Volkswagen Golf Mk1 Gets Off the Production Line

About 31 years ago Volkswagen presented its hatchback, the Golf Mk1 designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, and despite the five more generations which followed, the Germans continued building the first one to this day in their South African plant in Uitenhage.

The end of production was celebrated with a 1,000 cars anniversary edition of the last Mk1 Golfs ever produced. These special edition Golfs will only be available in Black and Shadow Blue metallic paint and are fitted with 15-inch gunmetal painted alloy wheels. They also added dark taillights, GT style stripes under the doors, chrome tail pipe, twin headlamps and chrome grille surround.

The inside of the Mk1 did not remain untouched over the years and features a brand new interior with a modern design. The limited edition gets sport seats partially covered in leather, a golf ball gear knob, leather steering wheel, red stitching throughout the interior, specific floor mats and an individual number embossed on the dashboard.

The car has a 1.6-liter engine that delivers 99 hp at 5,400 rpm, making the considerably slower than the first GTi. But then again, this car was never meant to be fast, hence the name “Citi”.

Back in the days, all Mk1 variants proved instantly popular with the only notable technical flaw being the poor braking in RHD models, due to the master cylinder for the brakes being placed on the left for LHD cars, as Volkswagen never intended the Golf to be sold abroad. In North America it was sold as the Volkswagen Rabbit, and in Mexico it was sold as the Volkswagen Caribe.