Yes, it’s true, VW SA has stopped producing the series 1 Golf, better known today as the Citi range, after 31 years of production!

The Last 1

In fact, the last models rolled off the line back in August already, but the company has waited until now to reveal this fact. I guess they wanted a suitable in-house mourning period or something.

Now no matter what you think of this little car, it is several things. An icon. A legend. An incredible, ongoing sales success. In July of this year, there were still over 1600 takers for this old-tech, safety-light Golf in the local market. More than half-a-million units have found happy homes in that looooooong manufacturing period, which incidentally is more than 200 000 more than the Beetle managed, with just three extra years of production over this rear-engined global benchmark.

I must say I always enjoyed the A1 Golf, from scorchers like the CTi to the humblest, most stripped-out and cheapest-price options. It’s a genuinely, properly sorted little chassis and you can always find some fun in it wherever you happen to be going. With the beefier motors it morphs into the definition of the Pocket Rocket. Interiors and dashboards have evolved a long way over the years as well from the upright, square, and supremely plasticky originals.

The MK I and it's forefathers

VW SA isn’t letting it pass with a whisper, either. Check out www.goodbyeciti.co.za to track the National Farewell Tour or add your own fond memories of this model to “The Cloud”. If you have to have the ultimate incarnation now before new models are gone forever, the company has also made a final special edition. Only 1000 City MK Is have been built, two are staying with VW in museums in Germany and here at home, and the third-last one off the line has been put up on auction at www.bidorbuy.co.za. The auction process still has a week to run so log-in and get bidding now.

It really does look quite special. Available only in dark shades and perfectly offset by chrome GT-stripes along the flanks, chunky 15″ alloys, a lowered ride height and a smattering of unique special-edition badges, the MK I looks set to become a real collector’s item, although it’s actually being sold at a reasonable price. There’s a 74kW 1.6-litre engine under the hood, and a classy part-leather interior with that updated dash I mentioned earlier lifting the ambience beautifully.

So why after all this time kill off your most budget-oriented model at a time when budget cars are the core of your sales efforts? VW SA claim poor economies of scale have finally done the A1 in – they can’t afford to continue a production line which produces only 25 000 units a year, and which shares no platform components with any other model line currently in production. Which is fair enough. I think they’re going to miss those sales though, when their stockpile does dry up early in 2010…

So from us here at Drive, farewell old friend. You always were and always will be a good little car – I’d still have one over competing cheapies from China, even over market-leaders Corsa and the like, if buying in that price range. The old warrior did astonishingly well all things consider, and can bow out with head held high and fond remembrances across our somehow less-colourful land.

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