Mzansi’s R1-million Citi Golf – 2025 Motoring Newsmaker No 5

In 2010 R113 500 was enough to buy you a brand-new Volkswagen Citi Golf Mk 1. Today you’ll need a cool R1-million for one as close to new as you can still find.

A 2010 VW Citi Golf Mk 1 LTD made headline this year when it went under the hammer at a Creative Rides auction in Bryanston. A bid of R550 000 was rejected, as it did not meet the reserve price. This was rumoured to be close to a million Rand.

Special Citi Golf

Making this Citi Golf extra special is the fact that it is number three of the last 1 000 to roll off the assembly line at the VW plant in Kariega. Cars No 001 and 002 reside in the VW Museum in Wolfsburg and the Autopavilion in Uitenhage, leaving this one as the only privately available example from the trio.

The introduction of the VW Citi Mk1 in 2009 was a send-off and the closing of the final chapter of the best-ever selling hatchback in South African motoring history at the time. Citi had provided South African motorists with a fun, unique, affordable driving package for 25 years. It had defied all marketing norms and theories of how long a lifecycle of model in a brand can continue.