2.0 TDI 184PS Alltrack DSG7 4Motion 5dr

A very practical car, but far from boring!

I bought this car because my wife's family were taking the p*** out of my battered BMW X1 (18D X-Drive); and I also wanted a better car. I never knew that there was a Golf Alltrack, having only seen the Passat Alltrack owned by a neighbour; amazingly there were 2 for sale at a main dealer in Nottinghamshire. Almost the same length and width as the BMW, but lower overall and a much better specification.

By the time I got to the dealer, only the newer ex-demo car was available, with extras like the reversing camera, metallic paint, keyless ignition and 18" wheels. I liked the car straight away, and bought it along with the extras that I thought should have come as standard, like mud flaps, rubber floor mats and a boot liner. When delivered, only the boot liner and mats were fitted. The dealer said mud flaps were not listed for this model (although I had paid). I ended up buying the ones for the pre-facelift version from the USA, and they fit perfectly.

I didn't drive it very far initially (Lockdown), but when I could, I loved it even more. I have never been a fan of automatic gearboxes, but my physiotherapist wife said it would be better for me as I was getting older. The 7-speed DSG is amazingly smooth, the automatic parking brake is perfect, (although I will be a nightmare in an ordinary car after this). I have only owned diesels for the last 25 years, and don't notice the engine noise, but this car is quiet at motorway speeds and the engine has plenty of grunt for overtaking. I often tow, and there is easily enough torque for this, but you should use the manual option on the motorway to save a bit of fuel.

The luggage space is huge! My wife's and my luggage for a week, a Labrador with bed and food, plus my elderly in-laws and their luggage, 2 wheelchairs and lots of walking sticks fitted in easily. We would have needed our roof box with the X1.

I live in the countryside, and often have to drive on rough tracks or over fields. The extra ground clearance helps: but don't go too far off-road! Off-road mode helps a lot: AWD kicks in earlier, it keeps the gears lower, and the auto stop-start is disabled (helpful for opening gates etc.). AWD will not work on any car if the tyres can't grip; luckily I found some "Valley" wheels with good winter tyres locally, and they were excellent in the snow and ice.

My final niggle is that VW have removed the low washer fluid warning for the facelift, this is annoying. The last car I needed to carry a bottle of washer fluid was a C-Reg Vauxhall Nova!

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