Yahoo News Volkswagen Golf SV review: a jack of all trades but a master of none?
The Volkswagen Golf SV is one of those cars that you’d never notice unless you happened to be driving one. Even owners of Golf hatchbacks and estates rarely know what it is, or indeed why it exists.
The simple answer is that the SV (Sportsvan – the irony!), which has recently been facelifted, is a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV for short). Remember those? Vehicles such as this were all the rage 15 years ago, but with the meteoric rise of the SUV showing no sign of slowing it’s not inconceivable that the term “MPV” could disappear from the automotive lexicon altogether.
It would be a shame if that happened, because more often than not cars such as the Golf SV are more useful than their SUV stablemates. Not only do they offer greater interior space for similar external dimensions, but they often incorporate details like sliding and tilting rear seats as standard.
Although it sits on a 50mm longer wheelbase than the Golf hatchback, the SV still doesn’t get three individual seats across the rear, which if you go by the assumption that somebody buying an MPV cares more about practicality than image rather puts it in the shadow of the Citroen C4 Picasso. The VW does at least fight back when it comes to boot space, with 590 litres to the Citroen’s 537, or the 468 litres of the BMW 2-series Active Tourer.
But then if it’s luggage capacity that matters you’d still be better off with a Golf Estate, which offers 605 litres and on a like-for-like engine and specification basis is about £500 cheaper than the SV.
It’s all starting to look like what we have here is a jack of all trades but a master of none. The recent updates don’t do a great deal to convince you anything is about to change on that front. In fact, the core car is identical, with the facelift instead resulting in things such as new bumpers and headlights.
Additionally, the radar sensor has moved to behind the VW badge on the grille where it now feeds into the autonomous emergency braking (with pedestrian detection) that features as standard across the SV range. As you'd expect, this car scored a maximum five stars in Euro NCAP's crash tests.
Inside there’s VW’s new 8-inch touchscreen with its gloss black surround as standard, or an optional 9.2-inch Discover Navigation Pro system. It’s smarter for sure, but if you’re expecting a revolution you’ll be disappointed.
This might all sound rather lukewarm, which for the majority of drivers is probably about right. For it’s only when you start to use the SV like its maker intended that things make more sense. You can, for example, hide a collapsed baby buggy on top of the spare wheel underneath the dual-height boot floor. There’s more luggage space still if you slide the rear seats forwards (by up to 180mm), and while this comes at the cost of rear legroom that matters less if the legs in question are attached to a small child.
As a final trick the rear backrests can be tilted for additional comfort, or folded down completely, leaving an almost flat floor for larger loads.
With the boot stuffed and the kids seated and doing their best to break the folding trays at their disposal, you can begin loading water bottles, baby wipes and snacks, marvelling at the size of the door bins and grateful for the large centre cubby. Climbing aboard you’ll notice you sit significantly higher than in a Golf hatchback, with the minimum seat height in the SV equivalent to the maximum in the hatch.
The result is a driving position that is about halfway between a traditional car and an SUV, with more headroom than both. Visibility is also excellent by the standards of a modern car, and certainly better than you’ll find in any of VW’s SUVs.
Twist the key (or prod the starter button if you’re in a higher spec model) and the other new feature of the SV kicks into life: Volkswagen’s latest 1.5-litre petrol engine. This four-cylinder unit, which is available with either 128- or 148bhp, is expected to account for the majority of SV orders and is available with a six-speed manual or seven-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic gearbox.
Among the other engines is VW’s 1.0-litre three-cylinder in 85bhp form, which seems somewhat optimistic given the car’s size and purpose. Better to go for the turbocharged version of the same powerplant with its 109bhp. On the diesel front meanwhile VW offers 1.6- or 2.0-litre units.
Really though it’s this 1.5 that you’ll want, for aside from a little coarseness at high revs there’s little not to like. It is quiet, smooth, strong enough to feel brisk and, thanks to its ability to switch to two cylinders when cruising, frugal too. Over more than 400 miles of motorway, town and country roads, all with the car fully loaded, we recorded a very respectable 47mpg from the 148bhp engine combined with the slick-shifting DSG gearbox.
Take all the passengers and luggage out and it’s not impossible to imagine this car getting close to the 54.3mpg it recorded on the EU Combined fuel economy test cycle.
The chassis set-up is geared towards comfort, and thus gives a good ride even on the larger 17-inch wheels of our GT-spec test car. You can make it plusher still be specifying adaptive dampers, but even without this is a suitably soft-riding car, with the resultant body lean when cornering. It’s still a more engaging drive than a C4 Picasso, if not as sharp as the BMW Active Tourer. It’s fine, in other words.
You could reach the same conclusion about the car overall, particularly when you factor in its price relative to something like the T-Roc SUV, which undercuts it by thousands rather than hundreds, and is more enjoyable to drive.
The SV fights back by being larger and significantly more versatile, but will forever be hampered by being packaged in a format that many buyers no longer care for.
THE FACTS
Volkswagen Golf SV GT 1.5 TSI EVO 150PS
TESTED 1,495cc four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, front-wheel drive
PRICE/ON SALE SV range from £20,480, as tested £31,110/now
POWER/TORQUE 148bhp @ 5,000-6,000rpm/184lb ft @ 1,500-3,500rpm
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 8.8sec
TOP SPEED 132mph
FUEL ECONOMY 44.8mpg/54.3mpg (EU Urban/Combined), on test 47mpg
CO2 EMISSIONS 118g/km
VED £165 first year, then £140
VERDICT Easy to like but difficult to love, the Golf SV encapsulates both why MPVs became so popular in the first place, and why that popularity has now waned in the face of more stylish SUVs. The recent facelift does little to change that, or the fact that a Citroen C4 Picasso’s back seats are more practical.
TELEGRAPH RATING Three out of five stars
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