Volkswagen Golf Estate (Mk8) review

There are three trims available on the Golf Estate – starting Life and moving through Style and R-Line – plus an Alltrack and R version. The Life model starts at £26,970 and gets 16in alloys, aircon, a 10in infotainment screen and adaptive cruise control as standard. You won’t be celebrating Christmas getting into this one.

Style adds £2.5k to the price tag and throws in 17in alloys, three-zone climate control, carpets and LED headlights, while R-Line gets you sportier seats, fancier exterior trim and tinted rear glass for £30,725.

The Alltrack is your slightly beefed up 4x4 model at £39k, and £45k gets you into the souped up R model car with its 316bhp 2.0-litre petrol engine that manages 0–62mph in 4.9 seconds.

All Golf Estates are rated in the high-40s to high-50s on fuel consumption, except the R which is rated at 35.8mpg. Worth noting that the R and the Alltrack both tip into the £555 first year VED bracket, where all other models are in the cheaper bands at around £200.

What about monthly costs? 

The entry level Life model with the 1.0-litre 3cyl engine is a comparative bargain at £375 a month if you can live without all the equipment (the second-up-the-ladder SE Technology Octavia is the cheapest estate in that range at £380 a month). The 1.5-litre 4cyl R-Line model with 148bhp is the next cheapest trim to go for at £440 a month. The go-faster R-spec car will cost you around £690 a month, but the most expensive in the range is the Alltrack 4x4 at around £850 a month.

How does the Golf compare with its VWG rivals?

It’s worth noting that the Skoda Octavia estate shakes out around £2k less than the Golf Estate like for like. It’s a big difference, essentially a space vs style dilemma, but as ever you’ll pay the premium for style. Meanwhile nobody quite knows what the Seat is for, but the Leon Estate is a reasonably stylish and slightly cheaper alternative to the Golf.

The other virtue of either the Leon or the Octavia is that those cars also come with a PHEV option – why doesn't the Golf? You'd think Volkswagen would have an electric estate on sale by now too, come to think of it.

What extras should I go for?

There are a few boxes to tick on the configurator. The brilliantly bright IQ.Light LED-matrix headlights are an £875 optional extra. A rear-view camera is £300, the full-fat version of VW’s Travel Assist system is £710 (although it’s standard with Style trim) and the head-up display is £625.

A heated steering wheel comes as part of a £550 ‘Winter Pack’ (standard on the Alltrack), but every time you press the steering wheel-mounted button it brings up the climate control panel on the infotainment screen. Argh!

There are all the usual active driver assistance systems, as well as a choice of 30 colours for the interior lighting on higher spec models (10 on the entry car). Pretty colours.