ONE of the most familiar cars in Europe was singled out as the surprise star of Volkswagen's line-up of new models at the Geneva Motor Show.

Despite launching the compact Touran and king-size Multivan MPV models, chairman Dr Bernd Pischetsrieder hailed the ubiquitous Golf as the highlight of his company's display.

'As far as I am concerned, the highlight of this show is our Golf. This car achieved nearly 800,000 sales last year worldwide – and one of our greatest successes ever was the high-performance R32.

'We thought we might produce only a couple of thousand examples, but this car will exceed our wildest expectations in sales. This makes us very proud, because, after seven years, the Golf is still being rated as a most exciting car,' he said.