The ultra-rare Rallye Golf never officially reached the US, and its last champion was gone: VW of America's own vice-president, who pushed for it, died in Dec 1988 aboard the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie bombing.
Median 63 hp across 191 similar cars
Lead trim: GTI/Golf GT · 3-spd auto · up to 134 hp
Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Volkswagen Golf/GTI yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactThe ultra-rare Rallye Golf never officially reached the US, and its last champion was gone: VW of America's own vice-president, who pushed for it, died in Dec 1988 aboard the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie bombing.
Built 1983–1992; the EPA lists it from the 1985 model year.
Real Volkswagen Golf/GTI cards spotted on the street by Burbles collectors. Tap any card to flip it over, inspect the collector’s binder, or follow them.
VerifiedFIRST · WORLDWIDEFIRST PRINTPRO2024 was the last year you could get a manual Golf GTI in North America. VW marked the occasion with a send-off special edition, the GTI 380, before switching to DSG-only.
11 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base · 3-spd auto · 1.8L | 1985–1992 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | FWD | Automatic 3-spd | — |
| Base · 5-spd manual · 1.6L | 1985–1985 | 1.6 L Inline-4 | 74 hp | 92 lb-ft | — | FWD | Manual 5-spd | — |
| Base · 5-spd manual · 1.8L | 1985–1992 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | FWD | Manual 5-spd | — |
| GTI 16v · 1.8L | 1987–1989 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | 123 hp | 120 lb-ft | — | FWD | Manual 5-spd | — |
| GTI 16v · 2.0L | 1990–1992 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 134 hp | 133 lb-ft | — | FWD | Manual 5-spd | — |
| GTI · 5-spd manual · 1.8L | 1986–1986 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | 100 hp | 105 lb-ft | — | FWD | Manual 5-spd | — |
| GTI/Golf GT · 3-spd auto | 1987–1987 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | 100 hp | 105 lb-ft | — | FWD | Automatic 3-spd | — |
| GTI/Golf GT · 5-spd manual | 1987–1987 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | 100 hp | 105 lb-ft | — | FWD | Manual 5-spd | — |
| Golf · 3-spd auto · 1.8L | 1986–1989 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | FWD | Automatic 3-spd | — |
| Golf · 5-spd manual · 1.6L | 1986–1989 | 1.6 L Inline-4 | 74 hp | 92 lb-ft | — | FWD | Manual 5-spd | — |
| Golf · 5-spd manual · 1.8L | 1986–2018 | 1.8 L 4-cyl | — | — | — | FWD | Manual 5-spd | — |
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Nobody has claimed one yet.
2024 was the last year you could get a manual Golf GTI in North America. VW marked the occasion with a send-off special edition, the GTI 380, before switching to DSG-only.
The Mk7 Golf became the first European car to ever win the Car of the Year Japan award — a country famously picky about its own cars finally gave in.
VW pitched the Mk6 as mostly a refined facelift of the Mk5, not an all-new car — and it still won 2009 World Car of the Year.
The Mk5 Golf GTI's optional DSG dual-clutch gearbox could swap gears in just 8 milliseconds — quicker than a human blink.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's old 1999 Golf resold for $13,000 after he became Pope — then flipped again on eBay for roughly $244,000 to an online casino.
The Mk3 Golf was meant to build on a Sarajevo factory tradition — but the Yugoslav War broke out as the car launched and destroyed the plant.
North American Mk2 GTI 16Vs ended up with a bigger 2.0-litre engine than European hot-hatch buyers ever got — that displacement was reserved for the Passat and Corrado everywhere else.
The ultra-rare Rallye Golf never officially reached the US, and its last champion was gone: VW of America's own vice-president, who pushed for it, died in Dec 1988 aboard the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie bombing.
Volkswagen initially expected to sell only around 5,000 GTIs and built the car largely as an engineering side project before demand forced it into full production.
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
Japan was a minor market for the Swift: when it passed 2 million sales in 2011, about 39% were in India and 27% in Europe, against roughly 15% at home.
To adapt the Horizon for America, Chrysler bought nearly 100 Volkswagen Rabbits purely to reverse engineer them.
The Mk3 Focus RS's AWD system could send 100 percent of engine power to the rear wheels alone — built not in Ford's home country, but at the Saarlouis plant in Germany.
In June 2003, a Mégane II became the subject of the first ever live televised crash test with a real human driver at the wheel instead of a dummy — filmed by Top Gear.
This Wagon R redesigned its rear doors specifically to kill off the D-pillar — bigger doors with built-in quarter glass solved what earlier generations needed a whole extra pillar for.
The BX was the UK's best-selling diesel car for four years from 1987, and 2,315,739 were built in all.
Six months before Suzuki retired the Fronte name for good, the CN11S's 796cc version was already being built in China under a completely different name: the Anchi 6330.
Built to use up Chrysler-Simca's parts bin, it took its engine and gearbox straight from the front-wheel-drive Simca 1100 but mounted them amidships instead.