A Volkswagen Gol, seen in China’s Hebei Province in December 2019. The good Gol was a tad dusty & dirty but otherwise in a fine shape, painted in silver with the factory wheel covers and black trim on the bumpers and around the windows.
The second generation Volkswagen Gol (G2) was made from 1994 until 2015. It was manufactured in several countries: Argentina, Brazil, China, and Iran. In China, it was made from 2003 until 2008 by the SAIC-Volkswagen joint venture, in both 3-door and 5-door forms. Chinese name was 高尔, Gao’er.
Note the Chairman Mao ornament dangling from the mirror. This is still very common in China. Less so in the big cities, but as soon as you go to smaller towns and the countryside you’ll see this kind of decorations in cars everywhere.
The Volkswagen Gol was positioned below the Volkswagen Polo, which was, and it, also manufactured by SAIC-Volkswagen. Price of the Gol started at a very affordable 75.000 yuan for the base model, with the top-spec model priced at 103.800 yuan.
Power came from a 1.6 liter petrol engine with 87 hp and 128 Nm. The engine was mated to a five-speed manual gearbox, sending horses to the front wheels. This engine remained unchanged for the entire production run (!) and Volkswagen never offered an automatic transmission, which probably hampered sales quite a bit, especially to private buyers. The competition, like the Buick Sail for example, did offer automatic gearboxes.
Still, it proved to be a popular affordable family car, and even today there quite a lot of these around on the roads. It is somewhat odd that Volkswagen decided to discontinue the Gol in 2008. The current Gol (Typ 4U) is not produced in China.
One possible explanation is that the Gol competed too much with the Volkswagen Jetta sedan, which cost about the same as the Gol. The Jetta is made by Volkswagen’s other joint venture; FAW-Volkswagen.
That badge has seen many roads!
The SAIC-Volkswagen Gol. Too bad it’s gone.
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