1990 VW Golf - Golf II Country

One of only 7,735 Golf Countrys built

Extensively recommissioned by a Volkswagen dealer in 2019

Appears to be in superbly preserved condition

Believed to have covered an original 118,400 kilometres

By the end of the 1980s, Volkswagen was looking for new niches. The Golf II had long since become a bestseller, sensible and dependable, but at a time when off-roaders were slowly shedding their rather utilitarian image, VW wanted a slice of the adventure market as well. The result, in 1990, was the Golf Country – a Golf for the rough stuff. Or at least one that looked the part.

Mechanically, it was based on the four-wheel-drive Golf Syncro, but at Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Graz it received the full expedition outfit: 18 centimetres of ground clearance, protective bars front and rear, a steel sump guard, an externally mounted spare wheel and chunky tyres. An SUV long before the term became part of everyday vocabulary.

Under the bonnet, the 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine went about its business with a sober 98 bhp – hardly a powerhouse, but dependable enough to tackle dirt tracks and motorway journeys with equal composure. Inside, it remained a Golf: clear, functional and short on theatrics. The adventure happened on the outside – rather wilder in appearance than it ever was to drive.

Just under 7,700 examples were built between 1990 and 1991, a small production run that never really found a mass market: too expensive, too specialised – and a good decade ahead of the SUV boom.

Today, the Golf Country is regarded as something of a curiosity: a Wolfsburg product with off-road pretensions, built in Austria, and a likeable chapter from an era when Volkswagen still dared to try something slightly mad. Many of those 7,700 cars have not survived the past 35 years. Hardly surprising. Weather, rust and, quite often, their owners took their toll on these supposed do-it-all machines. Precisely because they were workhorses, few were treated with much tenderness. It is therefore no surprise that our consignor had to travel as far as Slovenia to find a genuinely good example.

In 2019, this Country was comprehensively refreshed by an official Volkswagen dealer. The engine received a major service, the gearbox was resealed, a new catalytic converter was fitted, the brakes were renewed, the original wheels restored, the interior refurbished and the car protected with wax. The dealership itself confirmed that the 111,000 kilometres then showing on the odometer were unquestionably genuine.

Having covered only another 7,000 kilometres since, it presents today as a wonderful Golf Country – a piece of Volkswagen history that has become a rare sight indeed in the wild.