Volkswagen Golf brochure – 1980

Earlier in the year I posted an old Australian-spec Mini brochure, this time, it is Volkswagen’s turn. After the break you can view a full 24 page brochure on the 1980 UK-spec Mk1 Golf.

As with any car brochure that is around 30 years old there are some selling points highlighted that, today, seem rather quaint. For example, “Anatomically designed front seats padded with a new full-foam material that absorbs and diminishes the effect of bumpy roads.”

Or, let’s not forget the luxury of a heater! “No matter what the temperature outside, you can control it inside with Golf’s three speed blower, mixing heat and ventilation in just the right proportions.”

It’s quite amazing, however, that just a few years after the Mk1 Golf was launched the bold claim of 3 million sales was already being made when this brochure went to print (August 1979).

The brochure includes specs from all the models offered to UK customers at the time, including the all conquering GTI model. Other models presented are the Golf L/LD, Golf LS/GLS and the Golf GLS Auto.

From a design point of view, it is worth observing that these were pre-Photoshop days. In the GTI spread above, for example, the image has been flipped to make the car appear to be a right-hand drive model. Tell tale signs are the placement of the fuel cap and GTI front grille badge which are shown on the opposite sides to where they actually are.

Mind, some poor bloke in pre-press did a pretty good job of cutting out the film of the GTI badge so that the letters at least read the right way. Although, that was too difficult a task to do for the shot of the internal gauges in the lower centre console, as the larger 2000px super image reveals.

Click on each spread to open larger images sizes. Or, if you prefer, you can download the brochure as a PDF (5.8mb).