The VW Golf Country #Blogpost

From the Mk2 Golf there were many different versions. For example the G60, GTI, GTI 16V, Fire & Ice, Limited, Rallye and the Syncro. And with the last one, VW did a bit more to it and made a entirely different car from it. The Golf Country. It used the same basic Syncro-AWD system but was then raised to have a improved ground clearance of 21 CM, bullbars front and rear, a skid plate to protect the engine, a sub-frame to protect the rear diff and an awesome extra spare wheel at the back which could swing to the side

The base car, the Golf Syncro was introduced in 1986, the Country its prototype was revealed in 1989 at the Geneva motor show. The car was taken into production in 1990 and it went a bit different to the other Mk2’s. Basically what they did was send a bunch of Golf Syncro’s to Steyr Daimler Puch in Austria which was known for its 4X4 cars at the time like the Mercedes G-class and they made it the Country as we know it.

The Golf Country was powered by Volkswagens 1.8 petrol engine producing 98 HP and 143 NM of torque. Surprisingly, the 0-100 KPH time is not that bad, it is 12.3 seconds and when you’ve considered the added weight and its height that is pretty good.

Officially they built 7735 units of the Golf Country which unfortunately there aren’t many left of. Aside the normal Country there also was the less luxurious ‘Country Allround’ which was meant to be for a wider audience even though they eventually only made 160 units of those. Then there was the ‘chrom-edition’ which was meant be a lot more luxurious than the other ones. It featured a unique black color, an electric sunroof and many chrome bits. They sold about 558 of these. After that, there was a very, very exclusive version of the Country. The Country GTI. This car was only available for the people at VW who worked on this car. It had a 114 HP 1.8 petrol engine from the regular Mk2 GTI. From these they only made 50.

When VW started the production of the Country they aimed at making 5000 examples every year and wanted to make 15.000 in total. Unfortunately this stuck at half that and the production ended in 1991.