Volkswagen Golf was released in 1965

Teejay

Gone Fishin'
Volkswagen in response to the success of front-engined, water-cooled, front wheel drive cars such as the Renault 4 and the Mini, decided to replace the Volkswagen Beetle around 1964, with a similar car (lets call it the Golf). The look of the car would be roughly similar to first prototypes of the Mark I Golf which were done in 1969.

1969_vw-golf-mk1-prototype.jpg


1969_vw-golf-mk1-prototype-6.jpg


If Volkswagen had made this decision in the mid 1960's (after they took over the factories of Auto Union (Audi)). The resulting car while not being a smash hit would have allowed Volkswagen to remain profitable through the late 1960's and early 1970's. Which would have avoided them being bailed out by the Government of Lower Saxony.

Also unlike the Renault 4, Mini, Honda N360 and Fiat 128, this car would probably be a success in the US market. Particularly if like the Beetle it would be reasonably fast, reliable and had good 0-60mph time. It would inspired Detroit automakers in the late 1960's to create compact front-wheel drives, which would have helped it repel the "Japanese invasion" of the 1970's and 1980's.

Not to mention such a car becoming like the VW Beetle in OTL was the car of choice for the California Hippy Movement.
 
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I wonder if this works, because this prototype is...Ugly

The 1974 Golf 1 came right on time, after Oil crisis
was cheap and economic and it look much better, that this copy of a East German Wartburg...

background history
VW-Chef Heinrich Nordhoff had the old Beetle to long in production, with his air cooled back engine, It became obsolete.
So German buyers went to other marks like Opel, Mercedes or Ford.
What VW plunge into crisis in 1970, with death of Nordhoff in 1968, new VW-Chef Kurt Lotz introduce water-cooled front-engine to VW
they even build with Porsche help, a new Beetle version EA 266 with mid engine !
Head of project was Ferdinand Piëch (yes the guy who made later VW to a multinational automotive manufacturing company)
the production of water-cooled front-engine start with VW K 70 (original NSU model K70) in 1970.
1971 Kurt Lotz is replace by Rudolf Leiding, he stop work on new Beetle now EA 276 and introduce the Modularity manufacturing,
means Audi & VW could build cheaper on base of standard components.
First success was A80 and VW Passat in 1973
the EA 276 was overwork into EA 337 the prototype of Golf.
 
Golf? cheap?

The VW Beetle was about the cheapest car available, and lots of people who couldn't afford anything else bought it.

When the Rabbit (Golf in North America) came out, it was vastly more expensive, and was competing in a whole different category of car. The only big advantage they had was the Rabbit Diesel which was cheaper than an MBenz diesel or Peugeot, which were your other functional alternatives for a diesel car. But 'Cheaper than a Mercedes' isn't saying much!!

Edit. It maybe that the price rise was as much due to the value of the german mark going up as anything else.
 
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