Going by the number of mk8’s I see around I find it hard to believe it’s the second best seller nowadays unless leases don’t count or if they do then maybe VW have done some cracking deals to fleet buyers but haven’t delivered the huge number ordered yet.
I see very few mk8’s around of any type. Corsas yes, SUV’s yes, Teslas too.
Ok, production, or rather lack of, is going to affect the number of cars registered massively despite early to mid 2021 being a bumper year for dealers. Many sold maybe but not many delivered.
Mid-sized hatchbacks seem to have gone a bit out of fashion in general I think. I hardly see any new Focus (Foci?) models in general let alone ST’s, the latter I don’t recall seeing any. These things used to be everywhere alongside new Golfs.
I do see quite a lot of A Class but not so many very recently registered. 1 series seem quite popular but BMW generally have a quicker order to build turnaround anyway.
Let’s face it, the mk8 is pretty ugly, company car drivers will have mostly gone electric, older comservative Golf owners will be looking at SUV’s (eschewing the interior of the new Golf as too techy), plus the car has a bad name because of said tech being fiddly and unreliable. Not good news really.
The days of cheap lease GTD and R models are gone, plus the tax benefits of electric cars will tempt company buyers and leasers. SUV’s are trendy and it’s much easier to stick a huge battery under the floor than elsewhere so electric SUV’s are easy meat for manufacturers to design and build in huge numbers.
Maybe for us more driver focussed model owners it’s not such bad news. Look at the USA, nobody buys Golfs over there except enthusiasts who want GTI and R’s so that’s all they sell over there now.
Remember VW saying they expected 20% of mk8 Golfs to be R’s? That’s because performance Golf buyers want a specific type of car and normal buyers want other things now. Golf sales will wane and ID’s will rise but there’s not a proper alternative to the petrol hot hatch just yet and being as the chassis and complicated bits of body-shell are long since developed being mk7 based they can afford to build Golfs in lower volumes as development costs are less. The tech is shared with other models and the interior is simpler and cheaper so it doesn’t cost VW a fortune to build a GTD/GTI/R but going by the lack of new members here compared to other generations after launch I doubt the GTI demand is huge. Maybe R’s still sell in much larger volumes. Who knows, as 2030 draws nearer maybe Europe will be more like the USA for Golf sales and we will only be offered performance models for die hard enthusiasts with other models being totally discontinued in favour of BEV’s. We’ll be like those old guys that mourned the passing of the MGB GT’s when the GTI was in its first throws of youth back in the late 70’s and 80’s. The world moves on and VW themselves were architects of the demise of Golfs with Dieselgate.
Still, if the Golf slowly becomes a low volume enthusiast model it might allow the engineers some head on the Ed50 design, unless the Ed45 becomes the Ed50 after the production hold ups, don’t hold your breath lads and lasses
