Skip advert
Advertisement

Volkswagen Golf GT

First Mk6 VW Golfs arrive – and disappoint

Evo rating
RRP
from £15,500
  • Would make a faithful family friend
  • But a joybringer it is not, yet

Volkwagen is about to launch the mk6 Golf. Question is, will the public notice? We ask because, Scirocco-esque horizontal nose treatment apart, the new Golf looks too much like the last one.

Looks do not deceive - the mk6 has the closest relationship with its predecessor of any Golf in history. It’s simply a partial re-skin with a plusher but cheaper-to-make interior. Which is fine: the mk5 was a good car that cost too much to make.

Advertisement - Article continues below

Volkswagen hypes up the mk6 with talk of tactile surfaces and aural refinement, but the interior is hardly exciting in its design and the underlying roar from the coarsely grained roads at the Iceland launch would have drowned out any engine noise without VW’s help. Add the DSG transmissions of all the launch cars (six ratios for the turbodiesel, seven for the two turbo’d and supercharged 1.4 TSIs) and the new Golf becomes a hard car to interact with.

Those TSI engines give either 120 or 158bhp, but neither has the spirit of the torquey, rev-hungry 168bhp TSI in the previous Golf GT. A manual gearbox and the chance to hear the engines’ efforts may help, but as tested the new Golf is a bit of a dullard. At least the adaptive dampers now being offered as an option work better than the Scirocco’s, offering genuine suppleness instead of three grades of firmness.

Next instalment: Golf GTI. Fingers crossed, then.

Specifications

Skip advert
Advertisement
Skip advert
Advertisement

Most Popular

Honda Civic Type R for £5k off – save 10 per cent on the ultimate hot hatch
Honda Civic Type R deal
News

Honda Civic Type R for £5k off – save 10 per cent on the ultimate hot hatch

The Civic Type R is not long for this world and there are deals to be had on Honda’s pricey but near-perfect hot hatch
26 Jun 2025
Can Lotus survive its latest crisis?
Lotus factory
Opinion

Can Lotus survive its latest crisis?

Lotus’s latest troubles are grabbing headlines, but the writing’s been on the wall for some time.
28 Jun 2025
Iconic cars of the 1990s driven, from Renault Clio 16v to Ferrari 355 – car pictures of the week
evo eras 1990s
Features

Iconic cars of the 1990s driven, from Renault Clio 16v to Ferrari 355 – car pictures of the week

In the latest issue of evo magazine, we go back to the 1990s on the finest Welsh roads with a selection of iconic youngtimers
27 Jun 2025