Volkswagen News - Mondial de l'Automobile 2004, Paris

Press Release

Page 1 - Fascinating: Special exhibition: 30 years of the Golf
Page 2 - Confident: Golf 4MOTION
Page 3 - Clean: Golf, Phaeton and Touareg + DPF
Page 4 - Sporty: Race-Touareg 2005 and W12
Page 5 - Safe: New driver assistance systems

30 years of the Golf

The most successful Volkswagen of all times is celebrating its birthday in Paris

• In 1974, Volkswagen presented the first generation of today's Golf
• Volkswagen has written automobile history with over 25 million Golfs

Volkswagen is celebrating the 30th birthday of the Golf with a special exhibition. The first generation of the successor to the Beetle was presented to the international press in 1974. With over 25 million cars sold over five generations, it has become the world's most successful automobile. It is just as true today as it was 30 years ago: the Golf is the classless original. None of its competitors even comes close to being the number 1 for so many social strata. Only the Golf looks as natural parked outside football fields as it does outside golf clubs, in front of rock stadia and opera houses, blocks of flats and stately homes. It's a phenomenon that is still without parallel.

This unique quality was part of the heritage of the very first generation of Golfs. When it made its d??????????????????but, the original generation appeared with the typical features that turned it into a bestseller over night: The powerful C-pillar, spanned as tight as a bowstring, a variability that was unheard of in that segment, lively engines and, not least, a neutral and therefore safe running gear frame with front-wheel drive were the convincing factors right through the range. So far, until today (Generation I is still being built in South Africa), 6.8 million of the first Golf have been sent out to customers all over the world).

The second generation followed in 1983. Another world hit. 6.3 million of these were produced in ten years - an average of 630,000 cars a year. In 1991, in parallel with Generation II in some markets, the third Golf made its d??????????????????but. Customers had become more sophisticated, and so had the Golf. This mirror image of technical progress won over precisely 4.8 million customers up to 1997 (530,000 a year). After this, the fourth generation of Golfs triggered a revolution in quality and safety in the class that had long been called after it. When the last Golf IV left the Wolfsburg plant in 2003, the model series entered the book of automobile history, with 4.3 million units sold (614,000 a year).

The fifth generation is continuing this success story. For three decades now, the Golf has been the highest selling car in and from Germany without interruption. In purely statistical terms, 2,054 customers all over the world have chosen a Golf every day for the last 30 years. It is regarded as "the car" par excellence and is the unalterable point of reference for the competition.

The new Golf has all the assets it needs to continue the successful pathway of it predecessors: a clear increase in dynamics, space, safety, quality and fascination make it, once again, the all-round talent for millions of people of every possible type. And so it's no wonder that the number 1 in innumerable comparative tests is once again the number 1 amongst European cars: No car has been sold more often between London and Athens than the Golf.