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Currently, 4th generation Golfs come off production lines at Wolfsburg (W) and Mosel (P) in Germany, Puebla (M) in Mexico, Uitenhage (U) in South Africa, Bratislava (D) in Slovakia and Curitiba (4) in Brazil. The letter in brackets is the last figure before the serial number in the total VIN. Of course, 1st generation Golfs are still made in at Uitenhage (U) in South Africa. In early 1998 a batch of RHD 3rd generation Golfs were exported to Britain from South Africa while the Wolfsburg factory was flat out producing the first of the 4th generation Golfs. Since then more 4th generation RHD Golfs from South Africa have been sold in Britain. Here in Australia our 4th generation RHD Golfs have come from Wolfsburg (W), Mosel (P) and Uitenhage (U). I understand that all US-market Golfs currently come from Puebla (M). On one visit to the Wolfsburg factory during early 1973 I watched an assortment of Type3s comming along the assembly line built to a wide variety of destination specifications but sometimes in very small batches. There might have been ten fastbacks for Germany followed by five squarebacks for the USA followed by one fastback for France, ten squarebacks and a fastback for Britain and then two notchbacks for Switzerland and then back to some more US models. I asked how this was possible, bearing in mind all the different wiring looms, safety standards, traffic regulations, colours, M-options, etc. and was told the central computer arranged for all the correct parts to arrive in the right order at the right moment for the assembly line workers to just pick them up from the bin or rack and install them. This amazed me. I asked about mistakes being made such as US-specs installed in a right hand steering car. I was told such mistakes do not occur! He said that as many of the workers were Italians and could not read German the factory depended on the computer to get it right. The next day, I found the same thing was happening at the Transporter factory in Hanover. During 1974 at VW's Salzgitter factory they were assembling VW Type4s, Audi 100s and VW K70s all on the same line and sometimes in batches of only one! I imagine that today, nearly thirty years later, the process is even more refined in terms of being able to accept a myriad of variations. Simon Glen Toowoomba, Australia. Dave Hall wrote: > > Starting in '99, Golfs for the UK market (and probably others RHD markets > > as well) are made (or maybe CKD assembled) in South Africa, as this frees > > up valuable production room for LHD models in Germany and Belgium. > > Wow, I will check out any car (VW of course) I look at in the future to see > its origins. The last figure before the serial number must be a 'W' for > Wolfsburg. > > In '97 there were RHD and LHD coming off the same lines at Wolfsburg. I > think back in Type 3 times they did batch the cars though. A few years ago > I had 3 '71 RHD Variants in the drive, made on successive days in week 18. > It's unlikely to have been a coincidence. Week 43 seems another popular RHD > session. Anyone out there got a body plate that says 18-x-xxxx ? RHD or > LHD and what model year? > > Dave. > UK VW Type 3 & 4 Club ------------------------------------------------------------------- List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list or mailto:help@vwtype3.org