There’s tangible evidence, in the way it both hustles through corners and cheerfully spins up past 5000rpm and on to the distant redline, that you would have felt ever so smug in your German-engineered family hatch. And rightly so, because it is rather delightful.
Even winding towards Salisbury Cathedral’s spire on a classic, British sun-to-monsoon sort of day, the Golf bumps tidily over cobbles and drain covers, the engine muttering away gently and the steering hefty but not unmanageable.
The Golf feels as easy-going and comfortable in these awkward, ancient streets as it did on the wide, fast roads across Wiltshire’s plains.
Even in its original form, the Golf’s real strength has been its multi-purpose, ‘everything to all people’ abilities. It has always done the job, regardless of what that job was.
And can I talk about visibility? Good grief, if you want a reminder of the price we’ve paid for better crash structures in modern cars, sit in a Mk1 Golf and revel in the light and the view out.
The spindly pillars barely seem structural enough to hold the glasshouse together, which does keep the mind focused when considering ‘if I get this wrong’ corners, but it also makes your view of the world and everyone else in it so much clearer. It reminds me of why, once upon a time, we didn’t need parking sensors.
So there you have it: the Volkswagen Golf at 50 years old. We didn’t give in to the temptation of sampling a classic GTI, because this felt like it should be a celebration of the everyday car.
The fact that it’s sold more than 37 million examples in 70 countries is a testament to its enduring popularity.
We use the phrase ‘classless’ perhaps a bit too much, but here it really does apply. VW’s family favourite is classless in the best possible way, and that has always been something it does better than any of the cars against which it has competed. In the words of VW boss Thomas Schäfer: “In a Golf, everyone is well dressed.”
Whatever you were wearing, you’ve probably been in a Golf, or even owned a Golf or two or three. You probably have a Golf anecdote, as well. I hope you do, because mine have all been memorable, to say the least.
So here’s to you: the Golf owners and admirers, the fan club guys and girls, the festival-goers, the track-day racers, the modifiers, the restorers, the car-booters, the school-run warriors, the commuters and the collectors.
Here’s to the ones who’ve made memories in Golfs, from the mundane to the remarkable. And here’s to the car that helped to make those memories. The classless, iconic, ultimate all-rounder, and still going strong after 50 years.
It probably wouldn’t be overstating it to say the Golf has embodied societal change over the years, as well as technical progress, but it would be a bit more straightforward to just say it’s a bloody great car.
Always has been and always will be. We wish it a very happy birthday.