Originally published at: Nothing says Bon Jovi like this 1996 Volkswagen Golf | Boing Boing
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I like Bon Jovi well enough, but were they really big in Germany? In 1996? It just seems like not the biggest musical act that would draw in customers.
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Short answer: yeah, they were pretty popular in 1996. The 2000 song “It’s My Life” was even huge. Nothing like seeing a stadium full of Germans clapping along (on the 1s & 3s, of course) to that one.
I agree that it’s mighty weird having them complete a list of three items that also includes the Stones and Pink Floyd.
Germany was weird.
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When I lived there, my boss had a Pink Floyd Golf.
It was a Golf. 
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You have to remember that Germany is the third largest music market in the world after the US and Japan. When bands are big in Germany, they are BIG. And that means that they will have occasinally weird local merchandise.
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I don’t know if the Bon Jovi Edition was sold in Germany, but this one is from Japan.
This 1996 Volkswagen Golf Variant GLI Bon Jovi Edition is a right-hand-drive Japanese-market example that was acquired by the selling dealer in April 2022 and subsequently imported to the US.
ETA: Someone in the comments says that they saw a Bon Jovi Edition in Hamburg in 1996 – outside a Bon Jovi concert. Volkswagen sponsored the tour.
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Especially in 1996. Much bigger than in the US. Even Wikipedia remarks on it:
This was followed by their biggest-selling and longest-charting single “Always” (1994) and the album These Days (1995), which proved to be a bigger success in Europe than in the United States, producing four Top Ten singles in the United Kingdom.
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“Wo - oah, Livin’ in a Station Wagon!!” 
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Alrighty. Good for them!
Still love Livin’ on a Prayer. I remember in “music” class we would listen to popular music and there was a stack of record singles on top of the speaker/boombox thingy and during a bass slam of the chorus one time, it was enough vibration to jiggle the stack loose and they fell.
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This raises another aspect of the story that non-car-people North Americans may not grok- hot hatches and wagons (“tourings”) are a thing. There’s a BMW M5 Touring, for example, that is a sleeper monster and sought after by folks in the know in North America. VW has made some really amazing hot hatches, many of which have made it to Canada and the US. The AWD R32 Golf, for example, is a particularly fun drive.
Many North Americans have only ever seen hatchbacks and “station wagons” as uncool, but that’s not the case elsewhere in the world.
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Yeah, the Audi RS6, and the Ford RS series are the sort of things I only found out about when I moved to Europe.
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