VOLKSWAGEN gulf

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Facts

The VOLKSWAGEN gulf is the turnover-strongest model of the Volkswagen company and contributes considerably to the success of Volkswagen. At the time of its introduction it meant the rescue of the financially strongly fastened Volkswagen company. In addition trade wind began the separation of the tail engine with air cooling by the water-cooled front engine with it and scarcely before the imported VOLKSWAGEN. In Europe the gulf is the usually-sold model and applies altogether beside Toyota the Corolla as the usually-sold motor vehicle. The gulf overhauled in June 2002 Volkswagen-internally up to then also the VOLKSWAGEN beetle prominent over 21 million vehicles. In Germany the VOLKSWAGEN gulf is since 1975 the usually-sold car - interrupted only by the year 1980, in which Mercedes W 123 lay scarcely in front. However the then fire-new VOLKSWAGEN Jetta was on place 5 of the permission statistics.

Platform concept

Major item: Platform concept

The platform concept of the gulf series permits at small change expenditure the combination a body and an engine of almost arbitrary years of construction and remarks with one another. Like that a G60-Motor from the gulf II is installationable also in the gulf I and in the gulf III. Many models of the Volkswagen program divide same oh-steep.

With introduction gulf of the IV was used the understructure in such a way specified PQ 34 also in the "Škoda Octavia, AUDI TT, AUDI A3, Seat and in the VOLKSWAGEN new Beetle. That leads to a high portion of resembling hurrying, which are present in all company parallel models and equipment variants.

Design

The Design gulf was and is selected according to statements of the company rather conservatively as fashionable or designerisch playful, in order not to endanger the paragraph. The gulf I was sketched by the Italian designer Giugiaro. Later the company Volkswagen Design team continued to update this origin form, without getting thereby off the salient origin draft completely. A typical style characteristic is those relatively broad and thus working C-column. The dimensions increased the size of the models gulf I and gulf II with each model and become today (conditions: 2004) already of the VOLKSWAGEN Polo reach. The names of the models gulf, Polo, its current special model Cricket as well as the commercial motor vehicle Caddy result from the purchase to British kinds of sport, which have to do all with small balls. The gulf is offered and/or in different Karosserievarianten, and/or supplies the platform for related models:

• 3 - and steep tail sedan gulf
• notchback sedan Jetta on basis gulf of the I, II and V, and/or Vento (gulf III) and Bora (gulf IV)
• combination gulf Variant (gulf III and IV) and/or Bora Variant
• Gulf Cabriolet (openly with material-cover, gulf I, gulf III)
• Gulf plus (Kompaktvan on basis gulf of the V)
• Gulf Caddy and/or VOLKSWAGEN Caddy (Kastenwagen/PickUp on basis gulf of the I and gulf V, 1995-2003 on basis of the Seat Inca/Cordoba)
• Gulf Country (SUV with all-wheel drive on basis gulf of the II, actually "“more highly"” a gulf Syncro with jeep accessories)

Criticism

The gulf is criticized like many vehicles of the Volkswagen company because of its high prices and the extensive surcharge list.

The first gulf generation did not rust partly fast, among other things construction dependently, by wrongly sitting or existing drain holes and particularly because of unsatisfactory cavity preservation and partly processing of the body. Thus became occasionally the front jacking equipment reinforcement in smolder-learn simply omitted, what led on use of the original jacking equipment fast to bending the sheet metal and to breaking priming and preservation and therefore to fast corrosion, also the cavity between floor plate and front cross beam (antlers) the first gulf and Scirocco with polyurethan-foam one out-foamed and one put into the A-columns of the Scirocco small which proved as water reservoirs. The fact that the rust problem had its cause in the use of schwefelhaltigen steel from the Eastern Bloc may be rated confidently as gladly stated since vehicles from there production of those years of construction are not affected in this measure by among other things particularly since deep-drawing was there strictly rationed goods in short supply. Fact is the fact that the material in those years, under which "“steel crisis"” exhibited a very high scrap iron portion and one did not take it so exactly at that time with the material separation yet and scrap iron cars with wiring harnesses schredderte and melted, which led to a rust-promoting increased copper portion. There were secret work buy-back actions, when models of the late seventies-years partly exhibited dangerous Durchrostungen at the floor plates after less than three years. However VOLKSWAGEN improved the Korrosionschutz strongly with appearance gulf of the II, which is to be found even today usually stainless. Since the introduction gulf IV also full-galvanized sheet metals is rust no more topic.

The broad C-column and the small mirrors of the 1er and first 2er-Modelle are criticized as safety-relevant disadvantages. The external Design remained faithful since the gulf III of the typical gulf form. With the gulf V the used plastic material is inferior in the interior from the appearance than with the predecessor model. Starting from model year 2006 (built starting from in the middle of 2005) the materials in the interior were improved.

VOLKSWAGEN failed to at the beginning of the 1990er years with the introduction VOLKSWAGEN gulf Ecomatic, which was not accepted by the consumer. For the first time the engine automatic shut-off in connection with the manual half mechanism (no clutch, however Handschaltung), imported thereby, led to a habituation-needy handling (when each gas taking away the engine was switched off, with the acceleration again turned on). Average consumption was however pointing the way with 4,4l Diesel on 100 km. Whole 2,000 copies were sold by the Ecomatic gulf.

The variants gulf with notchback (= classical trunk lid, VOLKSWAGEN Jetta, VOLKSWAGEN Vento, VOLKSWAGEN Bora) work still more conservatively than the gulf, have however the advantage of a more favorable damage class classification in the Kfz liability insurance. These model variants are particularly in the USA much like, where also the name VOLKSWAGEN Jetta was not changed.

1990 remained unsuccessful the attempt to establish promptly a form of the Crossovermodells in such a way specified (e.g. VOLKSWAGEN Polo Fun), liked today. The gulf II Country with all-wheel drive and powerful ramming protection guards at front and tail as well as outside attached spare wheel became - also because of its purchase price - to the flop, only 7,735 vehicles came off the line. The Topversion cost already at that time clearly over 50.000 DM.

But 2004 - after the VOLKSWAGEN Touareg - again on an area gulf is worked, the so-called A-SUV (newest name ideas are "“gulf Beduin"” or "“gulf CROSS"”). The designation "“area gulf"” is strictly taken wrong, since this car will have presumably very little together with the gulf V.

Model history

Since 1974 the gulf was brought in now five generations on the market:

• Gulf I (type 17) (1974 to 1983)
• Gulf II (type 19E) (1983 to 1992)
• Gulf III (1991 to 1997)
• Gulf IV (1997 to 2003)
• Gulf V (since 2003)/gulf plus