2007 Volkswagen Golf Reviews

Oh, God...another variant of the Golf. So how many is that, now...23? Just what the world needs, right? Actually, it's pretty much precisely what it needs.This otherwise standard version of the world's favourite premium hatch is host to a wholly remarkable engine.The Golf GT comes with a petrol unit of only 1.4 litres, but pay no heed to its capacity. Ingeniously augmented with twin chargers, this device is a marriage of innovation and performance to thrill the technophile and the petrolhead.More important, it will also provide unchallenging and bother-free everyday driving to those who buy Golfs simply because they're shopping trolleys with just a bit more cachet than a Corolla.The new model will do all that it does faster, cleaner and more frugally than cars packing petrol engines of more than a litre greater capacity. Insome respects, it's closer to VW's own diesels.The GT is a whole lot more than a vowel-less version of its near-namesake sibling.Last week, the Volkswagen Group's two-litre, direct-injection turbo four (2.0 TFSI) won a world Engine of the Year award. It's a marvellous thing that powers, among many others, the Golf GTI.The unit the drives the GT is designated 1.4 TSI. It is, in its way, equally splendid, having also won an international donk gong in its ostensibly lesser category.Although it's a term almost as traduced as “sport”, GT is still generally taken to mean Grand Touring. In this Golf's case, however, it could be seen to have three other, equally applicable, meanings.Greener than treesWith car-makers cursing the European Union's ever more draconian emission and fuel regulations, the engine that will become the VW Group's standard petrol four needed to run leaner and greener.With a six-speed manual gearbox, the TSI uses a claimed 7.7 litres per 100km in combined conditions and emits 183 grams of CO2 per kilometre -- marginally less of both in the manual-matic Direct Shift Gearbox.VW's naturally aspirated 2.0 FSI drinks eight litres per 100km and puts out 192 grams.Geek TechAnyone can reduce consumption by reducing capacity, but this car needs to be moved at a rate that won't disgrace its initials.Having given the 1.4 four-cylinder an enhanced form of fuel injection, VW revived an ancient Lancia idea of combining supercharging and turbocharging.Under hard throttle, a belt-driven supercharger ramps power and torque up from just above idle to over 3000rpm. Its clutch then disconnects in favour of the exhaust-driven turbo, which takes proceedings to the 7000rpm redline.At that point, the DSG automatically goes up a gear, whereas the manual will hold on towards the 7500rpm cut-out.Go Tee: the driving experience|Aside from getting it to within a second of the GTI in a straight sprint, the twincharger has the performance tooverwhelm atmo engines of up to 2.5litres. It delivers its full 125kW at 6000rpm, with the full 240Nm present from 1750rpm to 4500rpm.That equates to a 0-100km/h sprint time of about 7.7seconds in the DSG and just under eight in the six-speed manual version.That ever-diminishing object in your rear-view mirror would be an Australian-made six-cylinder sedan.In daily driving, all that needs be said about this unique and highly effective combination is that you simply won't know it's there -- except that you'll be re-filling with 98 RON almost as infrequently as a Golf TDI owner makes for the diesel bowser.Convential appearance disguises the techIf the twincharger is mechanically unorthodox, an equal part of the car's appeal lies in its thoroughly conventional appearance. No fancy face a la the GTI's honeycomb grille or the R32's quasi-chrome.Indeed, unlike the other two, it has a Golf badge aside from its unique, but discreet, GT badge fore and aft.Aside from these, you need to look hard for design distinctions. The grille is slightly V-shaped with air-inlet openings integrated in the front bumper.Twin tailpipes and 17-inch, 12-spoke alloys subtly allude to something of a different nature.Within; again, aside from the GT-badged, leather-rimmed steering wheel and the boost pressure gauge on the dashboard, you're in Golf territory.Sports-style front seats provide ample support when pressing on and comfort aplently when the going is milder.The manually adjusted cloth thrones can be lowered slightly further than the cowhide, but lack the latter's electric lumbar adjustment.Cabin experience a pleasureThe inside story is pretty much per VW standard, with decent fit and finish emphasised by doors that close with what we're pleased to think of as a Germanic thunk.The quality of materials in the Mark V series may have declined since the previous generation, but there's been some minor tarting up with silver faux-aluminium facing and buttons around the stereo's info screen.The cabin is a pleasant place to spend time, with rear accommodation ample for those of us built along taller and wider lines than average. Rear-seaters are also amply aerated via their own adjustable vents.With an already more than useful 350 litres luggage space -- which can be tripled with the rear seats folded down -- the Golf is massively more commodious than it appears from the outside.Confirmation of the car's identity comes at night when the automatic headlights illuminate, in turn casting the trademark Golf blue glow over the instruments.Safety scores highlyThe Mark V is the safest car for anything like the money, having achieved a record 12-star rating in the Euro NCAP crash tests (five for crash rating, four for child protection and three for pedestrian impact). Six airbags as standard put the Golf at the top of its segment.At 1340 to 1375kg (DSG), it ain't a featherweight. But its planted stance, supported by an excellent active safety measure package -- including ABS, anti-slip regulator, electronic stability and winter driving programs -- provide degrees of protection that belies its compact dimensions.Pricing a reasonable premiumAt first only 420 cars will be brought into Australia, priced from $34,990 for the manual and $37,290 for the DSG, plus a not unreasonable list of options.This means the GT is priced around the level of the 2.0 TDI. Given that the new model deserves to be seen as a distinct (and, indeed, rather special) variant, it seems a reasonable premium.Our road test reflectionsWe left on our 500km run from Surry Hills in morning peak hour, passing through Springwood, Richmond, the Bell Rd to Mt Victoria, Oberon, O'Connell and Kelso. The return leg was a more sedate chug via Lithgow and the Still-Hopelessly-Inadequate Western Highway.So the route included peak hour drudgery, freeway running and some of the State's better B-roads.Reservations about the GT's weedy capacity last less than the time it takes to leave the first set of traffic lights. Power delivery is immediate and, to employ an over-used but entirely apt term, seamless.You might expect some sort of laggardly behaviour when the supercharger hands over to the turbo. There's none.Instead, there's the simple enjoyment of maximum torque being delivered from 1750rpm. In more constrained surrounds, 200Nm can be had from 1250rpm all the way to 6000rpm.There'd be little or no need to shuffle through the standard six-speed manual gearbox, though it would remain our choice of transmission. In the absence of a “true” auto, the great majority will opt for the DSG of our test car and leave it in Drive mode.With slightly more elasticity in the rev range, there are fewer occasions for complaint about this manual-matic's penchant for changing up or blocking your downshifts than in other VWs.Left-foot braking, though, is out -- touching the stopper pedal cuts power to the electronic throttle.There's no caviling about the GT's fuel consumption. At 110km/h on the freeway, this brand new car (572km on the clock when we picked it up) was pulling only 2500rpm in sixth gear, using barely more than five litres per 100km.After the more frenetic, high-boost legs, the average rose no higher than 9.81 litres. The return after 501.6km in combined conditions was 8.4 litres.Since the Golf Mark V line's launch in 2004, each successive version has exhibited more sporting characteristics.If the FSI Sportline wasn't a bad start, the lowered and stiffened GTI showed how to do a rapid front-drive hatch. The V6-packing R32, of course, has all-wheel-drive capability via a Haldex coupling.Dropped by 15mm, the twincharger's suspension sits between the FSI and GTI, sharing the latter's 225/45 R17 Continental SportContacts.Still, the GT is dynamically akin to the softer model, which makes for a little more pitch and roll than is ideal when going hard, but suits it better to everyday use. That holds true of the steering, which while unafflicted by all that torque, is best suited to the 'burbs.That's as it should be, given that the GT is intended as a more mainstream model than the GTI. It is forgiving and predictable in the front-driving, bum-dragging mode -- though under hard braking it's also a bit of a bum-waver.As with the 2.0 FSI model it will supersede, the GT succeeds superbly as an all-rounder, albeit a quicker and cleaner one.Indeed, VW tacitly suggest that the twincharger's performance has been constrained in order to keep it in its place within the Golf range. There seems little doubt that as the engine is fitted to other models throughout the group, its capability will be enhanced.For its part, the Golf GT goes a long way towards being what's needed here and now.

Don't you just hate the aphorism “you can have too much of a good thing” — a propaganda line espoused by the few who have it and aren't especially keen on sharing it.Yet with Volkswagen's Golf R32, it has a certain, highly irritating, ring of truth.The question most frequently asked of this uber-hatch since it arrived locally in mid-2006 would be: is it worth the extra whack over the Golf GTI?This should be a no-brainer. On paper, the R32's rorty, direct-injection V6 and all-wheel drive make it a runaway champion in such a comparison.Except, of course, the GTI boasts a marvellous, direct-injection turbo four and has provided the benchmark for the burgeoning hot-hatch brigade in how to do front-wheel drive.Burdened by the 170 extra kilograms that come with its more sophisticated drive train, the R32's performance advantage is so marginal in most circumstances that its $13K or so premium becomes questionable.Then there's the matter of the GTI's almost polymathic aptitude and its less tangible (but very real) sense of tradition and cachet.Purists can be pleased that the R32 is, at long last, available with the same slick, six-speed manual transmission that graces the GTI.Freed from the artificial constraints built into the manual-matic Direct Shift Gearbox — the sole option until now — an R32 can be revved to, and held at, redline. Never mind that DSG is fractionally faster, the manual R32 can be exploited as a performance hatch is intended.Even if the 3.2 FSI V6 doesn't go as hard as it ought at the top end as it gets to 100km/h in a claimed 6.5 seconds, it's a hugely capable and tractable device.Where you'd normally be looking for lower gears on a B-road, fourth and even fifth suffice to keep the momentum up in this 1.5-tonner.The feel through that GTI-derived steering wheel (the best you'll find in anything beneath exotic money) isn't the equal of the ostensibly lesser Golf. It's vague just off centre, and loads up less evenly.Dynamically, though, the 4Motion all-wheel-drive system promotes this hatch to a league above the bum-draggers.The Haldex multi-plate clutch apportions up to 100 per cent of available torque to either axle as required.Even with the ESP switched off, the R32 is almost impossible to upset, providing acres of play room before front-end push becomes an issue. Provocation makes for some squealing from its ultra-grippy, 18-inch tyres, but for the main part, the R32 simply refuses to be moved from your chosen course, an upright and clinically efficient cornerer.Should things somehow all go awry, the stoppers have real power, if a degree too much grabbiness through the pedal.The trade-off for such shoes is excessive noise over the coarse-chip crap that passes for road surfaces in this part of the country. Deal with it.Visually, the R32 strikes as many false notes as true: it's anonymous in certain respects, too obvious in others.The Jetta-like silver grille is less distinctive than the GTI's honeycomb, whereas the fat exhaust pipes jut awkwardly from slightly to each side of centre.Metallic blue, which has become the signature colour for the model, best becomes the R32. In most other hues, it's just another Golf.Divergent design takes continue within. Lurid, faux-steel inserts are incongruous in the otherwise typically VW dark leather interior.From $55K for the three-door manual, the R32 sits well under the comparable Audi A3, and is car enough to throw a real scare into BMW's 130i. To that extent, it's exceptional value and a package sure to please.But another rival comes in the form of the model that bears the same double-consonant badge — one that's less than a second slower to the tonne and is an equally, if not more, engaging drive in most circumstances.The R32-vs-GTI thing remains not so much a case of less being more as such, but of the latter being more than enough.

That might sound crazy, but by using both forms of boosting technology, Volkswagen is able to reduce the size of an engine and maintain healthy performance.The first engine to use this new system, which VW calls Twincharging, is only 1.4-litres, but produces 125kW and 240Nm.To put that into context, a non-boosted 2.5-litre four-cylinder that powers a US-specification VW Jetta generates 110kW and 230Nm. To top it off, the 1.4-litre four-cylinder TSI Twincharger as fitted to the Golf GT uses a meagre 7.2 litres of petrol per 100km of city and highway driving when tested to European standards. The less-powerful 2.5-litre engine uses considerably more.Australians should have their first chance to own a car with Twincharger technology late next year when the Golf GT is expected to arrive. Using a supercharger and a turbocharger is not new. Lancia fitted a double-boosted engine to its Delta rally car of the 1980s, but no serious production vehicles have used the technology until now.Volkswagen, which is at the forefront of diesel-engine technology, started to examine the potential of its Twincharger technology because it felt petrol engines were falling behind their oil-burning counterparts.It started by looking at turbochargers. Turbochargers work by using the force generated by exhaust gasses to force air into the engine, but they can take a while to get going. Volkswagen found that simply fitting a turbocharger to a smaller engine didn't work so well before the turbo started to wind up."At low speed, small engines don't have enough torque to work well with a regular turbo," TSI Twincharger development chief, Hermann Middendorf, says.Superchargers are driven by the engine's crankshaft, so they wind-up and provide boost quickly. So the Twincharger engine uses a supercharger for low-down grunt before the turbocharger takes over. The idea is to produce a torquey engine that punches hard all the way through the rev-range.Volkswagen chose its existing 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine as a base for the TSI powerplant, adding direct petrol-injection. The engineers also wanted to run a higher compression ratio (10:1), so instead of using a regular aluminium engine block, they designed one made of stronger cast iron.To maximise efficiency, VW also set-up the supercharger so that it only comes on if the driver needs it. If you put your foot down hard, the supercharger spins up. If you go easy with the right foot, the air intake simply bypasses the supercharger to save fuel.The same bypass valve is used when the engine switches off the supercharger as the turbo spools up. The Golf GT is available in Europe with a six-speed manual or six-speed DSG automatic driving the front wheels.Other models are expected to take up Twincharger technology and VW has already fitted a 103kW version to its Touran people mover, tuned more for economy than power.ON THE ROADA German Autobahn is a good place to test an engine. A smooth, wide road with no speed limit in many areas, minimal traffic and good weather allow us to push the Golf GT's Twincharger. The run between Wolfsburg and Dresden is an eye-opening experience.The first test is to see how it will pull in sixth gear from about 90km/h. You would expect a weeny 1.4-litre to cough and splutter, but the double-boosted engine responds quickly and pushes the speedo past 100km/h -- the needle moving easily all the way to 200km/h. That is seriously impressive. But how is that test relevant to Australia, where the only place you can legally do those speeds are the baked tarmac freeways of the Northern Territory?Well, it reveals just how much pulling power this special 1.4-litre engine has.Perhaps more practical is how the engine responds around town or on twisting roads, with a manual. With supercharger and turbo working away, you can leave the engine in a higher gear and forget about it. You don't need to keep shuffling between gears, because either one will do much of the work for you. The supercharger, if enacted, provides the boost up to about 3500 revs before the bypass valve is switched on.It is about this time that the turbo has gained enough speed. It's all pretty much seamless. You can hear the slight metallic whine of the Roots-type supercharger and some turbo woosh, but only just, and only if you are listening for it. That's not to say the engine is perfect. In some driving conditions you can re-apply the throttle and the engine takes a moment to provide some form of boost, but this doesn't happen often.The best thing about the Twincharger is the width of the powerband. A comparable diesel only gives you a burst of power in a very narrow band, but the Twincharger has impressive urge from down low to about 6000revs. Fuel consumption has not been tested to Australian conditions.That and the price will be revealed closer to launch. The figure we gain in Germany, an average of about 9L/100km, is not representative because the engine spends a lot of time at 5000 revs or more as we push it hard. Still, many people who push a boosted performance engine hard would be happy with that kind of consumption. The Golf GT test cars are all manuals, so we can't tell you what it is like with the auto. VW Australia is yet to lock in the local specifications.The European models come with a nice sprinkling of premium gear, including heated sports seats, dual-zone climate control airconditioning, leather steering-wheel cover and metal trim on the wheel, around the gearstick and across the dashboard. But whatever kit it has, Golf GT's TSI Twincharger engine will be a star, and a win for petrol lovers who want performance and economy without going to diesel.FAST FACTSVolkswagen Golf GTPrice: to be announcedEngine: 1.4-litre, 4-cylinder with supercharger and turbocharger, 125kW@6000rpm; 240Nm@1750-4500rpmTransmission: 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic