Golf Shot

After all indications pointed to the Volkswagen Golf Variant station being dropped with the coming of the car's eighth generation,  VW confirmed that, uh, actually, a station wagon will be in the Mark 8 Golf lineup after all.  I presume it will look much like the outgoing Mark 7 Golf wagon (shown below).  

The Mark 8 Golf wagon won't come to the United States, as sport utility vehicles have taken over in this market and actually account for 52 percent of VW's U.S. sales, but it will likely be available in Canada, where compact VW wagons are still popular and where the four-door base hatchback has already been confirmed.  This recent development may actually make it seem less likely that the base hatchback is included in the U.S. lineup when the eighth generation arrives.  I suppose that, if I want a base Mark 8 Golf, I could go north of the border, buy one, and bring it back to the States, but after all of the costs to federalize it for American roads, it might be less expensive to buy a GTI.

And while all this is going on, Volkswagen has suggested that maybe, just maybe, the electric ID.3 hatchback can be sold in North America after all . . . but only in Canada.  Here in the States?  Absolutely not.  As a hatchback buyer,  I clearly live in the wrong country.  It's also becoming obvious that, after decades of being lock and step with American automotive tastes, Canadian tastes in cars are beginning to diverge from such tastes south of the 49th parallel. 

Meanwhile, I have persistently written Scott Keogh, the president of Volkswagen of America, to urge him to include the base Mark 8 Golf in Volkswagen's U.S. lineup every time a development in VW's plans for the base Golf are updated.  I wrote him thrice - the first time to protest the possible discontinuation of the base Golf in the U.S. market when Motor1.com first reported it as fact rather than as the rumor it is, a second time after the wagon was dropped, and, more recently, a third time after the base Golf was confirmed for Canada, which I saw as a hopeful sign for the car's American availability.  In each case a spokesman for Keogh has called me personally (another hopeful sign) to thank me for my input and for my loyalty and passion for the brand and the Golf, and also to say that, while no decision has been made on the base Mark 8 Golf yet, I have indeed been heard.  Online and on-call representatives at VW Customer Care have heard from me too.

But I'm only one person.  The people at Volkswagen of America aren't going to keep the base Golf in its lineup after 2020 just because I want them to.  That's why I keep reminding VW fans on Facebook and here on my blog that more of us have to speak up and press for the base Golf to remain in the U.S. lineup.  So 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 when the Mark 8 (below) comes out.  The eighth-generation car is due for its world premiere in the coming month.  It's crunch time.

It's crunch time for me too, personally.  My 2012 Golf has repeatedly stalled at stops while I'm on the road, and repeated efforts to have it fixed have so far failed.  I can't understand why such a simple problem can't be resolved.  I want to keep my car, but that might not be possible.  If I can't get it properly fixed, I'll have to get rid of it, and of course I hope to get another Golf in its place, but in that case I'd better act fast while I still have a chance to buy a new Golf from a VW dealer - and American dealerships, of course, keep so few of them in stock.  If I end up having to get another car and I don't get a new Golf soon, it may be too late. >:-(

If I do get a new Golf, though, this much is certain - it won't be a two-door model.  The two-door Golf of the outgoing seventh generation has already been dropped in North America, and the eighth generation won't have a two-door version available anywhere in the world - the two-door Golf is being dropped completely.