The year is 1989 and VW finally decides to swing for the fences and unveil a reasonably capable off-roader in the shape of the Golf Country, as opposed to continuing to rely exclusively on all-wheel drive variants of the regular model.
Dubbed Golf Country Syncro (after their Syncro all-wheel drive system), this compact off-roader featured a bunch of unique exterior mods, such as tubular front and rear bumpers, swing-out tire carrier, skid plates, flared fenders and a raised suspension. Unfortunately, it was way ahead of its time.
VW only built a total of 7,735 units, for a production run of roughly two years, meaning demand wasn’t exactly sky high. Still, if you liked that model and you’re curious to see what the current 8th-generation Golf would look like in a hypothetical Country spec, these independently made renderings from Kolesa do the trick quite well.
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Our first thought is that this modern digital representation doesn’t look as utilitarian as the real thing. For starters, the latter had a bit of a bull bar going on at the front, covering not just the bumper, but the headlights too. Meanwhile, its fender plastics were noticeably thicker than what you get on the render.
Then there’s the ‘Country’ decal, which is also absent from the rendering. Otherwise, we’d be all for VW coming up with a beefier, higher-riding Golf Mk8, something that would be more off road-capable than the Alltrack.
The original Golf Country was powered by a 98 HP (99 PS) 1.8-liter naturally aspirated gasoline engine, which did the job just fine by 1990 standards. Today however, such a vehicle would need more grunt, such as via the carmaker’s 1.5-liter TSI and 2.0-liter TDI units, both putting down 148 HP (150 PS).
Note: This is an independently made illustration by Kolesa that is in no way endorsed by or related to Volkswagen
