Volkswagen Golf GT

First Mk6 VW Golfs arrive – and disappoint

Evo rating
Price
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.

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

Most Popular

Aftermarket ‘pop and bang’ exhausts could make your car illegal
Exhaust
News

Aftermarket ‘pop and bang’ exhausts could make your car illegal

In a landmark case, a car tuner has been fined for modifying a vehicle and making it unfit for the road
24 Nov 2023
Car pictures of the week: BMW M3 CS v Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA v Jaguar XE Project 8
BMW M3 CS v Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA v Jaguar XE Project 8
Features

Car pictures of the week: BMW M3 CS v Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA v Jaguar XE Project 8

In the current issue of evo we pit the formidable BMW M3 CS against two highly-specialised supersaloons. Here are some of our favourite snapshots
25 Nov 2023
Porsche claims new Panamera will drive more like a 911
Porsche Panamera – front
News

Porsche claims new Panamera will drive more like a 911

Porsche’s exec-express has been given a 2024 makeover, with a host of design and technology upgrades inspired by the Taycan
24 Nov 2023