Was bored this morning so thought i'd go and try out the new Golf. First impressions. It was a five door in dark metallic blue on 16" 5 spoke alloys and it looked smart and upmarket, i can see where the claims of looking like a 307 come from however its most definitly a Golf, only the front looks too MPV like but i'll put that down to the design of the bumper rather than the headlight/bonnet styling. A more agressive front bumper with a short overhang would be better, maybe the GT models will have something similar. Funnily enough the VW model guide lists these cars as GT not GTi but the press release pictures have shown GTi badging, maybe they're dropping the GTi tag in Europe but keeping it as a marketing ploy for the UK? All doors close with a soft thud instead of the familiar solid clunk, adds to the quality feel i reckon. And quality is definitly the word for the interior but a leather steering wheel and gear knob is definitly a must have, the plastic steering wheel is crap. The integrated stereo is rather neat too, has good touches like listing radio stations next to numbered buttons, although its easy enough to remember which one of your 3 favourite stations is which number it showed a bit of thought to me and im easily impressed by little things. As expected the grab handles were well damped, the plastics were of a high quality, the dials showed neat touches and the backlighting was classy. So they should be after the mk4 cabin, only one detail let it down in my opinion and that was the sunglasses holder which although damped felt a bit cheap and an afterthought and the damping didnt work very smoothly at all, minor gripe though and it could just be a glitch on the early cars. Driving. There was a choice of 2 cars available, 1.6FSi petrol or the 2.0GT TDi with 140bhp. I took the diesel [shock] Mainly to find out what the fuss was and also it had the closest suspension settings to the forthcoming petrol GTi's. Getting a comfortable driving position was easy, all controls fell to hand, no offset pedals and good forward visibility but the C pillar does hinder a bit when reversing. To start with i took it down some normal A roads just to see what it rode like, seems pretty decent, well damped and smoothes over bumps that would have me shaking about in the S but doesnt take away all the feeling of the road, the steering does tug a little over cambers but it feels quite artificial and perhaps the steering is too light. The engine had done about 3000miles so it was run in and i did give it a good hammering. In first on part throttle it does fly round to the redline but then you change in to second and expect it to do the same and it doesnt, strange as i've come to expect from my cars that on part throttle that the nature of the power delivery will be pretty linear. Yes you do feel a rush forward when the power comes in and it does rev smoothly up to 5000rpm BUT its so deceptive in my opinion you think your really moving after 3 changes but you look down and think 'oh is that it?' There doesnt appear to be any lag which is a good thing but you can definitly feel the power dying off, i dunno it just didnt impress me enough. I came away with the feeling that on a test drive its enough to impress a potential buyer that diesel is the way forward but i feel that if your going to buy a hot hatch then its petrol all the way. Theres just something missing, a bit of character perhaps and i can finally understand why TD buyers think a hot TD is as quick as a petrol. I'd only buy a diesel as a town hack, not as a hot hatch. Handling. Steering as mentioned isnt as communicative as i'd like but once you get used to the initial lightness there is some feel there when you start throwing it around, the front grips well, the body is well controlled without excessive lean and the back end will step out if you want it too. To start with i had the front tyres squealing around a mini roundabout and then backed off at which point the back came nicely out, no fuss, no need to panic and it sorted itself out without me needing to do anything, it wasn't exactly fun but at the same time compared with the mk4 it wasn't crap either. It did put a smile on my face to see that VW had done something. On A roads it's great, the front turns in nicely, the back stays tight, the car's well damped and theres no skipping about at the front, i like it. Even on B roads it stays pretty much in control, theres no excessive body lean, no frustrating understeer and plenty of front end grip, very competent 90% of the time but its missing that 10% of fun which you really need when attacking your favourite road. I really do think its a massive improvement over the mk4 and certainly a good base for some hot models. Critisms. Needs to be firmer, perhaps lowered another 20mm and 17's will firm things up a little and increase some feel, theres nothing wrong with grip levels it just needs to be more taut. 3 door looks much better than the 5 door, but it needs to look more aggressive. And thats about it, i wouldn't buy one at the moment, petrol GTi's are due to be released in December and i've booked a test drive already. I doubt i'll end up buying one unless i need a larger car and i'd definitly want a 6cyclinder next time. Roll on an R32 or R36. Cheers Nic
Nicely written mate. Did you find the steering a bit weird, cos it's supposed to be electonically assisted. Our works vans have the same type of steering and vague is not the word!!!! Did u try driving it on anything other than the red line?? cos most of the diesels power is supposed to be about 2500rpm. Hope the dealers get a lot of demo GTI's in december cos it looks like a few might end up needing workshop attention very quickly!!!
Yes i did find the steering a bit weird as i said intially it felt too light and lacking feel but it did weight up when giving it some stick over 40mph, it also felt rock steady at a 100+ (km/h officer)! thanks for saying its electically assisted, clears it up and to be honest i think its a good thing once your used to it. I soon learnt to change up quickly after the boost was over but it felt so unnatural to me to constantly have to change up and down to make the most of a narrow power band where as in a petrol you have a more useable power band, for example, my 16V is great from 4000-7200, my 8V is great from 1500-5500 and my Cooper S is great from 2000-7200rpm, the TDi seemed to only have a 2000rpm powerband.
It is a bit weird getting used to the power being so low down the rev range. Did u get any long steep hills to go up?? that's where the brute force of the diesel works a treat!! Bet the petrols a better handling car mainly due to the engine being lighter. Still cn't understand why they're leaving the GTI till so late in the year! Only going to have 200bhp though, needs more than that for the weight of the car. Did the revised rear suspension make it's self felt??
Hi vrooom. Yes i did have some fairly steep hills to climb and yes the engine did pull well up these but it wasn't enough for me to overcome the other short falls of the engine. Perhaps if i bought one and got used to the powerband and delivery it would change my opinion but a diesel for me is definitly a no. As for the revised suspension, yes its definitly an improvement which you can feel. The back end does actually want to play now, if the nose is nudging wide as in the mini roundabout example above lifting off quickly brings the back round and sharpens turn in without drama. Further to that when your giving the car some beans through sweeping corners which tighten it doesnt understeer, the back tucks in and the whole attitude of the car is controlled if you can understand what i mean?
