I have owned the car from new in May 2011 and it has done over 20,000 miles at the time of writing in August 2013. The only issue has been the door seals creaking in hot weather on uneven road surfaces. Other than that, it has been 100% reliable.

It has returned 43-45mpg overall and 48-50 mpg on many long runs. The engine is really good and pulls very strongly, especially at low revs. The DSG gearbox [automatic dual clutch] has 7 gears and it is frequently doing 1,200 revs in 7th gear around town and this no doubt helps the mpg figure. The gearbox is only good 95% of the time: it is not easy to avoid an all or nothing response when the engine is cold. This makes backing out of the driveway less than easy at times. It can also leave you in too high a gear and it then hunts for the correct gear; this happens when you slow for a roundabout and then decide to go. It is not a bad fault but it could be better. The sport mode is far too frenetic.

The mpg drops off in winter by 2-3 mpg on short runs and the air-conditioning has a similar effect from a cold start in very hot weather. The heater takes ages to put hot air into the car in winter conditions.

The brakes are powerful but not that nice to use as they are over-servoed such that a very light pressure produces too much braking force. It makes some aspects of town driving less smooth than it should be. My wife dislikes this aspect of the car when driving it.

The ride is reasonably comfortable but can jiggle at times on short frequency undulations. However, compared with many modern cars, it is quite comfortable. I have no issues with the handling.

Visibility out is good compared with lots of other cars but not compared with older cars that have smaller A, B and C pillars.

Passenger space has not been an issue but folding the back seat to extend the luggage space does not give a flat loadspace.

The interior trim is very drab and shows dust and other marks quickly. The iPod integration is excellent, as is the Bluetooth phone link.

The worst feature of the car has to be the road noise from the tyres. On a non-smooth surface, the interior of the car is filled with a "roar". On the M6 going south to Birmingham, it was so bad that I wished I had never bought the car. It is still on the original tyres: Dunlop Fast Response 205/55 R16. They may be part of the problem but when the VW dealer assessed the tyre noise, I was told that it was normal. This is a real problem and made even worse because the car is whisper quiet on a smooth road surface. I intend to change the front tyres soon even though they still have plenty of tread left and see what happens. I can add that the Mk 7 Golf is slightly quieter on tyre noise than my car. Update: I have now put Goodyear Efficient Grip tyres on the front wheels and tyre noise decreased significantly but it is still not as good as it could or should be.

In conclusion, although I can't fault the reliability, performance, fuel consumption and many other aspects of the car, I do not really love it. I bought it with the "head" not the "heart". If it looked a little more inspiring, inside and out, and was not afflicted by tyre noise, I would be very happy.