GTD 2.0TDCI Bluemotion 6sp

Over valued by the motoring press

In the end it`s just a middle-ground medium-sized car with no particular features to recommend it - it`s not as well-built as many Japanese cars - it doesn`t handle as well as a Ford Focus - and it is not particularly refined whatever the media says.

Good things: it has a strong 2 litre turbo-diesel with good emissions ratings (cheap to tax): It has un-adventurous styling (thank goodness): good heating and air-conditioning: comfortable driving position: good brakes: useful boot space.

Average things: steering (distinctly un-involving): gears (a bit notchy - Focus MUCH better): handling (wobbles over bumps mid corner): engine noise: radio etc.: window & mirror controls (fidgety).

Bad things: road noise - this is very bad on typical English surfaces - the press reports on the refinement of the 2015 Golf are untrue and these media should be held to account for merely parrotting the Press Releases over this issue. It is not possible to have a normal conversation (i.e. without shouting) in a 2015 Golf Estate on normal road surfaces at 60 mph: suspension - is awful on the Bluemotion version, with lowered ride-height coupled with over-stiff springs to compensate. The resulting ground-clearance is about 4" and is quite inadequate for any use outside city-centres, motorways, and suburbs. Deeper tyres help a bit, but you must get used to bottoming on sharp bumps, and a constant jarring on every manhole-cover and ridge which becomes exhausting on a long journey.

There are a number of other things the testers forgot to tell you about the Golf 7; the visibility is very bad to the point of being dangerous; because the roof-line is too low, the rear-view mirror is mounted far too low, in the middle of the windscreen - creating a blind-spot on the left side just where another car may be entering a roundabout; the "A" pillars are stretched far too far forward, to please the stylists, and this creates other nasty blind spots - it`s very easy to miss a cyclist. The mirrors are a silly pointed shape and are too small.

If this sounds like I am saying the VW product committee goofed over this model - well, that is in my opinion exactly what they did; I doubt if any of them even tried driving the car, they just nodded when asked to agree to a blind agenda.

I could go on about the various driver aids, sat-navs, interfaces etc. but like all modern cars, you are left asking a) whether it was fitted in the first place b) if it was, is it working? c) if it is working some of the time, do you want it, and if you do, how do you select it? Suck it and see - after 8 months with a Mk 7 Golf I still have very few clues.

VW`s handbook is weighty and thick, but don`t expect it to tell you any answers that matter; my car tells me to "check key-safe" - but although there is a reference in the index, it gets you nowhere. In other words it`s a piece of Eastern-European bluff aimed at the directors of VW rather than their owners.

So is this a lousy car or not? No -it`s not lousy, just average; you`ll do just as well with a Kia, and if you like driving, a Ford Focus is a much better bet (or Renault?)

I came off a 2007 Focus Mk2 1.6 turbo diesel which I handed on to a grandson after 12 years; not without troubles, but everyone who borrowed it commented what a pleasure it was to drive; and the suspension on bad roads was terrific. Can`t think why VW don`t pull one to bits to find out how Ford did it - and then copy them. Corporate conceit, I suppose.

I disliked the Ford for it`s intrusive road noise and bought a Golf on the strength of Press Reports saying it was very good in this area.

It is not, and I was deceived; beware!

Andrew Sanders

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