If there's anything to be said about the mk8 golf in general, dropping from 2nd best selling car in the UK in the late mk7 (2019) to 8th in 2022 and so far not in the top 10 at all for 2023.
A polarising exterior aesthetic and hostile interior from its traditionally ergonomic and simple interiors are to blame.
I still maintain if VW re-released the mk5 with a few updates to the interior and standard specification it would sell like mad.
Nah, hatches have just gone out of fashion.
The mk8’s looks are a bit… err, acquired but the mk8 interiors are most definitely given a bad press. They’re absolutely nowhere near as bad as people make out and in fact are in no way worse than a mk5.
The mk5 had as a whole car an air of solidity about it but no current car is made like that nowadays as it would weigh far too much with all the necessary tech and emissions gear. The mk5 interior was far from plush, shove your elbow into the middle of a mk5 door trim and it bends as much as a mk7/8 or whichever, many of the mk5 plastics are quite hard and the dash was a massive step down from the mk4.
The mk7 interior is overrated and the mk8 interior underrated (which isn’t saying much in the latter’s case!).
The Focus used to top the sales charts for years long before the Golf scraped much more than a bare top 10 spot, closely followed by the Fiesta. Where are any of these cars now? Out of fashion. On their way out or gone. None of them turned into bad cars, it’s just that people got brainwashed into something else.
