The Golf R and Golf GTI will still be around after this year, but you can say goodbye to the basic wave, which is leaving the US market for good. Or at least until gas prices rise and Americans want good, small, fuel-efficient cars again.
We saw this coming in 2019 when VW killed the Alltrack and SportWagen here, and later also the e-Golf. Before all that had a hint that the base wave would also be dead at some point.
That day has come.
Herndon, VA – Volkswagen of America today announced that the acclaimed Volkswagen Golf ended production for the US market last week. Volkswagen expects that the model year 2021 Golf models built at the factory in Puebla, Mexico, will continue sales of the affordable, European-designed hatchback through the end of the year. The Golf name will continue into model year 2022 with the introduction of the all-new Mk 8 Golf GTI and Golf R, which will appear this fall.
The Golf has been sold here since 1974; then it was called here and the Rabbit started at $ 2,995; the manual version in 2021 starts at $ 23,195. VW introduced an eighth-generation Golf in 2019, but we’re still getting the seventh-generation Golf here in the US, which is also where the end comes.
The Golf competes with cars like the Honda Civic and Mazda 3, and sales here last year were actually pretty good, all things considered, with VW sale 6,063, or 7.4 percent more than in 2019. Those are crumbs for a carmaker as big as Volkswagen, however, and I’m sure the internal justification here is something along the lines of: Sure, sales are up a bit, but we I don’t make as much money anyway, or at least not as much as when we sell a Tiguan.
G / O Media can receive a commission
It could also be a nod to the ID.4 coming to the United States, but to be fair, Volkswagen’s strategy in the US. has confused me for a while. That’s because there just doesn’t seem to be one, although the pandemic threw a key into things as well, as with everyone else. Buy your basic golf while supplies last.