Yahoo Autos 2020 Volkswagen Golf First Drive Review | It keeps the joy in driving
PORTO, Portugal — Charging up the mountain roads east of the coastal city of Porto, hitting the apexes with precision, modulating the throttle delicately: it was a day of elevated driving in a car where it all comes together. Perhaps the most remarkable thing was that we weren’t driving some exotic supercar, but rather the humble (and all-new, eighth-generation) Volkswagen Golf.
Launched in 1974 as the successor to the faithful Beetle, the Golf was the best-selling car in the world for a long time. It pioneered diesel engines in the subcompact segment, spawned the quintessential hot hatch — the GTI — and the Ferdinand-Piëch-inspired fourth-generation Golf introduced unprecedented advanced technologies and workmanship. Clearly, there's a heritage to live up to.
Looking at it from the outside, you might mistake the eighth-gen car for a mere restyling of the previous generation. Even though not a single panel is carried over, the side view looks deceptively similar to the previous Golf, and the tail end is decidedly evolutionary as well. Only the front end looks sufficiently new, although the design’s friendly smile has proved to be polarizing.
Those headlights, of course, deserve a closer look: You can specify a state-of-the-art matrix LED system that is more sophisticated than U.S. regulators currently allow. This is top-level technology, taken straight from the premium/luxury segment, and they serve as an indicator of what's hidden behind that innocent mask.
Step inside the new Golf, and fast-forward into the future: The predecessor's conventional layout has made way for a futuristic, fully digital cockpit that is standard equipment even on the lowliest of European-market Golfs. In their top-level version, the screens allow you to rearrange tiles by the touch of a finger, there is a choice between pseudo-analog gages and tiles, the navigation map can serve as background, and many functions can be activated by voice as well. The infotainment system is fast, and even though it could be more intuitive, VW is constantly improving it.
The optional ambient interior lighting system, which also adjusts the instrument color, is real eye candy, and the tall center console looks like it is taken out of a spaceship. There’s not much else we’d wish for inside, save a frameless rearview mirror like the Arteon gets, and perhaps some open-pore wood trim inside as originally envisioned by the designers. We certainly disapprove of VW axing the premium brand Dynaudio as a supplier of its stereo system in favor of the Harman/Kardon mass-market brand, too.
The Golf is one of the most-space efficient vehicles to prowl Europe’s crowded city streets. The front seats fit average-size adults perfectly, and there is enough room in the rear even for long trips. The trunk is surprisingly big for such a compact car. To ease operation in Europe's crowded cities city, the Golf is available with a full suite of assistance systems and a plethora of cameras.
