After 31 years and 517,384 Golf Mk1’s and Citi Golfs assembled at Volkswagen’s South African plant in Uitenhage, the German automaker has decided that it’s time to end production of the first-generation Golf that was sold in North America as the Rabbit. The Uitenhage site was the only Volkswagen factory in the world to have continued building the original Golf Mk1 designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro that debuted in 1978 up until today, even after the presentation of five more generations of the model.
To bid farewell to the car, Volkswagen’s South African division presented the last run of 1,000 Mk1 Golf’s ever to be produced in the world.
Dubbed Citi Mk1, the special edition Golfs will only be available in two colors, Black and Shadow Blue metallic and are fitted with 15-inch gunmetal painted alloy wheels, dark taillights, GT style stripes under the doors, chrome tail pipe, twin headlamps and chrome grille surround.
Inside, the Citi Mk1, which features a different and more modern cockpit design that the original car, gets sport seats partially covered in leather, a retrotastic golf ball gear knob, leather steering wheel, red stitching throughout the interior, specific floor mats and an individual number embossed on the dashboard.
All cars will be equipped with a 1.6-liter engine that delivers an output of 99HP / 74kW at 5,400rpm.
Available exclusively in South Africa (just so you don’t get any ideas…), the last 1,000 Citi Mk1 are priced at R 113,500 which comes to around US$ 15,500 or €10,300 at today’s exchange rates.
