The roll out of additional Golf variants continues. Glenn Brooks recently tested the GTI, GTD and BlueMotion, each of which reached UK dealers this summer, as well as the estate, which goes on sale in October.
The Mark VI Golf GTI was one of my favourite cars so could VW really improve that much on it, I wondered? Initial thoughts on the new shape Golf were published back in January, with Volkswagen UK telling me on that media preview event that multiple new derivatives were on the way.
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We’ve had the new R Cabriolet join the existing GTI Cabrio but those use the old PQ35 platform so will remain out of sync with other body styles until they are replaced in 3-5 years’ time – they should at least get a facelift before then to bring the styling into line with the front and rear of the Mark VII hatchbacks and new Estate, [as was done with the Mark III to create the Mark IV cabriolet several generations back – ed]. Leaving the convertibles to one side, a low emissions BlueMotion has been added to the range, along with the far more powerful GTD and GTI hatchbacks.
First then, the BlueMotion. This car has a theoretical range of 970 miles if you take into account the official combined consumption of 88.3mpg. Its 110PS 1.6 TDI engine from the new EA288 series produces just 85g/km of CO2 and you can choose from three- and five-door hatchbacks, or from late 2013, an estate. I should mention another spectacular figure, and that’s the urban number: 74.3mpg. But hold off from being impressed by that, and just take notice that this family car is capable of delivering an astonishing 94.2mpg on the EC’s extra urban cycle.
The BlueMotion’s economy is 15 percent better than that of the previous car. Contributing factors include the loss of weight brought about by the latest Golf’s MQB architecture, low rolling resistance tyres running high pressures, longer ratios for the six-speed manual transmission, a 15mm drop for the ride height, and a grille that is almost closed and which features integrated BlueMotion lettering. There is also stop-start (standard for all new Golfs), a special roof spoiler, partially closed air inlet screens in the bumper, and airflow smoothing underfloor panels.
You have to admire the effort which has gone in to creating the new BlueMotion, reinventing what was an amazingly thrifty model in the Mark VI bodyshell, and making it even more economical. To drive, the GTD is far more exciting, though. These two might both be diesels but they appeal to different sorts of buyers. The 184PS 1,968cc engine is certainly powerful but it’s the torque that really impresses: 380Nm is more than some petrol V8s could muster not that long ago. Zero to 62mph takes just 7.5 seconds and the sound the engine makes getting there is not without appeal. OK, not GTI zingy or as good a noise as a BMW inline six-cylinder diesel makes but it’s way better than the BlueMotion’s 110PS 1.6-litre TDI.
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By GlobalDataFor your GBP27,355 you get a very well equipped vehicle which comes with 18-inch alloys, sports suspension that sees the car lowered by the same 15mm as the BlueMotion, flared sill strips, grey brake callipers with GTD inscribed on them, stainless steel pedals, illuminated sill protectors, plus leather-trim on the handbrake and steering wheel. The latter has its own GTD logo, as well as paddle shifters if you choose the dual clutch gearbox. There’s also tartan covering for the seats, which is similar to that in the GTI.
The front and rear ends of the GTD also have some bespoke touches. These include uniquely shaped bumpers, LED front foglamps and smoked LED rear lights, a black honeycomb front air intake, a roof spoiler, and a chrome-effect strip across the bottom of the headlights plus a GTD badge on the grille. This is in the same place as the Golf GTI’s badge. One other difference between these otherwise similar looking cars is a red strip in the headlights where the GTD has shiny silver trim (a red line also links the GTI’s headlights).
The GTI is as great to drive as I had dared to hope it would be. Power is up by just 10bhp over the Mark VI but Volkswagen’s chassis engineers have, I suspect, spent a lot of time seeing why the Focus ST has attracted so many rave reviews. Is the fastest Golf now better than its most rapid rivals? Yes. And what’s more, there’s a 300PS R variant on its way – we saw it for the first time at the recent Frankfurt motor show.
Another car which debuted at the IAA was a prototype of the Golf Plus replacement. Volkswagen’s UK importer says it doesn’t like the Golf Sportsvan name which cars for the German market will have but is yet to reveal what it will be called when it reaches dealers here in mid-2014. I’ll talk about the Estate in a moment but we won’t be getting 4MOTION versions of that new body style, nor will the UK receive the newly launched natural gas-powered Golf. This, the TGI BlueMotion, will share its engine with the Audi A3 g-tron.
As for the plug-in Golf, no official launch date has been announced, though VW says the e-up! will be available in Britain from early 2014 so expect the e-Golf to follow it by a few months if, that is, sufficient demand for such a car can be found.
A Golf powered by natural gas (CNG) was announced by Volkswagen in April 2013 and this uses the same powertrain as the Audi A3 g-tron but it’s mostly for the German market, not us. There should also be a PHEV variant to come, which I hear is going to be called TwinDrive. That one may well be sold in Britain. If it does turns out to be a plug-in hybrid rather than a series hybrid like the Prius, expect it to have an identical powertrain to the Audi A3 e-tron. That means a 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine and one electric motor.
On the subject of future Golf derivatives, there might also be an Alltrack version of the new Estate, in the style of the existing, high-riding Passat with the same suffix. Volkswagen of America has already hinted that such a vehicle might be sold in North American markets (most likely as the Jetta Alltrack in the US and Golf Alltrack in Canada & Mexico) and is said to see it as a potential rival for the Subaru Forester – a big seller in the US. Will we get this possible extra version of the Golf Estate in the UK? Watch this space.
Like the Golf hatchbacks, the new-to-the-UK wagon body style is manufactured in Germany. All of Europe’s Golfs are built in VW’s home market, at the Wolfsburg and Zwickau plants, with the Cabrio assembled in Osnabrück. Just this week, a major new location for Golf production commenced operations and as you might expect, it isn’t in Europe. FAW Volkswagen has opened what will steadily become a giant production plant in the south of China in the city of Foshan. The Audi A3 will also be made there but as for the rumours that the latest SEAT León will also be manufactured within this 300,000upa complex, they look set to remain just rumours. SEAT might be doing well in most other parts of the world but not in the PRC, where it remains a small scale importer. So investing heavily in Chinese production isn’t a priority right now.
As you will no doubt know, the reason why multiple vehicles could be made at Foshan is their common use of MQB, the Volkswagen Group’s Modularer Querbaukasten or Modular Transverse Matrix architecture. There are some interesting aspects to this set of modules. Multiple wheelbases, for example. I’ve double checked all these dimensions and can report that Golf three-door, five-door and estate all use the most popular 2,637mm wheelbase. So does the León as well as the other León five-door, the ST (estate), the Audi A3 & S3 Sportbacks and A3/S3 Saloons. But here is something which I find odd. Why does the Volkswagen Group give the León ST (three-door), A3/S3 (three-door) and new A3/S3 Cabriolets a special 2,601mm short wheelbase, while the Golf three-door’s is the same 2,637mm as the five-door and Estate?
There will many, many future MQB models, and to underline just how different this architecture is to how VW once did things, the pre-production Volkswagen Sportsvan’s wheelbase is quoted by its maker as 2,685mm. So there’s yet another adaptation of MQB and a unique (so far) wheelbase for the Golf Plus’ successor model. Maybe that will also the wheelbase of next year’s Passat and Tiguan replacements – we’ll have to see.
With Golf production steaming ahead and new derivatives being added almost all the time, can there be even more news to come? There can. Volkswagen of America is still selling the old-shape model but its 2015 model year range goes into production from early 2014 at Puebla in Mexico. The Golf and what has always been known in these three countries as the Volkswagen GTI are due to be launched in the US, Mexico and Canada from March. The Golf Sportwagen/Jetta SportWagen will follow in late 2014.
In 2015, we’ll see the Mark VII enter production at Volkswagen’s São José dos Pinhais plant in Curitiba, with two other MQB models, the Audi A3 & Q3 to be added later that year. Expect the Kaluga plant in Russia and Struandale in South Africa to switch from the Mark VI Golf to the Mark VII in the near future too, while Wolfsburg will soon start winding down Mark VI production – a spokesman for VW of America recently told me that cars for NAFTA markets and certain other countries will be made there “until later in 2013”.
So then; is the Golf taking over the world? Clearly, with the exception of India and certain other countries in Asia where no C segment model is a big seller, it already has. Just imagine how dominant this model series is going to be globally by the time the eighth generation model appears in 2019.
