Mercedes Put the Driver in the Middle of This Family Car for a Surprisingly Sensible Reason

The Golf GTI’s plaid upholstery was created by Volkswagen designer Gunhild Liljequist, who drew inspiration from checked fabrics she admired in Britain. She also suggested the golf-ball gear knob, giving the original GTI two details that became closely associated with the model.

Leather is often the upgrade. In a Golf GTI, choosing cloth can feel like getting the proper version.

The checks have a lot to do with that. They bring some warmth to a cabin that could otherwise become a collection of black surfaces, and they identify the car without needing another badge. For anyone who grew up admiring GTIs, the pattern can be as evocative as the red stripe around the grille.

Its creator came to Volkswagen by an unusual route. Before joining the company’s Fabrics and Colors department in 1964, Gunhild Liljequist had worked in porcelain painting and chocolate-box design. She brought experience of colour, pattern and presentation to a business where the mechanical parts tend to receive most of the attention.

For the original GTI, her task was to help make the interior feel sporting. Black made sense, but she wanted colour and a sense of quality too. Checked fabrics she had admired on trips to Britain provided the inspiration. 

It was a good choice for this particular car. The GTI still needed to look like something an owner could drive to work, carry shopping in and leave outside the house. The upholstery gave it character without making the cabin resemble a racing car stripped for the weekend.

Then came the gear knob.

Its golf-ball shape invites all sorts of elaborate explanations, but Liljequist’s account was refreshingly straightforward: the sporting association occurred to her, and she suggested it. Volkswagen says both ideas met some resistance before becoming part of the car. 

There is something pleasing about knowing that such a familiar detail began with somebody simply putting an idea into words. It did not need a complicated backstory. It needed someone willing to try it.

The details owners remember

The first GTI appeared at the Frankfurt motor show in September 1975. Alongside its mechanical changes, the red grille trim, distinctive seats and unusual gear knob helped establish an identity that could survive successive generations. Volkswagen continued to draw on those interior details decades later, even as screens and digital controls changed the cabin around them. 

The checks have been reinterpreted rather than reproduced identically every time. That gives each generation room to look contemporary while retaining a connection to the earlier cars.

It also explains why a cloth seat can feel more special than a costlier alternative. In most cars, upholstery is something to choose from a brochure. In a GTI, it comes with memories attached, including for people who have never owned one.