Hello and welcome on Carjager !
So today the weather is superb as you can see.
It is the perfect weather to try the Volkswagen Golf cabriolet GLI.
Before we speak more precisely about this car we are going
to speak a little bit about Golfs. It is important to be in the right context as,
at the beginning of the 70s, Volkswagen is rather behind compared to its
competition and needs to renew itself fully. Volkswagen decided, when they bought out NSU,
to change over to front-wheel-drive. With the NSU experience in the front-wheel-drive,
the result will be the the Golf that revolutionized the compact world in the 70s et 80s.
Volkswagen with Golf will not only make a successful compact
sedan but will also revolutionize a certain number of segments. First it will be the category of
small sports cars with the GTI and then to offer
from 79 onwards this compact cabriolet version, compact convertible which was seldom
done at the time. And all the competitors will then follow Volkswagen in this momentum,
either by launching GTIs, or by launching convertible versions of their models The Golf was drawn by Giugiaro, an great designer.
At this same time,
he drew the Lotus Esprit and the Delorean for example. He gives a
rather razor sharp and very modern look to the Golf that goes very well
with the convertible cut. It is important to know that
the first models are not like this one This one is from 88 and thus gets all
the car body additions that modernized the design and allowed
the GLI to stay up-to-date after 87 At the beginning, it is very a more fluid line
as well as being very close to the original model. The particularity of this car is
that it was not fabricated by Volkswagen but fabricated by Karmann. Karmann, that you most likely know since he already
collaborated with Volkswagen and with Porsche. specially for the Karmann Ghia.
Karmann is actually an assembler because at that time manufacturers
didn’t have the capacities to produce small series or series with different bodywork. Karmann only produced the Golf convertible
in both the GL and GLI versions from 1979 to 1993. It is called GLI so that
it does not compete with the GTI and also because it is less sporty in its philosophy than the GTI.
We don’t want to make this car pass for
what it isn’t even if it has the same motor and even if it is fun to
drive and that it shares quite a few characteristics with the GTI version. [Louis]: Hi Paul!
[Paul]: Hi Louis! [L] So here we are
on board this Golf GLI. At that time, what was the competition on the market for this Golf ? [P] So at the beginning, when this car
was launched, it didn’t really have any competition. but little by little, the other car makers
began to make their own compact convertibles First the Talbot Samba came out but it wasn’t really
a sports car compared to a GLI that still had the same engine as the Golf GTI .
Then there were the two big competitors : it's Peugeot that
launched its convertible versions of the 205 and more specifically the 205 CTI
that also had a tuned-down GTI engine that was about in
the same range of 115 horsepower. At the time it was a teenage car,
the cool kids rolled with the top down along the coast and I
think that it made quite a few people dream. Today it does not cost that much since its quotation is around 8000 euros.
Well, it can be a little bit more and it goes up regularly but it is generally sold
at prices that are perfectly reasonable to have a really nice car.
The Golf GTI explodes through the roof price wise because everyone wants one. We have this one instead, less sporty but very close and with the same motor. It is a rather good investment. Plus, it was fabricated for 15 years and survived the Golf 1 because it has the Golf 1 base, and unlike the Golf 2 which never had a convertible version, it is this version that was continued to be built.
It was sold in
388,000 units which makes it so that there are many on the market, which explains
why we find them less expensive the the Golf GTI. It is a smart buy. Instead of throwing oneself at a GTI,
why not think of this one instead that can also be driven with the top down in the summer? [Louis] A potential Golf GTI
buyer could totally ask oneself about the cost of maintenance. Are we on a budget
that is excessively high or does it remain rather raisonnable? [Paul]: No its rather
raisonnable because, already at that time, Volkswagen had
quite a good quality reputation, its well made. But it still is an old car. This car is from 88,
so it's already almost 30 years old.
Of course there are maintenance costs to plan for but we are far from the upkeep costs that certain sports cars from the same time generate and the spare parts are easily found. [L]: Let’s talk a little about this car.
What do you think about the feel of driving this Golf? How do you find it here,
on this small road of the Chevreuse valley in France? [P]: Well, it is super fun to drive
and it doesn’t seem 30 years old. Of course, the gearbox is a little peculiar, you have to get used to it just like in any other old car.
The steering is rather precise, it is nice to drive in the city, even in Paris. It can be an everyday kind of car. [L]: We may imagine that we will not have
exceptional performances driving this Golf. However, what can we say about it in terms of the motor ? [P]: Its a 1.8L injection engine and this is a good thing to
remember because it is Volkswagen that generalized it on its small cars at a time when there were still many carburateurs etc.
And here again everybody followed, Peugeot the first with the 205. We have here a car that is close to being modern and this is why it is so easy to drive. So its a 1.8L, injection with 112 horsepower. it really isn’t half bad
for a car that does not even weigh a ton. I don’t think the 0 to 100 is very interesting since it is surpassed by all.
But it has a frame close to the Golf GTI so you can really have fun in the curves I truly think this is a car that is very well adapted to today's driving conditions where we are limited in our speed, so have to have fun in other ways and for this we will choose a car nervy enough to have fun, with the top down we have even more sensations
and we can stay about in the 80 kilometers an hour range…I said about [L]: And thank you Paul and see you very soon on Carjager for a new test drive! [P]: See you soon!.