Well, I'm still waiting for my new Sportback to arrive and the Volvo S60 has gone back so in the interim my fleet company has given me a brand new Golf to tide me over the next few weeks (only 300 miles on the clock after the delivery guy drove it from London to Leeds). I know it's a 2.0 TDi (the clue is on the back of the car where it says "2.0 TDi") and I'm guessing it's the Sport trim.
Externally I think this car is a dog - actually, no, it's a bitch 'cos it looks all girly. What were VW thinking when they copied Peugeot? The car looks really small and I struggle to spot the difference between Golfs and Polos on the road. Is the Golf really built on the same platform as the A3 and Sportback? It also feels like VW have done their utmost to make this car look as innocuous as possible. YAK!
So, in my view it looks cr ap. Really cr ap. I walk out of my house in a morning to see it's goofy face sitting on my drive and I just want to jump up and down on the bonnet.
Then I get inside. Whoa - where's Christoper Ecclestone 'cos this is Dr Who territory. Where did all this space come from? And, you know, there's an awful lot of similarity with the A3 range. If I squint a bit I can pretend I'm in an Audi so long as I don't look at the VW badge on the steering wheel. If it's night time then the inside looks REALLY nice - VW mixed the red illumination of the Audi with what I find a really nice blue on the dials and CD player. The effect is very pleasing and, dare I say it, more appealing than the A3s (the car I'm driving has the red ambient lights like those found in the interior light pack on the A3). The seats are well made with attractive fabric and have more adjustment than the sport seats on the A3 so another plus there. There are some downsides though - the centre of the dash below the stereo is VERY flimsy. You can actually pull some of the plastic away and I nearly snapped it off yesterday!
Then I start the engine. It's got the same signature as the 2.0 TDi Sportback but has a noticeably louder rattle which I assume is down to less noise-proofing? I reverse to the left out of my drive and notice just how tight the turning circle is, very nimble, and we chug off down the road like farmer Giles on a tractor. 5 minutes later it's a rather different story. The engine has warmed up and is quite smooth when cruising. Put your foot down and the engine usually picks up very well - I think the acceleration may be fractionally better than the equivalent A3s? Need to check the stats. Steering is sharp and responsive. Over and over the word "nimble" comes to mind. Occassionally the word "fun" almost appears too.
I come home and park up, again impressed with the handling. Then I get out and look at the car.
I get flashbacks of my late teens and early twenties (legal point - before I met my wife). You meet in the dark and she looks good. Later you wake up in a strange bed and a grin spreads over your face thinking about what you got up to. You roll over and ... WHO'S THAT FEKKIN MOOSE??? Well that's the feeling I get when I look at the Golf. Yeah you're fun and a bit dirty but what would people think if they saw us in public? Sorry luv, you're dumped.
And of course, the following day you find your mate copped off with GTI sister who's got a stunning face (but her a rse is all wrong).
