New Volkswagen Golf 7 revealed

There’s been a trickle-feed of information about the new Volkswagen Golf over the past few months, but the German carmaker has finally released official images ahead of its global unveiling at Paris motor show.

As Carsguide reported in July, changes to the exterior styling are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The nose follows the current car’s split grille but gets new headlight clusters. It keeps the signature wide C-pillar, but adds a small triangular window on the front doors and a sharper line on the rear ones.

Around the back there are new taillight clusters with LEDs on some variants. The cabin also carries on much of the present styling, with the main change being the centre console now angled towards the driver. Ergonomics experts have been through the interior, resulting in more steering column adjustment and changes to the placement of the driver’s seat, gear lever and pedals.

There’s more to report under the skin, where the Mk 7 Golf rides on the new Volkswagen Group platform used by the latest-gen Audi A3 – and which we can also expect to see here underpinning a future Skoda. 

As we detailed last week, the lighter platform and some revised production processes – coupled with more use of aluminium and even trimming strategies for components and wiring – mean the Golf 7 has also managed to shed around 100kg despite growing in size.

Volkswagen says the Golf has increased 56mm in length and 28mm in width, but has shaved 28mm off the height. The cabin gets a space boost with more length, leg and shoulder room, while a  top-up of 30 litres luggage capacity to bring the boot area to 380 litres – now accessed through a wider opening.

The 118TSI 1.4-litre engine is gone, with the two turbocharged petrols for launch being a 64kW 1.2-litre promising 4.9L/100km and a 103kW 1.4-litre that VW says will get 4.8L/100km with the help of cylinder deactivation that shuts down two cylinders between 1400-4000rpm. Other petrols are likely to join the range later, including different tunes of the 1.2 and 1.4, and possibly a larger capacity unit.

On the oilburner side there’s a tweak of the current 77kW 1.6-litre turbodiesel which VW claims will return 3.8L/100km and a Bluemotion version which promises 3.2L/100km. A revised version of the current 2.0-litre oilburner – including changing its alignment to improve cooling – also raises it to 110kW and delivers 4.0L/100km, with a future 132kW version that will carry the GTD badge of the current 125kW car.