golf would turn out and whether it would still be reasonably priced, despite the fact that VW is looking to compete more with BMW than with Ford or Toyota with this car. But if the standard Golf doesn't come to the States, whether or not the car meets my expectations will be a moot question.
As an American, I've long since grown tired of being denied some of the most exciting and interesting products of the European auto industry, especially products from Volkswagen, Europe's number one automaker. We've never had the Polo in the U.S., the up! is too small for American streets, we never got the third-generation Scirocco (now discontinued), and there hasn't been a Transporter model available in These States since 2003. And now we're going to miss out on a basic Golf? Geez, even Canada, which also hasn't gotten any of the cars I just mentioned in this paragraph, is expected to get the standard Mark 8 Golf. It's enough to make me want to move north of the border. But then I'll at least be able to get a VW with a metric readout on the speedometer.
I now plan to keep my sixth-generation two-door Golf for as long as I possibly can. And if it gets to the point where I need a new car and can't get a standard Golf, or even a Jetta, and I can't afford any of VW's other regular-car models, well, I'd rather take the bus.
The final decision on whether or not to include a standard Mark 8 Golf in Volkswagen's American lineup hasn't been made yet. Contact Volkswagen of America at 1-800-822-8987, 8 A.M. to 9 P.M. Eastern Time, from Monday to Friday, and let them know that we VW fans won't stand for this horrible proposal not to offer it for sale here.
When I was a toddler, my family's car was a 1968 Chevrolet "Chevy II" Nova. Compact-sized for its day, it was comfortable and practical enough when it was just for my parents and me, but when my sister was born, my mother and father decided that something bigger was in order. So we all went to Reedman Chevrolet in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where we were living at the time - that dealership, now Reedman Toll, had such a huge showroom, it was like a permanent auto show - and before I knew it, we had a brand-new 1972 Chevrolet Concours station wagon. The Chevelle-based wagon had more cargo space than the Nova, a longer wheelbase, and something I had been hoping for in our new car, as well as something any growing family needs - rear passenger doors.
The family Nova had been a two-door sedan. My father had to push the front seat forward to let me into the back seat, though getting in was never an easy task. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I hated it. Now we had a new four-door station wagon and I could get into the back seat myself. I remember thinking that when I grew up and had kids, my car would have rear passenger doors.
Ironically, I have only owned two-door cars. Why? Simple - I've never been married, and I've never sired children. So a two-door car has always been perfect for a single guy like me. I don't need rear passenger doors because I don't have any children who need easy access to the back seat. In fact, I've rarely ferried rear-seat passengers in the five cars I've owned; I can count all of the people who ever rode in the back seat of my 2012 Volkswagen Golf, my current car, on zero fingers.
So I was shocked, angry and mortified when I heard that Volkswagen is discontinuing the two-door Golf and GTI (below) in the U.S. beginning with the new 2017 model year.
Volkswagen is streamlining its U.S. lineup for 2017 to lower prices and simplify model variations. The decision has nothing to do with the fallout from the diesel scandal, though that has in fact had a very negative impact on VW's U.S. sales for 2016 (and I'll talk more about that in another post). The trend in the U.S. is simply moving heavily in favor of four-door models. Volkswagen of America's marketing boss, Hendrik Muth, said as much recently. Hardly surprisingly, this decision is not going to sit well with Golf purists like myself. I don't like it one bit. I always thought that the two-door Golf looks sportier and cooler than its four-door counterpart. And the Golf GTI, which was exclusively a two-door car when it originally debuted (the first European model is shown below), has always been more appealing to me in two-door form, because four-door GTIs, available in Europe since the eighties and in the United States since 2005, have always seemed to me like compromises for people - usually dads - who need the easy rear-seat access.
But I don't need a ten-day sales report to see how traditional coupes and two-door sedans have fallen out of favor in America. While some manufacturers persist in offering two-door cars, including Volkswagen itself (hello? the Beetle?), many car companies have scaled back their choices of two-door models, if they haven't eliminated them altogether. Remember those old mid-size "personal luxury" coupes like the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme? That market is pretty much dead, just like Oldsmobile. You could stand on a street corner for half an hour and see only a couple of two-door cars among the many sedans and SUVs passing by. Even coupes have four doors now, including Volkswagens (the CC).
Oh yeah, the move away from two-door cars - including hatchbacks - isn't confined to the U.S. Sales of two-door hatchbacks are also tanking in the Old Country, and the three French automakers - Peugeot, Renault, and Citroën - are pulling out of the market segment. You know a quintessentially European car style is headed for extinction if the French automakers - who, remember, don't do business in the States these days - are abandoning it. Ford has also been moving away from offering two-door hatchbacks in Europe, and the current Fiesta has only been available in four-door versions (hatchback and notchback) in the United States. And the Asians? Take note: My mother has a Honda Fit, and she could only get a four-door version. It's not that Honda doesn't offer a two-door Fit in the United States. It's that a two-door Fit doesn't exist and never has.
While two-door versions of the Golf and the GTI will continue to be available in Europe for awhile, their days in the home market may be numbered, as it appears that the next generation of the VW Polo - a car we Americans have never had the privilege of owning in any form - will be available only in four-door form. Also, according to Left Lane News, Rupert Stadler, the head of Audi, doesn't even seem to think two-door versions of the Polo-based A1 (not sold here, of course) and the Golf-based A3 (we only got the four-door versions), or even the two-door A3 convertible, are necessary. And by the way, Volkswagen canceled the two-door Jetta back in 1991.
As cars become more pragmatically designed, the negative-utopian vision of cars rendered dull and stodgy in the name of "safety" that Richard Foster predicted in his short story "A Nice Morning Drive" (which inspired the Rush song "Red Barchetta") appears to be coming true. First two-door family cars disappear, then sports cars . . . we'll all be driving SUVs soon. But we still have cars like the Golf and the GTI, even if they're only available in the States now with the rear passenger doors we single guys equate with domesticity. As for my 2012 two-door Golf, I'm going to hold onto it for as long as I can, before I have to get a four-door model.
And then I'll have to get married.
(Note: Hatchbacks and station wagons are commonly referred to as three-door or five-door models, with the rear cargo door included in the count, but I referred to them here as two-door and four-door models for the sake of clarity, because whether with a hatch or with a trunk, all cars without rear passenger doors are affected by current sales trends.)
After more than eleven years and more than 86,000 miles, it was time to say goodbye to my beloved 2000 Volkswagen Golf. My driver's seat got worn down, the interior plastics were peeling, there was pulsation in the brakes, there was a leak in the transmission, and I handled it all as best I could. But when the glove compartment door broke for the third time, I realized I had to get a new car.
And of course, I got a new Golf - a 2012 model! :-D I picked it up earlier this week. This will be my third Volkswagen, after my 1972 Beetle and my 2000 Golf. (I seem to have a penchant for VWs from leap model years. :-D)
Going to a 2000 Golf from the fourth generation to a 2012 Golf from the sixth generation (the seventh generation model is expected in America as a 2013 or a 2014 model) is not unlike going from a '72 Beetle to an '84 Rabbit GTI would have been. The 2012 Golf's engine has five cylinders (compared to the four-cylinder engine in the 2000 model) and a displacement five deciliters larger (2.5 liters compared to 2.0). The horsepower rating is 170 as opposed to 115 for my old car. The result is a car that goes faster than it feels and has a smooth, steady ride. As my new car is still in the break-in period, I haven't had much experience with its handling, but I'm looking forward to it.
Of course, a new car means improvements all around. My radio is one of those new-fangled car radios that identifies the title and artist of a song being played on the radio station as well as the call letters of the station itself. With the Golf having moved a bit up-market, cruise control - which I've never had - is standard. The noticeable difference in the ride from my old car is welcome. My old car's suspension was so worn from a decade and change of driving that it felt hard and tough. My mother got a pain in her back riding in my 2000 VW when we went to pick up the new car; she was much more comfortable riding in the new one on our way home. We were both amazed at how different it felt.
I'm glad I got this car, and not just because my old one didn't have much more life to it. When the Mark 7 Golf arrives in America, it may come as decontented and as cheapened as the Jetta, which is selling like hotcakes in the States despite its Corolla-like, un-Volkswagen ambience. (The difference between the hard plastics in the Jetta and the soft-touch materials in my car is jaw-dropping.) I may have dodged a bullet, and I hope Golf fans who end up with the next-generation model are as lucky as I am. And, as long as VW sells lots and lots of Jettas (and Passats - the U.S.-spec Passat was just named Motor Trend's Car of the Year for 2012), VW can and hopefully will continue to offer an un-watered-down Golf hatchback as a loss leader.
Oh, I almost forgot - here's a picture of my new car! :-)
Volkswagen of America celebrates its fifty-fifth annversary today.
Founded on April 19, 1955, Volkswagen of America was created to standardize sales and service of its products in the United States.
Originally headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, it later moved to Troy, Michigan, and then to Herndon, Virginia.
Here's a picture of my 2000 Volkswagen Golf, which I offer in celebration. I bought it new, and as of May of this year, I'll have had it for a decade. :-)
Volkswagen, having returned to the Rabbit name for the Golf in the U.S. and Canada, will once again go back to the Golf name when the sixth-generation model goes on sale in those countries this fall.
Geez, can't Volkswagen of America make up their minds?
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