Volkswagen Golf

It’s a Golf MkV with a better interior. So why is so much more desirable than before?

• Comfort

  VW have made some serious changes to the MkV to make the MkVI, even if they share the same basic bits - and one of them has been attention to NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) issues. The new Golf is quieter, better built and simply nicer to drive than before. You'll fit the whole family in here and the whole deal is as classless as it comes. Boringly good.

  

• Performance

  There's a basic 1.2TSI with 77kW, but it's slow. The 90TSI gives you a turbocharged direct-injection 1.4. That brings it up to 90kW, which is what you'd expect from a 1.8 and with more torque too. And when the TSI has a red 'I' on the boot-lid, you've got a supercharger as well as the turbo. It's just as smooth and quiet, but makes 118kW. The torque kicks in well below 2,000rpm and stays there, blissfully lag-free, to the red-line. There's a 1.6 diesel with 77kW and two 2.0 diesels with either 103kW or 125kW. The smaller model will be the big seller and it'll be more than enough for most people. Strong, gutsy with plenty of torque on tap to make overtaking easy. It can be on the loud side, though, unlike the 103TDI. It's so quiet it's like putting on a pair of earmuffs. And it goes well too.

  

• Cool

  The GTI still has it. The rest are classless and good, but not cool.  

  

• Quality

  Even better than the last one, if that's possible. It has nicer finishes, and they range over a wider area of the cabin before your fingers arrive at the hard scratchy stuff. The dials and switches have little metal embellishers, and the seat fabrics go up a notch. The instruments themselves sit in angled circular shrouds, and the fuel and temperature needles swing through almost a full circle, which mysteriously looks classier than the usual quarter-arc.

  

• Handling

  Because the significant chassis bits are just five years old, we don't get any big changes there. But let's not be grumpy, we don't need them. The whole thing's been recalibrated and rather well. And top models get the adaptive damping from the Passat CC. This really is a revelation. The ride is superb, a lovely quiet suppleness that never goes floaty. It's good at all speeds; big humps and small, low frequencies and high. Handling was greatly improved for the Mk5, and the Mk6 is a consolidation of that: progressive and controllable, with steering calibrated to be stable and reassuring in A-road curves rather than super-agile when you're hooning through roundabouts.

  

• Practicality

  Leg space is excellent all round but especially in the rear where passengers feel the benefits of sitting in the biggest Golf yet. Headroom is equally generous and there's good access to the rear thanks to the high roofline. Probably THE most practical type and example of normal car world. 

  

• Running costs

  Everybody understands the Golf, so it's relatively cheap to insure if you avoid the GTI or GT variants. They also get nearly 50mpg in most guises.