The Golf’s sales have been slowly dying for years.

Sad news, though not terribly unsurprising, for Volkswagen Golf fans. The new eight-generation model is upon us, but Motor1 learned that not all its variants will make it to the U.S.

More specifically, the standard Volkswagen Golf and Golf SportWagen are getting the axe, according to a Volkswagen employee. Only the performance models — the GTI and Golf R — will make it to our shores. While Volkswagen has not officially dropped either car in America yet, it isn’t difficult to understand the logic behind that decision.

The current Mk 7.5 Golf should be replaced by the new Mk 8 soon.

When the Mk 7 Golf arrived in 2015, the model’s sales immediately picked up from the previous Mk 6. In 2018, though, its sales tanked from a high of 68,978 units. Last year, the company shifted just 42,271. That’s a 39 percent drop in a year, which is not good news for what is supposed to be a volume car. 2019 is not looking any better at this point, either.

The normal Golf managed just 772 sales, while the SportWagen managed 900. By contrast, the mid-range Volkswagen GTI managed 1,199 sales in April — more than the normal Golf and Golf R (411 units sold) combined. Across the entire Golf lineup, sales are down 31 percent from where they were a year ago.

Overall, the base Volkswagen Golf accounts for around two percent of the brand’s overall sales.

The GTI still sells well

Fortunately, the Mk 8 Volkswagen GTI will come to the U.S., according to this report. It’s one of the brand’s most iconic models, and it still sells decently well. Although its sales are also down, it manages more than any other variant in the lineup. The Golf R, while not a big seller, doesn’t have a huge production run either.

Compact crossovers may also be driving Volkswagen’s alleged decision to kill the Golf and the SportWagen. The Tiguan outsells the entire Golf lineup three to one. So far in 2019, Volkswagen has shifted 37,261 Tiguans, to just 11,468 Golfs.

Still, the good news is that Volkswagen is keeping the hot hatchbacks people tend to actually buy, and just cutting the models that don’t make sense. We’ll see what happens Alltrack in the near future. The e-Golf, on the other hand, will inevitably perish as the I.D. all-electric models roll out in the next few years.