TDI quietly gone from Dutch price list
Are you looking for a Volkswagen Golf with a diesel engine? Ordering new in the Netherlands is then no longer an option. The two were once seamlessly intertwined, now the Golf is only available in our country with petrol engines.
For more than 40 years, one of the Netherlands’ most popular cars ever, the Volkswagen Golf, was available with a diesel engine. Was, because it’s not like that anymore. At least, not in the Netherlands anymore. Volkswagen has quietly removed the last Golf diesel from the Dutch price lists. With that, an era comes to an end, but we do have a suspicion why the brand itself does not publicize it …
The Volkswagen Golf with diesel engine was still really special when it arrived in the 1970s. After all, the diesel engine did not yet have the image to belong in a compact car that was still in place in urban traffic. The first Golfs with a diesel engine were already nice and cheap to use, but you had to keep your expectations quite low in terms of performance. The first GTDs already tried some more swing but with the arrival of the TDI engines in the 1990s, things really changed.
Volkswagen Golf 1.9 TDI
With a TDI in the nose, the Golf as a diesel was not only economical, but also just fine. Two birds with one stone? Well, even three, because the 1.9 TDI from these early years also got the name of being almost indestructible. That diesel joy therefore seemed to be unstoppable and Volkswagen made it even more colorful in the new century with the return of the GTD. Diesel and sporty driving? Of course. In practice, it usually remained mainly a financial consideration whether or not to go for diesel. For financial reasons, the Golf VI and VII with a diesel engine became extremely popular here. The BlueMotion versions were eligible for a favorable addition rate for several years.
We are talking about the last few years before the TDI was permanently put in a different light by ‘dieselgate’. Since then, sales of the Volkswagen Golf diesel worldwide have collapsed and here in the Netherlands the strict diesel policy was added to that. The current Volkswagen Golf was still introduced in our country with 115 hp and 150 hp 2.0 TDI, but these have now been quietly removed from the price list and from the configurator. This means that the curtain for the Volkswagen Golf with diesel engine now really seems to fall in the Netherlands. If you still want one, you have to go for an occasion or import. In Germany, for example, they even still have the Golf GTD. The current Golf is the last to have fuel engines on board at all. The next Golf will be electric and will be available alongside the ID3, probably only around 2027.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl