Volkswagen Golf Mk1

The Volkswagen Golf Mk1 is the first generation of the Golf, a small family car, and the successor to the Beetle. It marked Volkswagen's shift of its major car lines from rear-wheel drive and rear-mounted air-cooled engines to front-wheel drive with front-mounted, water-cooled and often transversely mounted engines. It debuted in Europe in May 1974 with styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign, and was sold as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada and as the Caribe in Mexico. The Golf used an efficient two-box layout with a steep hatchback rather than a formal trunk. A diesel Golf first appeared in September 1976, an unusual choice for a compact car in Germany at the time, and the Mk2 replaced the Mk1 in most markets in September 1983 and in the UK in March 1984.