Golfless In America

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.