There are plenty of older Golfs on the road, cult car that are clearly differentiated by their boxy design or honest driving. However, we tend to forget how much the technology package has progressed over the year, especially in the "radio" department.
Modern phones aren't really used for talking that much. Likewise, the infotainment system in the Golf 7.5 packs in features like navigation or gesture controls. So we take the radio function for granted. This insightful video released by Volkswagen takes a look at how the dashboard has evolved since the days of the Golf 1 over 40 years ago.
It all started in 1974 in the Golf Mk1 with its "Braunschweig" radio. We call sound systems "stereo" these days, but the Golf was originally a mono. The car had one rotary knob on the left for power and volume, one on the right to select the station. Three buttons in between: one for medium wave and two for VHF. There were no memory functions, just small red lines you could push by hand to mark where your favorite stations were.
After that, the Golf received the new "Ingolstadt Stereo CR." with a cassette radio. Your parents or grandparents didn't have any smartphone input systems, just the latest ABBA songs on tapes. Change to the next song? Not so simple!
By 1991, the Golf 3 came around and with it came the Alpha radio. It had a backlit LCD, was better integrated into the dash and featured automatic station search.
Six years later, Volkswagen brought out the Golf 4, who's dash you can recognize by the wood trim. That was considered upmarket at the time, and so was the colored navigation map.
The Golf 5 undoubtedly put Volkswagen on the map in 2003. Finally, a CD drive! Cassettes now a thing of the past, the Golf even had a feature to connect a digital MP3 player, like the famous iPod.
Following its success, Volkswagen introduced the Golf 6 in 2008. It was basically a rework of the old car, but it did feature the well known RNS 510 navigation system, a DVD drive stack, a USB port, digital radio reception (DAB), and 30 GB hard disk among other technologies.
Even though it's just a facelift, the Golf 7.5 did bring about the huge change last year. There is no more slot to put useless CDs into. The top-end design you see in the photo gallery also has no physical buttons or dials.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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