It was elected Car of the Year in 1992.
While the Golf was not the first design with this layout (that honour going to the Fiat 128 3P of the early 1970s), it was the first to be truly successful in the mass market, and it was this, rather than the Fiat, that was widely copied by others.
The Golf was designed by Italian automobile architect Giorgetto Giugiaro, of the Ital design studio. A version of this original Golf model is still produced in South Africa as an entry level car.
The GTi version, launched in Europe 1977 and the US in 1983, created a whole new genre and market of car - the hot hatchback, and was widely copied by all other manufacturers since.
Four generations of the original Golf model have been built so far. The 5th generation started to sell in November 2003. For the presentation of the new Golf Wolfsburg was renamed to Golfsburg for a week.
The sedan version of the Golf was the Jetta, subsequently known as the Vento (from 1992) and later as the Bora from 1998, although the Jetta name is stil used in North America and South Africa.