TOAfter almost 50 years in production, the Golf Mark 8 will be the last combustion engine version of the VW Golf. For many drivers, it means the end of an era. Here, Guardian readers share their memories of driving the vehicles in decades past.
‘The GTI defined me, I thought’
Having used red tape to disguise my GL as a GTI, I finally got the original in 1983. I loved it. I remember GTI owners blinking at each other at the time. This happened even when I had the red tape and I felt like a complete fraud. It strengthened my resolve to get a real one.
It helped that my older brother, Geoff, was a VW salesman in Brighton. He felt like a rocket, and yet today’s average Kia would probably outperform him. The GTI defined me, I thought, but sadly I now drive a Volvo.
Tim Parker, 63, retired, now lives in Sydney
‘I still have it, almost 27 years later’
I fell in love with the Mark II Golf Cabriolet as a kid. Its cute double headlights and its picnic basket shape seemed perfect to me. I had designs for it to be my first car, imagining one of those 80s movies where parents give their child a car with a giant bow, but my parents quickly reminded me that I didn’t have a license or money to pay for insurance, so that was it. .
A few years later, I got my license and the Mark III Cabrio was released. I was first on the road with one in my area. Even before the infamous “Pink Moon” commercial, I would pick up friends from parties, drive under the moonlight, and listen to Nick Drake. That first Cabrio only lasted three months before I was hit by a drunk driver, but I got away relatively unscathed and bought another. I still have that car, almost 27 years later.
Kimberly Blessing, 48, American in Glasgow
‘I thought it was the latest in fashion’
Those were the heady days of the late ’80s, and I coveted a Mk1 Golf GTI convertible. I bought one from Auto Trader – high mileage but in good shape. It was paprika red with a gray hood. I thought it was the latest in fashion. My girlfriend and I (now wife of 30 years) toured Europe that summer, hood down, belting out The Wall on the enhanced stereo.
Back home, reality check. He was very attractive to local car thieves in Leeds, where he was mugged three times in two and a half years. They broke the stereo, then sliced through the hood and had to expensively replace it.
Finally, it was stolen outside my house one night. The police found it a couple of days later: on bricks, with no wheels, no interior trim, no roof, no hood, and no engine. Oh, and the no-claims bond on my tattered insurance.
My son now has a Golf TDI which is a money pit with engine issues but he loves it. He wouldn’t listen!
Paul Elcock, 59, Menston, West Yorkshire
“I bought it second hand in 1996 and I loved it”
My first serious boyfriend drove a red Golf, which he took to college where I met him. He allowed us to go out on the weekends, which was a luxury for students in 1990. On Valentine’s Day, I decorated the driver’s side window with love heart stickers and he kept them there until he finally left. They took off with the weather.
I myself bought a Golf a few years after we broke up and I was with another partner. It was the boxy kind – I don’t remember how old the car was when I bought it secondhand in 1996, but I loved it. He lived in London and, again, he gave me the freedom to leave the city. I had no thoughts about green transport back then. I’ve owned two Golfs since, including one I’m driving now. Despite the VW emissions scandal, I am a committed fan.
Lucy Rouse, 51, Salisbury, Wiltshire
“I had the two most stressful drives of my life on it”
My wife and I drove a wonderful VW Golf for five years. [from 2016]. His dad had already used it for many more years. In all, we ended up putting over 200,000 miles on the clock and it always churned through the rides with minimal fuss.
Within those 200,000 miles, we had summer vacation road trips, lots of laughs, some arguments, and the two most harrowing trips of my life: rushing to the hospital with my wife in labor, head hanging out of the window in the August afternoon heat with broken air conditioning (one of the car’s few hiccups), and the return leg several days later, our young daughter wrapped and strapped down.
Towards the end of its life, repair costs began to rise. The day before trading it in for an electric car, the dreaded red warning light came on. The next day we limped it to the dealership and when the dealer started the engine… there was no red light. A parting gift from our noble steed.
Jon, 31, Tunbridge Wells
