Volkswagen Golf review: the family hatchback doesn’t recreate the glory years, but it’s getting close
In 1974, Volkswagen revealed the car that was to replace the Beetle once and for all, the Golf. The new vehicle was about as far removed from its predecessor as possible, with front-wheel drive, a front-mounted, water-cooled engine and sharp styling courtesy of Giorgetto Giugiaro.
It was exactly what the waiting world was looking for – a spacious, comfortable family car that was affordable to buy and run, yet felt high-quality and achingly modern. Pretty soon, it had become the benchmark for family hatchbacks.
50 years on, however, the Golf’s crown has slipped somewhat. The latest, eighth-generation model arrived to a slightly lukewarm reception in 2020. It has never been a bad car, but the eighth-generation model didn’t quite capture the simple, common-sense usability and sense of quality that made its Mk7 immediate predecessor feel a cut above its rivals.
So for the Golf’s golden jubilee year we have the car that’s intended to right those wrongs – a facelifted version of the Mk8 Golf. Can it shoot Volkswagen’s most famous nameplate back up to the top of its class?
Pros
Smart interior in posher versions
Roomy and comfortable
Touchscreen is better than before…
Cons
…but still not perfect
Non-hybrid 1.5 can feel gutless and noisy
Entry-level models feel cheap inside
Life begins at 50
So what’s new? In the best Volkswagen tradition, from the outside you’d be hard-pushed to tell. There are changes to the styling, but they’re so subtle that discerning them is a game of “spot the difference”.
There’s a new, more square-jawed bumper profile intended to make the Golf look a bit more like the Passat, along with tweaks to the lights. That’s about it. Oh, and on certain models, the VW badge at the front now lights up.
Inside, the changes are more obvious: a new, larger touchscreen with the much-needed updated software we’ve already seen in various new Volkswagens. This is better than it was but still not perfect, with occasionally slow response times and a slightly complicated layout.
Volkswagen has added its overeager new personal assistant, Ida, who regularly thinks you’ve asked her a question and jumps in to say she didn’t understand you when you’re mid-conversation with your passenger. She’ll get AI later this year – hopefully it’ll curb her enthusiasm.
Importantly, the touch-sensitive sliders below the screen to control the temperature and stereo volume are now illuminated at night – which, even Volkswagen now concedes, they should have been from the start.
The other big change is that the awful touch-sensitive pads which replaced the steering wheel buttons have gone and the buttons have returned. A triumph for common sense.
Touch sensitive
Sadly, touchpads remain for the lighting controls and the touchscreen shortcuts. You now also get an always-on climate control ‘taskbar’ along the lower edge of the screen. While this helps when adjusting settings on the move, it’s still a little more distracting to use than the intuitive rotary dials of the previous Mk7 Golf.
My first drive was in the Style version, an upper-mid-range model that gets flashes of suede-effect trim, brushed metal inserts, faux leather on the door inserts and smart alloy wheels, all of which provide an air of class.
The driving position is spot on and there’s a good amount of space. The Golf is still an intelligently proportioned car for families, with enough room in the back seats and wide, square-cornered door apertures to make installing your nearest and dearest into their child seats relatively fuss-free.
There have been no changes to the 1.5-litre, 148bhp engine that’s the mainstay of the range, which is a pity. This powerplant’s surprising lack of low-down urge and distractingly boomy note at higher revs have always combined to make it slightly underwhelming to use. So it goes here; perfectly adequate, but not an engine whose memory you’ll see column inches dedicated to in 30 years time.
Our test car’s optional 18-inch wheels don’t destroy the ride comfort, though it probably isn’t as good as it would be with the standard, smaller rims. They create quite a lot of road noise, however. There’s a sense that the Golf still isn’t quite as well isolated from the outside world as it once was.
It’s still satisfying to drive, though; the steering is precise and the nose turns in cleanly, with a pleasing neutrality and predictability closer to the limit. It won’t quite rival a Ford Focus or even its Seat Leon cousin for thrills, but it feels crisp, neat and forgiving – exactly how you’d hope a Golf would.
Fifty shades
Next I tried an estate, with the least powerful engine – a 113bhp version of the 1.5-litre, which replaces the cheerful 1.0-litre three-cylinder of the same power output. Here, it’s paired with an automatic gearbox, which means it also gets mild hybrid assistance.
The boot in the estate offers a colossal 611 litres, though even the hatchback offers a creditable 381 litres.
Neither figure is quite as much as you’d get in the cavernous Skoda Octavia – and in hatchback form, the Vauxhall Astra can also carry more. But the Golf outstrips both versions of the Focus and the Toyota Corolla, placing it a solid mid-table for luggage space.
This car’s entry-level Life trim provides cloth upholstery, scratchy plastic door panels and shiny plastic inserts, so the interior feels somewhat more downmarket as a result. It’s unremittingly grey, too.
With smaller wheels and plumper tyres, the ride is about the same. This is largely because these least powerful Golfs still have a cheaper torsion beam rear suspension set-up (the other models get a more sophisticated multi-link item), which causes the rear end to feel a touch more jittery. In this form, too, the Golf loses some of its pleasing sharpness in bends.
The engine is OK though and, surprisingly, doesn’t feel significantly down on power versus the more powerful 1.5 in the previous car, which is probably a testament to the work of the mild hybrid set-up.
It’s… fine, really. There are worse cars to be dished out by your fleet manager. But Rik Mayall’s character Richie in the sitcom Bottom describes his life as “one long, relentless collage of grey, interspersed with visits to the lav”; you can’t help but feel that’s what a three-year lease of a Golf in this spec would feel like.
R daily bread
So what about something with a bit more pep? My third sample of the revised Golf also has 148bhp, but this time, the 1.5-litre four-cylinder unit is ameliorated by the same automatic gearbox and mild hybrid motor as the previous estate.
This should be the sweet spot in the line-up and so it proves, with the quick-shifting gearbox and electric boost working harmoniously to mask any torque holes lower in the rev range.
Fuel economy is pretty good at 52.6mpg, which beats most pure petrol rivals, though it is bettered by the mild hybrid version of the Astra, which will do 58.9mpg, as well as the full hybrid Corolla, at 60.1mpg.
The R-Line specification gains a host of gadgets to complement its sheep-in-wolf’s-clothing whiffs of sportiness. For your £32,000-odd outlay, you get snazzier lights and more aggressive bumpers, bucket seats and even a whisker-thin sliver of colour inside, in the form of a line of blue trim that runs down the edge of each front seat. Steady on.
Cleverly, Volkswagen hasn’t fitted huge wheels in this spec – you still get 17-inch rims (and very smart they look too), which help take the edge off the firmer ride delivered by the stiffer suspension. Inside, you get the same, more tactile finishes as the Style model, so once again the Golf feels like the premium product it’s meant to.
Traditionally, that upmarket feel has allowed the Golf to command a price premium over and above its rivals. Surprisingly, though, that’s no longer necessarily the case.
In fact, like-for-like the Astra will set you back around the same despite being 20bhp down on power, while you’ll pay more for the equivalent Skoda Octavia. Seat, meanwhile, will sell you the same oily bits in a Leon bodyshell for less – but you’ll also get a slightly tackier interior and a few lines shaved off the equipment list.
The Telegraph verdict
It would be wrong to say the Golf has found its way back to the form of its halcyon days, but it’s far closer in this iteration than it was.
It still isn’t perfect. The touchscreen needs more work, while the touch-sensitive ideology elsewhere in the cabin still ends up being distracting. The Life model really feels like the entry-level version it is, too.
But Volkswagen has gone some way toward ironing out the wrinkles it introduced in 2020. What’s more, the fundamentals remain. The latest Golf is comfortable, roomy, well equipped and good to drive without being overtly sporting – just like Golfs of old. Unlike those cars, it’s surprisingly competitively priced too.
This isn’t a car that arrives in a blaze of glory to celebrate its nameplate’s golden jubilee in flamboyant style. But that wouldn’t be a very Golf-ish way of doing things, would it? No, subtlety is the watchword here.
Quietly, but inexorably, Volkswagen is fixing the Golf. Which, really, is the best birthday present it could get.
Telegraph rating: Four stars out of five
The facts
On test: Volkswagen Golf 1.5 TSI 150 Style
Body style: five-door hatchback (also available as a five-door estate)
On sale: now
How much? £29,835 on the road (range from £27,035)
How fast? 139mph, 0-62mph in 8.6sec
How economical? 50.9mpg (WLTP Combined)
Engine & gearbox: 1,498cc four-cylinder petrol engine, six-speed manual gearbox, front-wheel drive
Maximum power/torque: 148bhp/184lb ft
CO2 emissions: 126g/km (WLTP Combined)
VED: £220 first year, then £190
Warranty: 3 years / 60,000 miles
Spare wheel as standard: no (optional extra)
The rivals
Skoda Octavia 1.5 TSI 150 SE L
148bhp, 53.0mpg, £31,910 on the road
As before, the Octavia packs the same underpinnings into a longer, fastback bodyshell and gains more boot space in doing so. These days, though, rear seat space in the Golf is about on a par, while the quality upgrades make the Golf’s interior a match for the Octavia’s. The biggest surprise is that the Skoda now costs more. Is it worth it? Only if you really need the extra space.
Vauxhall Astra 1.2 Turbo 130 GS
128bhp, 51.4mpg, £29,865 on the road
With proper buttons and smart design, the latest Astra’s interior is at least as good as the Golf’s, if not slightly better, while there’s more boot space. The downside comes in the rear seats, which are far too cramped, so this is only really a better option if you’re rarely going to use them. Don’t forget that you pay £30 more than the Golf for 20bhp less, too.
Toyota Corolla 1.8 Design
138bhp, 60.1mpg, £32,140 on the road
The Corolla isn’t cheap, but then it is a full hybrid, which gives much better fuel economy – you’ll make back some of your extra outlay that way, particularly if you do a high mileage. While the Corolla’s interior isn’t quite as upmarket as the Golf’s, it’s built like the proverbial, while Toyota’s enviable reputation for reliability (and a service-activated warranty of up to 10 years) is thrown in for free.