VW Has Sold A Golf Every 41 Seconds Since 1974

With the Golf turning 45 today, VW has released some interesting stats about the massively popular hatchback

29 Mar 2019

VW Has Sold A Golf Every 41 Seconds Since 1974

It’s time to bake a cake and detonate some party poppers: as of 29 March 2019, the VW Golf is 45 years old. On this day in 1974, production of the hugely popular hatchback started at Wolfsburg, where it’s still assembled in its latest guise.

Since 1974, 35 million units have been shifted globally. VW has crunched the numbers, and this equates to a new Golf being sold every 41 seconds since its introduction. On average, 780,000 have been ordered every year.

This is a big year for the Golf, with the Mk8 due to be revealed in the coming months, before going on sale in 2020. Judging by spy shots it’s not going to look drastically different to the facelifted seventh-generation model, but it’ll be packing lots of new tech including a range of mild hybrid powertrains.

There will indeed be a GTI version, continuing a hot hatch dynasty kicked off by the first hot Golf, which debuted just a year after the standard Mk1.

Speaking about the 45th anniversary of the Golf, VW COO Ralf Brandstätter said:

“The Golf is at the very heart of our brand. It stands for progress and technology like no other car…the Golf made safety technology affordable for millions of people for the first time. Thanks to this, it made its mark on an entire generation.”

Has the Golf made its mark on you somehow? Let us know in the comments.

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

This is impressive and amazing, still shows that the Golf is still relevant

Thats pretty “hot”… Ill see my self out…

That’s a lot of Golfs.

That’s 22.6 million golfs

Do you think all VW golfs are driven by golfers

To me, everything that looks better than a golf is beautiful and everything that looks worse than a golf is ugly.

im baffled how this makes so much sense

So what you’re saying is that the golfs looks are decent… I can agree with that.

Now that I think about it, yeah that makes sense.

At least in recent years, the golf is the standard to which every other hatch is compared. One of the few cars which have appeal across all demographics.

My family had every golf since mk2, so yeah, it made a huge mark :D

It’s been a whole lotta time

When I was learning to drive I found a Mk2 Golf for sale that I really wanted. If memory serves, it was a 1.6 “Driver” in grey for about £600 (This was in 2006-7). My dad didn’t want me to buy a 1.6 as my first car, so I didn’t get it in the end unfortunately. Would still love to have a drive in a Mk2 though!