Design review: Which Golf succeeded – and which didn’t

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Which Golf succeeded – and which didn’t

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-design

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The Golf I, 3.71 meters short, is the classic from 1974. Giorgetto Giugiaro created it and, like the car, went down in design history. A first generation trait that up… The extremely wide rear roof pillar (C pillar) has been preserved today..

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-which

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Giugiaro actually wanted square headlights, but VW decided against it for reasons of cost. This did not affect the success: From 1974 to 1983 the Golf I was exactly 6,975.…Built 448 times, more than any subsequent generation.

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-design

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The Golf II, grown to 3.99 meters and designed by VW chief designer Herbert Schafer, is seen by critics as a little out of shape. He was with…

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-review

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… 3,300,978 units were manufactured significantly less frequently between 1983 and 1992 than the Golf I, which also took nine years to build.

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-succeeded

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The new head of design, Hartmut Warkub, was responsible for the Golf III, which with a length of 4.02 meters exceeded the four-meter mark for the first time (he would play in the polo class today).… Most important new design element…

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-design

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… were the almond-shaped headlight units. The round headlights had their day, they never came back. The Golf III was exactly 4th in just six years from 1991 to 1997….834,797 built.

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-design

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The Golf IV, with which Warkub made his design monument, was even a little more successful. The now 4.08 meter long car is not only considered a design eb in the VW Group…As valuable as the Golf I, too…

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-succeeded

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… independent experts praise the clarity of the presentation. A car can hardly be more straightforward than a Golf IV. The reward for simplicity: 4,944,715 units rolled between 1997 and 200…3 from the tape.

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-review

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The Golf V, created under the head of design Murat Gunak, was only allowed by the VW managers to be built for five years…nders. With the length, which has grown significantly to 4.20 meters, more rounded shapes and came in…

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-review

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… Kuhlergill, who tried to break up the strict horizontal lines of the previous generations. Between 2003 and 2008, customers bought 3,341,970 pieces, but the new Manag…ement wanted a new solution quickly.

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-which

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The Golf VI that Gunak had already prepared failed at Winterkorn. Gunak left the company, and it was decided not to make a completely new Golf until generation seven…en. The new head of design, Walter de Silva, designed his Golf VI on the basis of the Golf V, which was basically not much more than a facelift. But with the …

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-design

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… smoothed lines at the rear and at the front, it looked simpler again and, in the opinion of the board of directors, was better suited to the brand. With the four years from 2008 to 2012 the Go…lf VI has the shortest running time and therefore the lowest number of items: 2,161,755.

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-which

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The 4.26 meter long Golf VII is now a completely new design by the team under de Silva, it has lost the shoulder line on the rear fenders and therefore looks tighter and fiery…more ridiculous. The car no longer rises optically towards the rear, although it is slightly higher than its predecessor, but has something coupe-like and stocky, moreover…

Source: Stefan Anker

Design review: Which Golf succeeded - and which didn't-review

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… it has a wider track on the road, and the even more clearly pronounced horizontal grille is intended to underline the statement: This car belongs in a row with the Golf I and… Golf IV.

Source: Stefan Anker

An exhibition in Berlin shows the design tricks used to make the VW Golf a bestseller. Design professor Paolo Tumminelli rates the seven generations of Golf in the “Welt”.

B.islang 29 million Golfs have rolled onto the streets of the world since 1974 – for the author Florian Illies twelve years ago, this was a good reason to trace the "Golf Generation" through literature. The seventh generation has been on the market for three weeks, now the manufacturer of the success story is showing the “Generations Golf” exhibition at the Volkswagen Automobil Forum Unter den Linden in Berlin, which is dedicated to the most successful car in Europe.

This is the first time that an exhibition will focus on the 38-year success story of the unmistakable golf design. Unpublished sketches, texts and videos will be shown that document how the employees managed to develop their own golf DNA and thus one of the most successful automotive designs in the world.

The Golf I fitted in with the times

Paolo Tumminelli, Professor of Design Concepts at the International School of Design in Cologne, was nine years old when the Golf I, drawn by his compatriot Giorgetto Giugiaro, saw the light of day in the automotive world in 1974. The year coincided with the first oil crisis, and a 3815 millimeter long compact car fit in perfectly with the time.

Although Giugiaro had to accept a few compromises: The space was much tighter than in the Alfasud, which he designed, Volkswagen required round instead of square headlights for cost reasons, and the windshield was steeper so that the Golf complied with US safety laws.

The Golf II lost its lightness

Nevertheless, the Golf I wrote design history. “The wedge-shaped bonnet emphasized modernity and was a very German symbol of robustness and solidity. There was also a tailgate, which, as a three-dimensionally modeled, framed pane, gave the impression of a solid metal part, ”says Tumminelli.

Giugiaro set the strongest example with the wide C-pillar. “That was against the trend – because in the mid-1970s everyone wanted as large glass surfaces as possible.” At the same time, there are definitely curves and bulges on the original Golf: “The car flowed downwards.” On top of that, Giorgetto Giugiaro let go of all Bauhaus design add a little Italian esprit.

When the Golf II came in 1983, Giugiaro was no longer in the game. His proposal was rejected and appeared in Spain as the Seat Ibiza. Against the design idiom of the Italo-Iberian, the second Golf looked almost like a fortress. Thanks to the first use of industrial robots, at least this time the quality and rust prevention were right. An unbelievable 450,000 Golf IIs are still registered nationwide today.

However, there was a certain disenchantment among many designers: "How could you deface the Golf like that?" Laments Tumminelli. "Although it took up the most important elements of its predecessor, it sacrificed the lightness and freshness of its predecessor to a pseudo-baroque country house style."

The Golf III looked narrow-chested

In the end, for him, the Golf II is little more than “an inflated, now aerodynamically cheaper Golf, but bulky to drive.” At Volkswagen, on the other hand, the Golf II is credited with great merits. It was only with him that the DNA, the success code of the Golf generation, was created.

Leap into 1991. The third Golf, again styled under the direction of Herbert Schafer, was particularly fresh in the face. With almond-shaped light units sitting under a common cover glass. And a much narrower grill. From the designer’s point of view, the 13 inch tires of the basic versions had a negative effect.

They made the Golf III look narrow-chested. It only stood well on the road with 14-inch wheels and black wheels. "In the 90s, the Japanese also forced VW to make their cars rounder and more integral," says Tumminelli. The result: the Golf was given painted and integrated bumpers for the first time. The car looked more like one piece.

The Golf IV has a design highlight

The 1997 Golf IV still looks timelessly fresh today. The headlights and indicators were now under clear glass, the joints were tight, the windshield flatter, the rear steeper and the roof even more elongated. “There wasn’t a single superfluous part that looked like it had been welded on afterwards,” enthuses Tumminelli.

A design highlight to this day are the parallel body joints of the C-pillar and the rear door cutout – the "arrowed C" newly discovered on the Golf VII. “The car had what we would call Audi style today,” says Paolo Tumminelli.

The Golf V swelled like a bun

What contrast did the Golf V offer in October 2003. A product from the era of Bernd Pischetsrieder (CEO) and Murat Gunak (Head of Design). It was the time when VW headlights and taillights grew bags under the eyes and the badge grills were coated with bold chrome.

"The golf swelled up like a bread roll, there was no beginning and no end, the eye looked in vain for lines to hold onto," criticized Tumminelli. There was a lack of detail: the hood followed – like a sports car – the contour of the headlights that extended into the fenders.

But the lamps looked badly framed, and the face lost some of its recognition value. The mouse-gray lower half of the rear bumper and the taillights, which were split into two for the first time, were also irritating topics. "They were pompous and seemed too arbitrary for a VW."

The Golf VI only offered cosmetics, but good ones

Damage limitation was the order of the day – it came after just five years in the form of the Golf VI. Strictly speaking, it was only a Golf 5.5, because everything stayed the same under the skin. The new chief designer Walter de Silva, who came from Audi, and his team made the best of the situation.

"The headlights and taillights now looked more rectangular, there was again a kind of grill and a line that ran from front to back," said Tumminelli, praising his former doctoral supervisor. "It was only cosmetic, but one of the rare cases in which a facelift actually looked better than the original."

With the new Golf VII, the proportions have changed completely. Thanks to the new modular transverse matrix, the front wheels moved 43 millimeters further forward. “The cabin moves visually to the rear,” says VW brand design boss Klaus Bischoff.

The Golf VII is a designer Golf

Tumminelli’s judgment is ambivalent. “This is a designer golf. Aesthetically perfect, with great quality and harmony between bow and stern. You can see how they tried to make him athletic. The proportions between the sides and the roof have changed. Unfortunately with the result that the all-round view has shrunk by half due to the smaller glass surface. These are things that you actually don’t want to have. "

For him, the flat and sporty front is an intelligent solution. “It is the first Golf on which the fenders are higher than the middle section of the hood – as a result of new pedestrian protection laws.” But it is sure to be a bestseller again.

Generations of golf. December 7, 2012 to January 20, 2013, VW Automobil Forum Unter den Linden, Unter den Linden 21, daily 10 a.m. – 8 p.m., free admission.

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