First Drive: Volkswagen Golf VII

As our man Ray Leathern discovered, courtesy of the new Volkswagen Golf VII, true genius can be measured in mere millimetres. He scooped an extended 1 170 km launch drive from P.E. to Cape Town to bring us this first Golf VII report.

When you have a winning formula like Volkswagen has with the Golf, you’re not going to stray too far from the genetic blueprint that’s been slowly evolving for the last 37 years. The seventh generation Golf is not a big step away from the Golf VI that precedes it, however, I predict the early (and inevitable) scepticism over its credentials will be replaced by an almost universal rapture once people come into contact with this stylish, mature vehicle.

I had the privilege of driving the new Golf VII for 400 km around the Eastern Cape at its launch and then, when I heard a car needed to be driven back to Cape Town, I cancelled my flight home and quite literally jumped at the opportunity to settle into a further 750 km road trip with it too. I find the true genius of some cars only shows itself to you with lots of seat time behind your back. Here then, is one of the more-definitive conclusions we’ve been able to share with you, one day after a car launch.

Despite competition from the likes of Hyundai and Kia, which has arrived onto the C-segment scene with cheaper, highly equipped, head-turning offerings, the Volkswagen Golf still has a near-impregnable up-market image. This is an image forged with almost four decades of market leadership and Volkswagen’s highly concentrated efforts to safeguard the integrity and core values of its product. In the case of the Golf VII, this safe guarding comes in the form of evolutionary design.

According to the designer of the Golf VII, Andreas Mindt, who was on hand to talk to the media at the launch, there are only two other brands that still practise evolutionary design: Porsche and Land Rover. Volkswagen doesn’t enjoy the relative anonymity of a value-engineering brand pretender like Kia, who have no legacy and who can adorn any car with any tiger-nose grille and LED light pattern that takes their fancy. Having said this, what the Volkswagen Golf does have, which the others don’t, is an iconic linage and something to draw on when moving forward.

So what’s different on the Golf VII? “It still all looks the same to me”, you might be thinking to yourself. Well, this is the first Volkswagen to get a single-piece LED daytime running light (if optioned with Xenon headlights). The designers wanted to emphasise that the C-pillar has been an iconic Golf style feature since the Mk1 and just take a closer look at its elegant proportions. I think the Golf VII has the best C-pillar we’ve seen since the original Mk1. The next goal was lengthening the bonnet and smoothing out the line that joins the flattened bonnet with the A-pillar.

Mindt says this connection between bonnet and A-pillar, is the nodal point of all great car design and this had to be executed more elegantly than on any other Golf, with every line connecting somewhere else on the car. The style line running beneath the protruding door handles is in homage to the Mk1 Golf. My favourite part of the Golf VII design is that all the surfaces were considered for how they reflect light with respect to light and dark. Grab an eyeful the first time you see a Golf VII pass you by at speed. As it moves through different light sources it’s a veritable kaleidoscope of hidden surfaces, reflections and tones. The Golf VII has an aesthetic subtlety whose genius can be measured in mere millimetres.

Continuing with the design theme on the interior, all of the switch gear, the on-board computer, the touch screen (of varying sizes depending on what specification you choose), as well as the interior panels, are completely new, but their newness is only subtly obvious to the occupants. The elegant aesthetics of the interior greet you for the first time with new silver bordering around the buttons.

An overhaul of the steering wheel and its controls means some of the buttons have moved and others that were once on the indicator stalks are now welcomed onto the steering wheel for the first time. There is ambient lighting (in Highline models) in the form of clear white light along the doors and it gives a clean-cut feel to the cabin at night. The Golf can be optioned with satellite navigation and a USB port (hallelujah) for the first time as well.

If I were to offer up my criticism on the Golf VII design I would only comment on three aspects, inside and out. Firstly, I think the front, lower, air dam is too small and if it were bigger the front of the car would have more presence. Secondly, 17-inch wheels on the Highline models are just about acceptable, but if Volkswagen had inched-up the wheels throughout each specification (18s for Highline and 17s for Comfortline) it would have matched the Golf VII’s aesthetically longer wheelbase even more.

Finally, and this is my only misgiving over the entire interior, the air vents on the front fascia sag ever so slightly off to the passenger side of the car. I know the car is about almost imperceptible tweaks, but I’m a sucker for symmetry and I know the Germans are too, and after staring at the air vents for several hours on my drive home, I just couldn’t place the reasoning behind that choice. Aside from those trifling matters of taste, the Golf VII is every inch the car it is meant to be.

You might be thinking to yourself, “Alright Ray, you’ve spent a thousand words telling us about the design, what’s new about the car?” Well, as it so happens, quite a lot, so let’s get through it quickly.

The entry level engine is now the 1.2-litre TSI with 77 kW and 175 Nm of torque, although Volkswagen didn’t have any available to drive at the launch. The 1.2 TSI comes only in basic Trendline specification with a manual gearbox (find an extensive price list below). Then you graduate to the 1.4 TSI in Trend, Comfort or Highline specification. This 1.4-litre engine is tuned to 90 kW and 200 Nm of torque with the 6-speed manual or DSG transmission, or it can be beefed up to 103 kW and 250 Nm, in combination with a manual gearbox.

What is remarkable is that even the tame 90 kW, 1.4 TSI performs identically to the original Mk1 Golf GTI: 0 – 100 km/h in nine-seconds and a top speed of 200 km/h. The 103 kW, 1.4 TSI outperforms the original Mk1 Golf GTI by accelerating to 100 km/h in less than nine-seconds.

If you want TDI diesel propulsion, you can get a simple 81 kW TDI in Comfortline specification, or the 2.0-litre TDI in Highline specification with a DSG transmission only, which offers 110 kW and 320 Nm of torque. In my opinion, the 1.4 TSI, which I drove in both 90 kW and 103 kW power outputs, performs so urgently, economically and with great balance between midrange torque and top-end power delivery, that the TDI isn’t the premium, must-have Golf it may have once been.

All the engines in the Golf range are badged as having BlueMotion Technology, meaning they have stop/start technology and energy recuperation that works through the brakes. Sounds like green-washing, but these little additions all add up and, with the exception of the 103 kW 1.4 TSI which is 121 g/km, all the cars in the range produces less than 120 g/km CO2. The fuel consumption ranges from 4.5 L/100 km in the 2.0-litre TDI, to a claimed 5.3 L/100 km in the most powerful petrol model. Quite frankly, it is a remarkable engineering effort from Volkswagen.

Okay, enough with the technicalities, I bet you’re wondering how the new Golf VII performed on my long road trip down to Cape Town? Well, it’s a Golf, so it was sublime. The new platform is bigger wider and longer wheelbased than before, but despite this, it is much more rigid and up to 100 kg lighter depending on what engine and specification you go for. You can feel the light, easy, effortless response of the car through the steering and the seat of your pants as you glide along.

The Golf VII feels connected to the road all the time and always gives the driver the feeling of it being the opposite of lumbering. The car coasts along the road and down gradients with no effort at all, showing the aerodynamic prowess of the new design and the carefully calculated compromise, no doubt, between low rolling resistance tyres and acceptable cornering performance. The steering is lightly weighted, but perfect in its everyday application here in the Golf.

My 750 km drive back from P.E. was in the 103 kW 1.4 TSI manual and the amount of midrange torque is simply staggering. You honestly don’t need to shift out of sixth gear to overtake. Low down the rev range there is still same turbo lag, but from 2 000 r/min the car can gather momentum with no fuss at all. This creates a relaxing, precise driving experience, where you can focus on maintaining your momentum and not breaking your rhythm. This might sound odd considering the completely different drivetrain, but this Golf ever so slightly puts me in mind of the polished responses I found in the new BMW 3-Series. They’ve managed to refine the drive quality to such an extent.

The 90 kW 1.4 TSI I had driven earlier in the day displayed almost identical, flowing driving traits, mixed with the healthily accessible torque and, while you can feel the extra power of the 103 kW version, I think the 90 kW is ample for an everyday Golf VII buyer. Subjectively speaking, the TDI paired with the DSG was slightly less involving to drive than the effervescent petrol TSIs and considering how much the gap has closed on fuel consumption between the two, the extra price of the TDI might not be justifiable in the Golf VII.

The only misgivings I formulated over the drive, while soaking up my road trip were threefold. One, the new electronic handbrake is annoying to use because you need to have your foot on the brake to deactivate it. Two, the downsized and highly efficient TSI engines have become so muted (and the cabin has become so quiet) there is very little engine noise, even if you’re giving it a right-on boot-full. Three, there is no button to switch off the numerous traction control systems, so you’re at the Wolfsburg IT Departments mercy when you decide to wind the Golf up a bit and go for a thrash down the Grootrivierpass on your way past Natures Valley.

I know the average Golf buyer won’t normally put their prized possession through such a tyre squealing ordeal, but the car does have the equivalent performance of an original Mk1 GTI, lest we forget. Bounding down and around the second and third gear corners of the Grootrivierpass proved to be challenging for our Golf. It responded well enough, but with constant intrusion from the dynamics systems. The manual gearbox could have been a bit snappier too in its action between the gates.

The hazards loved to flicker under hard braking, and while the electronic front differential kept matters tidy and helped pull the nose around sharper bends, it could have shown more impetus to get into and out of the corners less safely and more quickly. At least I knew if I did hit a cliff face or low riding wall I’d be safe with the Golf’s new Multi-Collision Brake system, which emergency brakes the car after an accident so you don’t go onto another one a few metres down the road.

The Golf VII didn’t appear to enjoy being rushed along in the lower gears, but what the Natures Valley road did show me, was that the ride quality over the challenging bumps was nothing short of exemplary. Then, as soon as the road widened again, it revelled in fourth, fifth and sixth gear sweeps where its light, rigid body could glide again with a sort-of ethereal effortlessness. By the time I got home, I’d driven 750 km off the 50-litre tank, I’d consumed fuel to the tune of 6.5 L/100 km and averaged 110 km/h. What a drive.

So, you’re probably thinking you want one, you can’t live without one in fact, but which is the one to have? Well, not having driven the 1.2 TSI, the jury is still out on the efficacy of this small entry-level engine. I can tell you both 1.4 TSI engines are up to the task. Specification-wise and depending on how much you can spend of course, I’d say aim for the Comfortline or up, to capitalise on the full gravity of the Golf VII experience. Volkswagen do ask for you to part with extra money for a few options like Xenon headlights with the LED daytime running lights, dual-zone Climatronic air conditioning or the ‘Composition’ or the ‘Discover Pro’ entertainment touch screen system. So, be prepared to add an extra R30 000 to R40 000 to the asking price depending on what niceties you want included.

Just when the competition seems to be closing in on the Golf, Volkswagen pushes the boat out even further and along with it the yardstick by which all other passenger cars must be judged. Forgive me, but I have no other choice but to spout the exact PR line that Volkswagen used in launching the new Golf VII: “It’s not just a car, it’s a Golf.” I couldn’t agree more.

All models feature a 3-year/120 000 km warranty and 5-year/90 000 km service plan.

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