Factory code: Type 155 Cabriolet (A1C)
“Sun, moon and convertible” was the advertising slogan when the open-top version of the Golf I was launched in 1979. A particularly distinctive feature was the fixed bar above the B-pillar. This elaborate construction was a response to the safety debate of the 1970s. The bar provided an ideal deflection point for the front seat belts and guided the side windows safely and quietly.
The joint development by Volkswagen and Karmann went into production in Osnabrück on 14 February 1979 and was the legitimate successor to the famous VW Beetle Cabriolet right from the start. Like its predecessor, the open-top Golf also had four seats and had big shoes to fill – but it did so shortly after its presentation, as the sales figures prove. A total of 392,000 units of the VW Golf I Cabriolet were built.
Its engines made Beetle Cabriolet drivers green with envy, as two powerful petrol engines were available right from the start of production: a 1.5-litre engine with 51 kW (70 PS) in the GL version (also available with automatic transmission) – and, in the GLI version for particularly dynamic drivers, the 1.6-litre engine with 81 kW (110 PS) familiar from the GTI.
