Volkswagen Golf

The Volkswagen Golf has been one of the most popular models of car on sale in the UK for many years. It’s been available as a three- or five-door hatchback, an estate and even a convertible dubbed the VW Golf Cabriolet. In fact, purists saddle the Volkswagen Golf GTI – the performance version – as being the car that started the ‘hot hatch’ craze and is still extremely popular today.

Now in its seventh generation, the Golf still has a GTI model in its line-up, but its performance is milder and the VW Golf R has taken the top spot when it comes to outright speed. There’s a diesel version of the GTI too – the Volkswagen Golf GTD offers impressive speed but also low running costs and favourable company car tax bills.

The first model of Golf arrived in 1974 and sold a million units in its first two years of production – an instant hit.