Volkswagen’s answer to the question it had been avoiding for a decade: what replaces the Beetle?[1] The answer turned out to be almost the opposite car (water-cooled, front-engined, front-driven, and shaped by an Italian), and it has been in continuous production ever since.
Nameplate
Volkswagen Golf
- Produced
- 1974–present
- Generations
- 1
Generations
Each generation is its own entry, with its own specifications and sources.
Sources & confidence
Every figure above carries a status. Nothing on this page is estimated without saying so, and nothing missing has been filled in with a guess.
- Last verified
- 2026-08-18
- Review status
- Spot-checked by hand
References
Every sourced figure and every cited claim on this page, numbered. Wikipedia articles record the revision they were read at, because the article will have changed by the time you check it.
- [1]
Volkswagen Golf. Wikipedia · revision 1370024728 · read 2026-08-18
WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0
The nameplate article, thin by design in exactly the way the design describes. Generation specs come from the Mk1 article.