Gallery: 20 landmark Golfs in 30 million sales
News that the 30 millionth Volkswagen Golf rolled off the line at Wolfsburg had the HJClassics team thinking about the production milestone that marks this car out as such an enduring success since the launch of the Mk1 in 1974.
It wasn't a technical or engineering pioneer, though - there were plenty of other mid-sized hatchbacks before the Golf - but it was a perfect case of a right-first-time product that kick-stated its maker's future fortunes - so much so that it underpinned the Volkswagen Group's relentless growth into arguably the world's largest car company today. The Golf did popularise the hot hatch and four-door cabriolet in the '80s, and V6 and super-green diesel hold-alls during the 1990s.
Enjoy then, our gallery of some of the classic Golf's finest moments...
1979: Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet
Just as the GTI invigorated the sports car market in Europe, popularising the hot hatchback genre, when Volkswagen and Karmann joined forces to create a replacement for the much loved Beetle convertible a new fashion swept across Europe. The Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet arrived in 1979 - and the UK a year later - and was met with no resistance from the traditional convertible opposition. After all, where else could you buy a reasonably practical, well-made, water-tight convertible that could seat four, and go like a Golf GTI?
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