Volkswagen, in Wolfsburg, produced the world's 23 millionth Golf on Friday (27/8/04). The Golf, therefore, to be the most successful car in the world.

"The Golf is Europe's most popular car. In the first six months of this year, the Golf again took the lead in West European new passenger car registrations”, underlined Dr. Folker Weißgerber at the ceremony on Friday.

According to the Wolfsburg Plant Manager Dietmar Korzekwa, "our employees work with great dedication and commitment to manufacture products of this high quality.” The 23 millionth Golf is an 85 kW, 1.6 l  FSI Comfortline in redspice metallic.

Volkswagen now builds the model at eight factories in Wolfsburg, Mosel, Brussels, Bratislava, Sarajevo/Bosnia & Herzegovina, Uitenhage/South Africa, Changchun/China and Curitiba/Brazil.

The Golf success story began in 1974. In 2002, Golf production figures overtook those of the Beetle, setting a new record for Volkswagen. Production of the current fifth-generation Golf began in October 2003.

Last year, Europe's leading car maker delivered a total of 672,000 Golf models to customers worldwide. 355,000 Golf vehicles were delivered to customers in the first six months of 2004. Key markets in Europe include Germany, the UK, France and Italy. Major markets for the Golf outside Europe are the USA, Japan and South Africa.

This 5th generation model Volkswagen Golf went on sale in Australia this month.