Dominating the ’90s small car market for VW was the Mk3 Golf. Having progressed steadily from a lowly economy car built to get the masses on wheels, VW was making quality vehicles that were becoming ever-increasingly desirable options in this era. Though the Golf was a small car, it was no less a good choice for those who wanted a nice car but preferred something a bit smaller.
VW had, for many years, displayed a knack for updating its cars without fundamentally altering them too much. This kept the Golf lines very much in place while upgrading everything around them. This can be seen in the Mk3 inside and out, where the dashboard is once again arranged the same as it had been for years but built with more modern components and updated controls.
The exterior is much the same, with the basic design from 1974 intact while it was updated with more curves and sifter edges all around. Another credit consistent with Golf design is that everything has always been distinctly European, eschewing gaudy chrome and superfluous trim design for straightforward minimalist flourishes.
While VW continued to offer the GTI performance variant, there was another model that provided even more generous performance, the VR6. The engine powering this car is a narrow-angle V6 built in such a small package it fits in the space of a four-cylinder engine with such a narrow V that only one head is required. This bumps output to 172 horsepower, providing a top speed of 140 mph and a zero to 60 time of 7.6 seconds.
