World premiere of the new Golf in Berlin
Seventh generation of bestseller is up to 100 kg lighter and 23 per cent more fuel efficient than previous modelThousands of invited guests experienced the world premiere of the new Golf this evening in Berlin. The New National Gallery proved a fitting venue for the perfected seventh generation of the car that has defined an entire vehicle class with regard to vehicle weight, emissions, comfort and safety.
'Six generations of the Golf – 1974 to 2012. That represents 38 years of continuous success for the world bestseller with sales totalling 29.13 million cars. It has also made a tremendous economic impact, safeguarding jobs, and has served as an influential measure of technical progress over the epochs,' says Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG. The corporate chief continues: 'We want to continue this success story in the seventh generation Golf. Although the new Golf is safer, more comfortable and spacious than the previous model, it is up to 100 kg lighter and – in the case of the new 140 PS petrol engine that features cylinder deactivation and a combined fuel consumption of just 4.8 l / 100 km – it is up to 23 per cent more fuel efficient.'
![2013 Volkswagen Golf](images/Volkswagen/2013-Volkswagen-Golf-Sedan-Image-01-800.jpg)
Volkswagen launches Golf campaign in 33 countries
• First three-phase advertising campaign• Initial stage focuses on the search for the 'most important' things in life
• Online platform www.onething.com encourages users to reflect and share
![2013 Volkswagen Golf](images/Volkswagen/2013-Volkswagen-Golf-Sedan-Image-02-800.jpg)
'Future is about engagement: great cars, great products, great image are the base for the foundation of a strong brand', explains Giovanni Perosino, Head of Volkswagen Marketing Communications. 'To reinforce the image of Volkswagen we are trying to create ads that touch people´s hearts with authentic, human, appealing and clear messages', continues Perosino.
To stimulate the enthusiasm and interest of the target group, Volkswagen is asking all users of the new Golf online platform personal questions designed to encourage reflection: 'If you could only listen to ONE SONG for the rest of your life, which one would it be?' and 'If you could choose only ONE PLACE to live for the rest of your life, which one would it be?' are just two of a total seven questions that visitors to the website can answer.
All onething.com users can create their own profile and share their answers with their friends via the Facebook, Twitter and Google+ social networks. Promotional games and a personalized film which presents the answers in road movie style bring additional value. There are also statistics to illustrate the broad range of answers and highlight country-specific characteristics.
Furthermore, Volkswagen has been fortunate enough to win the support of several well-known personalities to publicize the campaign on their own online social channels. VIPs such as DJ Paul van Dyk and professional skateboarder Tony Hawk have created their own profiles on onething.de.
International artists also agreed to talk about the most important things in life in the first-phase TV commercial entitled 'ONETHING.' The commercial is directed by England's Brett Foraker, whose credentials include Creative Director at Britain's Channel 4.
The second phase of the new Golf campaign will follow at the end of October. DDB and Grabarz & Partner share the budget for the advertising campaign.Source - Volkswagen
The new Golf. Design – the key to perfection
![2013 Volkswagen Golf](images/Volkswagen/2013-Volkswagen-Golf-Sedan-Image-03-800.jpg)
• Golf exterior one of the world's most recognisable product designs
![2013 Volkswagen Golf](images/Volkswagen/2013-Volkswagen-Golf-Sedan-Image-04-800.jpg)
• Seventh stage of Golf evolution shows clearly added dynamism and precision
Golf reflects par excellence the principles of Volkswagen's design DNA
![2013 Volkswagen Golf](images/Volkswagen/2013-Volkswagen-Golf-Sedan-Image-05-800.jpg)
Wolfsburg / Berlin, 04 September 2012
There is but a handful of cars with a design that, like the Golf's, has been constantly refined, tweaked and enhanced down the decades and has thus become timeless. In this process the Volkswagen designers repeatedly gave a new edge to the Golf's product features. These include the typical C-pillars, the long roofline and the characteristic front and rear sections. These details also make the new Golf more special, more valuable and more durable than any other compact car.
There is but a handful of cars with a design that, like the Golf's, has been constantly refined, tweaked and enhanced down the decades and has thus become timeless. In this process the Volkswagen designers repeatedly gave a new edge to the Golf's product features. These include the typical C-pillars, the long roofline and the characteristic front and rear sections. These details also make the new Golf more special, more valuable and more durable than any other compact car.
![2013 Volkswagen Golf](images/Volkswagen/2013-Volkswagen-Golf-Sedan-Image-06-800.jpg)
In developing the new Golf the teams led by head designers Walter de Silva (Group) and Klaus Bischoff (Brand) based their work on the one hand on a great deal of creative freedom that allows many different approaches for a new design, while on the other also on the principles of the Volkswagen design DNA. A look at this DNA reveals the key to the new Golf's design.
Development of the DNA. Over recent years, the Volkswagen designers have crystallised a selection of core elements from the brand's history, which they term its 'historic DNA'. All current Volkswagen designs correspond to this DNA, with the cars therefore conveying a modern, progressive impression, which nevertheless – and this is the key – feels familiar. This DNA includes elements such as the first Golf's roofline, side windows and radiator grille crossbeam in its reduced form and the Golf Mk4's typical C-pillars and wheel arches.
This DNA creates a unique, unmistakable language of product features and design. The language of product features leaves on the one hand a familiar feeling and yet on the other a new sensation in the eyes of the observer. The features are visual characteristics such as functionality, robustness, honesty and reliability. These characteristics are generated by a language of form perfected over many years. It creates the typical Volkswagen product design that today enjoys success around the globe.
Premium proportions. 'This language of form,' explains Bischoff, 'is logical, solid, product-focussed, pure and precise and reflects the brand's design DNA as a perfect model of creativity. The base architecture of the new Golf is therefore unmistakable. It comes over as simple, strong, understandable, reliable and safe. Starting from the pure element of this clear base architecture, details such as the economical use and placement of sculptural lines are more like fine nuances. Another extremely important point is the fact that with the seventh generation the Golf's proportions have completely changed, making the car look more premium-class than ever before!'
Marc Lichte, leading designer for the exterior, explains: 'The proportions have changed, as we have taken advantage here of the Modular Transverse Matrix. The front wheels, for example, have moved 43 millimetres further forward. The front overhang is therefore shorter and at the same time the bonnet looks longer.' Klaus Bischoff confirms this: 'Visually, the passenger compartment has moved towards the rear, creating what is called a 'car-backward' impression. That's what we call the proportions of premium-class vehicles, on which the bonnet is long and the passenger compartment a long way towards the back. On the new Golf we thus have proportions that you otherwise only get in higher-class segments of the market.'
Silhouette with powerful lines. Marc Lichte: 'And we sought to underline these modified proportions with design elements. Below the door handles we have integrated the now clearly visible and very sharp character line. While this line is broken by the wheel arches, it is otherwise continuous and is stylistically reflected in the chrome bars of the radiator grille and headlights and at the back in the white lateral bars of the rear light clusters. Set deep down all the way around, this line lowers the apparent centre of gravity and makes the car appear more solid on the road. Another striking element is the new line along the side shoulder directly below the windows. This line begins at the front in the headlight, then glides under the wing mirror, which is positioned right on the line, all the way through to the rear side window, underling the premium proportions of the new Golf.' The wheel arches are particularly prominent as well and along with the wider track, the longer wheelbase and tyre dimensions of up to 18 inches make the Golf appear more powerful.
![2013 Volkswagen Golf](images/Volkswagen/2013-Volkswagen-Golf-Sedan-Image-07-800.jpg)
The front section. The Volkswagen design DNA manifests itself in a 'face' that has appealing features. In addition, in the same way as on the first Golf, it defines horizontally balanced elements that create a certain width. Together they produce a front section that is recognisable in every rear view window as that of a Volkswagen. Each Volkswagen class has its own character attributes in this respect. In the Golf class these include, for example, the slightly upward sweeping headlights and a defined maximum height for the radiator grille.
Compared to its predecessor, the new Golf displays completely restructured modulation of its surfaces. While on the Golf Mk6 the wings were higher than the bonnet – effectively framing it – this is now the other way round. On the sides the crease lines form the wings' lowest points, before the latter transfer vertically into the wheel arches. The top border of the wings is formed by a line, as if cut by a knife, that begins at the A-pillars. All of the lines together form a V-shaped bonnet.
Beneath the bonnet then come the redesigned headlights and the comparatively narrow band of the radiator grille. At the bottom the radiator grille is bordered – to the left and right of the chrome Volkswagen badge – by a chrome bar, which where xenon headlights are fitted is continued in the headlight housing. Particularly striking is the xenon headlight's LED daytime running light. Meanwhile the bottom air inlet, in conjunction with the body-coloured area beneath the headlights, supports the strong horizontal arrangement of the front section design. The air inlet is now framed by a body-coloured area that even with the car's very self-assured look gives it the typical Volkswagen smile. Another core design element is the bend at the outer ends of the bumper, which produces – especially in aerial view – a change of shape.
The rear view. Typical Golf elements at the rear include the clear geometry of the rear lights, the rear window stretching all the way to the C-pillars and the large homogenous surface around the Volkswagen badge. Iconic: even without the badge or model name the seventh generation of this best-seller is instantly recognisable as a Golf. And yet every line is new. That applies both to the rear light clusters (with striking L-shaped contours, narrower on the inside and ending at the C-pillar on the outside) and to the tailgate, which reaches much lower down, and the lowest boot sill height in its class (665mm). A horizontal light-refracting edge near the bottom of the tailgate, which continues on the bumper, and the boot sill running parallel below this underline the sportily full width of the new Golf. These elements also correspond to the lines of the now much more pronounced and optically 'extended' bumper. The bumper itself is fully painted right down to the bottom, with only the centrally integrated diffuser, which also incorporates the exhaust pipe, kept black.Source - Volkswagen
The new Golf. Lightweight design – searching for every gram
![2013 Volkswagen Golf](images/Volkswagen/2013-Volkswagen-Golf-Sedan-Image-03-800.jpg)
• kg less weight reduces fuel consumption appreciably • Body-in-white weighs 23 kg less thanks to progressive design • Innovative manufacturing methods reduce weight and enhance safetyWolfsburg / Berlin, 04 September 2012
Saving up to 100 kg in weight is a complex task, especially in the compact class. The fact is that not every carmaker is pursuing the route of lightweight design – searching for every last gram – as methodically or thoroughly as Volkswagen. The reason is clear: intensive research and development work costs money. The fact that despite its higher specification the base price of the seventh generation Golf has not gone up by a single cent is a reflection of the innovative power of this brand.Overall vehicle – how savings add up to 100 kg
![2013 Volkswagen Golf](images/Volkswagen/2013-Volkswagen-Golf-Sedan-Image-04-800.jpg)
If you divide the Golf up into the primary areas of electrical equipment, engines, running gear and superstructure, an analysis yields - depending on model, specification and type of engine - the following split for the weight reduction:Úp to -6.0 kg = Electrical
Úp to -40.0 kg = Engines
Úp to -26.0 kg = Running gear
Úp to -37.0 kg = SuperstructureIn purely mathematical terms the total potential saving is thus even as much as 109 kilograms. Due, however, to the configuration options that can be implemented in practice, the maximum achieved in any one vehicle is 100 kg. The greatest weight reduction is achieved from the engines and superstructure. It is particularly interesting to look into the details of the superstructure (car body and interior) and the 37 kilograms saved here, as it shows how lightweight design that is compatible with large-scale production can be achieved in 2012.Superstructure – how savings add up to 37 kg
-0.4 kg = Dashboard
-1.4 kg = Module cross-member (beneath dashboard)
-2.7 kg = Air conditioning
-7.0 kg = Front and rear seats (depending on version)
-23.0 kg = Body
-2.5 kg = Miscellaneous
-1.4 kg = Module cross-member (beneath dashboard)
-2.7 kg = Air conditioning
-7.0 kg = Front and rear seats (depending on version)
-23.0 kg = Body
-2.5 kg = Miscellaneous
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