Golf I Cabriolet (1979 to 1993): purchase advice, prices

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E r was anything but easy, the open golf. It was supposed to replace a legend, an icon, an untouchable, a popular figure, the most successful open-top car on the world market until then: the Beetle Cabriolet. And then they had pulled on that handle that was so easy to mock. Not only that. They continued to build the open Beetle, even though it, the open Golf, was already there.

VW gave VW Beetle fans a grace period

Hardy Mutschler

VW gave Beetle fans until 1980 time to say goodbye. some stood aside.

The Golf was in production for five years as a kind of heir to the throne for the Beetle, right up to the convertible a change was due, which was more of a smooth transition, because the Beetle Cabriolet was also to be built by the beginning of 1980. At the end of 1976, a convertible based on the Golf was presented as a prototype, but it took more than two years for the series to be delivered. While the roll bar was initially what many people encountered, it soon set a standard: Other manufacturers later realized convertibles of the same design.

That was also because the open Golf, at times the only four-seat open-top alternative to exotic vehicles such as the Rolls-Royce Corniche, sold extremely well, over a quarter of a million units in the first ten years. One of the reasons for VW to stick to the Golf I as the basis for the convertible when the compact went into the second generation in 1983. From that the convertible got the instrument panel and the larger tank the following year. From 1992 a driver airbag was available on request.

Reliable, unapologetic, low costs

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The golf rationalist inspires with inexpensive large-scale production technology.

Large-scale production technology as the basis of an endless variety of colors and equipment individualizing convertibles - that is one of the recipes for the success of the open 1 Series Golf. Because mass-production technology not only seems unattractive on the one hand, but on the other hand is above all reliable and unapologetic. This is in perfect harmony with the golf claim of offering high utility value with little maintenance. Even as a classic, the Golf Cabrio meets this requirement because the supply of parts fits and the maintenance and care costs are manageable.

None of the four-cylinder in the Golf I Cabrio is a finger-off version. The engines provide high mileage with moderate maintenance costs. There are 1.5 and several versions, 1.6 and 1.8 liters. While the two engines from the early years - 70 and 110 hp - had to regularly check the valve clearance, this was omitted for the engines from August 1985, and for the 1.6-liter with 95 hp from mid-1987 because of the hydraulic valve lifters. All drives can withstand E10 - in principle. But with longer idle times, modern fuel can become a problem, especially for the injectors, where the nozzles and flow dividers can then resinify.

The driver is air-cooled, not the engine

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The convertible top is tight and stays calm until the speed of the motorway.

The convertible is the Golf in which air-cooled driving goes on. This is how VW once formulated it in advertising. Otherwise, of course, the Golf doesn't drive like its predecessor, the Beetle, butmore like the constructive relatives Passat and Scirocco. They all no longer push, they pull, but they pull well, steer light-footed and track completely unobtrusively - certainly slightly understeering. When closed, thanks to the four-layer soft top, it is quiet and not unsuitable for longer stretches of the motorway.

It's getting so slow. After all, only the last few years of the open 1 Series Golf are now too young for the H license plate. That's the page. The other: The older model years have long been wearing it without being looked at wrongly for it; The reputation of the Golf I Cabriolet has changed significantly over the past 15 years - before that, prices and appreciation were both in the basement. Today there are only tinkered specimens that question the classic status of the Golf. The first generation has long since emancipated itself from being 'only' the successor to the Beetle.