Here is a car for all reasons. The Golf VII is satisfying to drive, serene to ride in and superbly user-friendly. It’s also remarkably fuel efficient, inarguably safe, technically advanced and, especially in its least expensive form, stunning value. Volkswagen seems almost to have set out to create a car to excel in every one of the five Wheels Car of the Year criteria.
Criticisms? The seventh generation of Volkswagen’s hatchback doesn’t exactly evoke excitement at first sight. The Golf VII’s exterior is an ultra-cautious evolution of the familiar forms and details of its predecessors.
Its interior is so super-conservative that it verges on plainness. But, from Volkswagen’s perspective, all that was required with the latest in its long-running line was for it to look unmistakably like a Golf. That’s exactly what the company’s designers delivered.
But Germany’s biggest car maker obviously asked its engineers for everything they had when it came to innovation and advancement. Volkswagen isn’t short of technical talent or manufacturing expertise. This much was clear even before the 2012 European launch of the Golf VII. Now it’s on the market, it is abundantly obvious how far ahead of the competition it is. The world’s other mass-market manufacturers must surely be awed, and probably frustrated, by what Volkswagen has achieved.
The wonder-workers of Wolfsburg have created a Golf that’s better in every way that can be measured. And the increments are anything but minuscule. Volkswagen has cut Golf’s weight up to 100kg.
This despite growing in wheelbase, length, width and roominess compared to its immediate predecessor. The VII is built on the company’s new MQB architecture. Those initials stand for the German Modularer Querbaukasten, which translates as ‘Modular Transverse Toolkit’ or ‘Modular Transverse Matrix’.
MQB is ultimately destined to provide the basis for up to 40 different VW Group models, but the architecture was designed primarily to accommodate the requirements of the Golf VII, according to head of project management Albert Meltzow.
Consequently, there’s extensive use of lightweight steel throughout the new Golf’s body structure and the kind of painstaking design that doesn’t put a gram of material anywhere it doesn’t serve some useful purpose. More than 20kg was shaved from the body’s weight this way. Similarly rigorous mass-reduction measures also extended to the Volkswagen’s seats, instrument panel, air-conditioning, and electrical system.
But it was a switch from cast iron to aluminium for the cylinder blocks of the Golf VII’s turbocharged petrol engines that delivered the single biggest weight saving – up to 40kg. The only thing the new EA211 spark-ignition fours have in common with the EA111 units they replace is an 82mm cylinder bore-centre spacing.
The new cylinder heads point their exhaust manifolds rearwards, and are inclined backwards 12 degrees in the engine compartment, so mimicking the Golf’s EA288 turbo-diesel fours. This reduction in installation variation simplifies assembly, undoubtedly saves cost, and surely contributes a little something to the new Golf’s competitive pricing.
Volkswagen’s aerodynamicists claim to have cut the Golf VII’s drag by 10 percent. Although 14mm wider, it’s 28mm lower, so frontal area is reduced. And the new shape is more slippery, too.
Lower weight and improved aerodynamics, plus other improvements like a less energy-hungry air-conditioning system, should add up to excellent fuel consumption. In the case of the Volkswagen, they do. The line-up of models assembled for COTY testing did exactly what those judges who had comparison tested Golf VIIs during 2013 expected – they delivered stunningly low consumption numbers, despite being driven with a merciless disregard for economy. From the base 90TSI engine, through the 103TSI and 110TDI, and on to the go-hard GTI, whether with manual or dual-clutch transmissions, the Golf VII delivers outstanding fuel efficiency.
At the pumps isn’t the only place owners will save. Responding to criticism of high and inconsistent maintenance costs, Volkswagen Australia introduced capped-price servicing just days after the local launch of the mainstream Golf VII models last April. The deal is good for the first six years or 90,000km of ownership, whichever comes first. Servicing costs for petrol-powered models, except the GTI, are capped at $2112. The turbo-diesel will cost a little more, $2371, to maintain for the same period.
The car itself is priced more sharply than ever. The entry point to the Golf VII line-up in Australia is the 90TSI with a 90kW 1.4-litre turbo engine and six-speed manual. At $21,490, it’s $500 cheaper than the equivalent Golf VI, which had a less powerful 77kW 1.2-litre turbo four.
The new Volkswagen remains competitive through the Comfortline grade, which, like the base model, offers the 90kW engine with manual or seven-speed DSG transmissions, and the Highline grade, with either the 103kW version of the turbo 1.4-litre and a seven-speed DSG or a 110kW 2.0-litre turbo-diesel with six-speed DSG.
Topping the Golf VII line up is the simply brilliant GTI, launched here in October at $41,490 with a six-speed manual and $43,990 with six-speed DSG. This is a hot hatch that winningly combines genuine maturity with youthful exuberance. It’s perhaps the most polished and well-rounded example of the genre ever made. The GTI’s 162kW 2.0-litre turbo four, third-generation of the EA888 series, simply bursts with elastic, exploitable energy.
It was impossible not to be impressed by its easy speed, and pair of excellent transmissions. With more direct steering than other Golf VIIs, a lower stance, wider tyres, better brakes, a specially tuned electronic differential lock and standard adaptive damping – with a useful range of four settings: ‘Sport’, ‘Normal’, ‘Comfort’ and ‘Individual’ – the GTI also delivers a rewarding and involving driving experience. Especially at Holden’s Lang Lang Proving Ground, where its limits could be fully explored, it sent judges into a superlative-hunting frenzy.
For different reasons, so did the least- expensive Golf VII of all, the 90TSI. This affordable hatchback is agile, eager, spacious, comfortable, fabulously refined and beautifully built. It’s the model where the scale of Volkswagen’s achievement is most obvious. Has anyone ever produced a car of such shining quality for such an excellent price before? That’s the question we kept asking…
As the judges worked their way through Comfortline and Highline, 103TSI and 110TDI, manuals and DSGs, and the pair of GTIs, attempting to find serious fault with the Golf VII began to become an obsession. This quest grew more intense as the days passed, and the test program moved from proving ground to public road. The judges’ notebooks record of growing frustration, especially regarding the 90TSI.
Corby: “How can a base model be this good?” Peter Robinson: “Base Golf more refined than A-Class for road noise and ride.” Sally Dominguez: “Pretty hard to fault.” Glenn Butler: “Sometimes it’s the little flaws that give something character… the Golf has none.” Byron Mathioudakis: “So utterly and toweringly capable it makes me sick!”
Safety was never going to provide a reason for criticism. The dry-as-dust data-crunchers at ANCAP, announcing the seven-airbag Volkswagen’s five-star rating, were even moved to note the car introduces a number of new safety assist technologies. Having duly noted this, the COTY judges tried to find some weakness in the car’s active safety systems. In vain. The Volkswagen’s ABS is more effective in the wet than on dirt, and the ESC could be a little more subtle, but that’s it.
The behaviour of the Golf’s DSG was thoroughly checked, too. On the handy brake-test hill at Lang Lang, theVolkswagen’s dual-clutch automatic performed perfectly.
The hill-hold function gives the driver a couple of stationary seconds after brake release to get their foot onto the throttle, which is ample. At steep angles, the Golf also seems to de-activate its start/stop system, a smart measure to prevent the possibility of stalling and subsequent rollback. Nor was there any DSG hiccup during repeated parallel parks on public streets.
Vision out of the Golf VII is better than average and its driving position is practically perfect, too. Sustained scrutiny of the interior revealed nothing but considerable care taken in both design and assembly. And the consistent simplicity that’s the defining feature of the car’s design, inside and out, eventually won some of those judges who’d thought it painfully plain at first.
Riding in the rear, the Golf VII’s higher tyre noise levels on coarse-chip surfaces were more obvious than up front. It’s not bad enough to be a deal-breaker, and the rear seat itself is excellent. There’s ample headroom, and the perfectly angled backrest and cushion are much more than averagely supportive. Further aft, the clever false floor of the larger-than-ever 380-litre cargo area, and the considerate provision of stowage for the compartment’s cover, were admired.
Many cars make perfect sense to buy, yet deliver imperfect pleasure once bought. The Golf VII is not one of them. From the smallest, thoughtful details to the biggest basics, this is a car that never falters. Its breadth of talent, its almost annoyingly persistent perfectionism and its unrelenting satisfaction make it something truly rare… a car for all reasons.
This is one of the most worthy Wheels Car of the Year winners ever.
After more than half a century of setting the benchmark, Australia’s top motoring award – Wheels Car Of The Year – has rated its 2013 winner one of the most worthy ever, challenging the judges to find a weakness.
In fact, the latest generation Volkswagen Golf has proven to be a significant advance on what was already an exceptional package. It is now more powerful, more economical, safer, better equipped and better value than ever before.
It is the third time the Volkswagen Golf has taken out the coveted prize (1976, 2009 & 2013), and the third time VW has claimed the Wheels Car Of The Year in the past five years.
“The Golf VII is satisfying to drive, serene to ride in and superbly user-friendly,” notes Wheels editor, Glenn Butler. “It’s also remarkably fuel efficient, inarguably safe, technically advanced and, especially in its least expensive form, stunning value.
“We’ve dubbed it the ‘car for all reasons’. Volkswagen seems almost to have set out to create a car to excel in every one of the five Wheels Car of the Year criteria. And, quite simply, the Golf has aced it.”
More power. More Performance. And a limited edition Launch Edition – meet Subaru’s new turbo charged hero, the 2015 WRX STI.
Officially unveiled in Detroit overnight, it’s best to think of the STI as a regular WRX on steroids.
Gone is the standard WRX’s new 2.0-litre engine, with the STI retaining an upgraded and more powerful version of the 2.5-litre unit used in the current car.
Powered has been upped to 227kW – a rise of 6kW – but interesting, torque has dropped 14Nm to 392Nm.
A six-speed manual shifts the gears (there’s no sign of the 5-speed auto fitted to the new WRX), while new, faster steering and a retuned suspension setup (which reduces body roll by 16 percent) are designed to improve performance.
With demand tipped to be high, Subaru will offer a special ‘Launch edition’ limited to just 1000 units which will boast signature WRC Blue paint, gold 18-inch BBS wheels and a short-throw shift.
Early this morning, wanting to avoid any potential trouble by walking through the dark to the Detroit motor show (with 330 murders in 2013, Detroit ranks with New Orleans as America’s murder capital), I rode the People Mover to Cobo Hall.
Something, possibly the fact that the old bookshop, a once favourite haunt between the Renaissance Center and the People Mover station, was long ago replaced by a chemist, reminded me that it’s 25-years since I first came to Detroit for the show.
That 1989 show transformed Detroit’s annual car event from a dealer display, largely only of cars produced by what was once called The Big Three, to the North American International Auto Show.
Most famously, 1989 saw the world launch of Lexus (LS400) and Infiniti (Q45) and the first public showing of the Viper concept car, largely created to distract journalists from yet another Chrysler slump.
Along with a dozen or so other hacks, I was a guest of Ford of England and it was my first international assignment after moving to Italy in December of 1988. We stayed in what was then the world’s tallest hotel, the 73-storey Westin, now the Marriott and again my base this year.
We spent two days at the show, drove a bunch of American Ford, Mercury and Lincoln models and meet senior management at the Glass House, Ford’s Global HQs in Dearborn.
On the plane across the pond I got talking to a Ford manager who quietly revealed that only months out from production start-up the much-heralded Ford Australia SA30 Capri program was in jeopardy.
According to my source, on-going quality issues, delays to the program and cost over runs meant Dearborn was considering cancelling the car. In the old world, before the immediacy of the internet, would this shocking story – for an Australian journalist the hottest of the show – hold for a monthly magazine?
It did and, of course, the Capri went ahead. But faced by Mazda’s MX-5, the Capri only went to 66,279 buyers, most in the USA. Dearborn’s perception that Ford Australia was responsible for the failure, directly impacted on any suggestions from Broadmeadows that the Falcon and Territory should be exported and thus played a role in killing the Broadmeadows plant.
This year, Ford of England brought only one British journalist to Detroit for the show: my old mate Steve Cropley, formerly of this address and for the past 21-years editor-in-chief of the UK’s Autocar magazine and one of the world’s greatest and best connected motoring writers.
Motor shows always present opportunities to interview senior executives – this year, travelling with BMW, I interviewed three BMW people (of which more later). The show highlight (apart from discovering surprise cars like the Toyota FT-1 and Kia GT4 Stinger) however, was the hour I spent with Cropley talking to Moray Callum, Ford’s recently appointed Vice President of design.
Callum succeeds J Mays, who successfully ran Ford design for 17-years but who, a senior Ford insider tells me, didn’t know he was about to retire.
I first meet Moray and his brother Ian a few months after that first Detroit event, at the 1989 Geneva show. Virtual unknowns, the Callum brothers worked at Ghia, Ford’s Italian design studio where Moray styled the Ghia Via, an influential fastback hatch created under the eyes of Ian, his design manager, and that year’s Ghia Geneva concept.
You could say the brothers, proud Scots, have Done Good. From late 2001 to mid-2006, Moray ran Mazda design, and played a key role in transforming Mazdas from bland to dynamic and sporty, the first generation 3 now recognised as an important near-classic piece of automotive design.
Today, Ian heads Jaguar design and little brother Moray, four years his junior, runs Ford’s huge design operations.
“We have the best looking range in a long time,” says Moray Callum, “we’re literally designing cars around the world. The important thing is that we (the designers) speak the same language and we agree on a common direction.
“But Ford (design) has never stood still, we don’t want to keep replicating ourselves. I’d say we’re in the middle of the current (visual) cycle. I need to look at three or four years away (for the generations after next). Today, we are good at allowing designers to do what they do. There is no danger of stagnating if we have something good.”
Callum, an inveterate car collector and a true enthusiast, recently bought a large shed to house his growing collection that includes an E-Type Jaguar, 1961 Lincoln Continental, an early ‘30s Ford V8 hotrod, step-down era Hudson and a 1961 Pontiac convertible.
“Is your Buick Rivera a ‘63 or a ’65?” I asked.
“Yes,” he laughed. He has both.
The next car on Moray’s list is Continental Mk 11, the classic mid- ’50s two-door coupe and one of the most beautiful and tasteful of all American designs.
“I wouldn’t buy an ugly car,” says Callum. Nor, I’ll bet, would he allow one to escape during his period at Ford.
It’s a sad but true fact that there can only be one winner of Wheels COTY.
And in an award as prestigious and cut throat as ours, there’s no participation ribbons or ‘best and fairest’ awards.
So it was with a brutal and cool efficiency that our first round of cuts took place at Lang Lang.
Biting the dust early are: the Audi A3, Lexus IS, Fiat Panda, Holden Trax, the ‘ergonomically bizarre’ Peugeot 2008, the Jaguar F-Type, Honda CR-V and Mercedes A Class.
All took an early bullet for varying reasons – read our February issue, out January 16 to find out why.
Of course, while there are casualties, others soldier on, meaning the battle for things year’s crown heads into round two with six contenders still intact.
They are: the Porsche Cayman, Ford Kuga, Renault Clio, Holden VF Commodore, VW Golf and Mazda 6.
Who will be the chosen one?
PROHIBITIVE right-hand-drive retooling costs and projected small sales mean that Chrysler’s pretty new 200 series will most probably remain a left-hand drive proposition.
Derived from the Alfa Rome Giulietta-based Compact Wide underpinnings that also begat the upcoming Jeep KL Cherokee SUV, but designed, engineered and built in Michigan for the US and Canadian markets, the mid-sized Camry competitor is charged with at least doubling Chrysler’s tiny three per cent market share before the company will even think about RHD export plans.
Speaking at the 200’s launch at the Detroit show today, the head of the Chrysler brand, Al Gardner, told Wheels that Australians should not hold their breath for sleek new sedan.
“Today that is not in the plan,” he said. “Would I like to have right hand drive? Yes. But the reality is there are limited places where we can put it – Australia, England, Japan.
“Basically the 200 is intended to eventually go international, but today it is a North American-market only product. Do we have the ability to do right-hand drive? Absolutely. We’re looking at those opportunities.
“It simply comes down to regulations and the amount we wanted to invest to get it right from day one. We’re very focused on the mid-sized market in the United States – it’s currently at 2.3 million units; now if we can increase our volume in this market, then fantastic.”
True to its Camry-beating aspirations, either a 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol engine or a 3.6-litre V6 drives the 200’s front wheels, though up-spec models also offer the option of all-wheel drive for the North American snow-belt region.
Besides sporting a slinky silhouette, the Chrysler’s other standout feature is its segment-first nine-speed automatic transmission, though many buyers are more likely to gravitate towards it low base pricing in the US.
While this car’s predecessor was also known as the 200, that was merely a rehash of the unloved Sebring that sold very poorly in Australia from the mid to late 2000s.
NISSAN’S struggling Pulsar may have a shorter lifespan in Australia than originally envisaged.
According to global executive vice president, Andy Palmer, the company is developing a more conventional hatchback range to take on the likes of the Toyota Corolla and Volkswagen Golf.
While the as-yet unnamed C-segment small car is designed primarily for European consumer tastes, it will be sold in many regions across the world – including most likely in Australia – after debuting at the Paris Motor Show in September.
“It will be a global car everywhere except in the United States – we’re not developing the platform for North American regulations, but in all other respects it is a global car,” Mr. Palmer confirmed.
“It fits exactly in that (conventional small-car hatchback) space. It is important for us now because as we have grown from the days of the old Almera (N16 Pulsar in Australia) as a relatively small player in Europe to the smash hit we’ve had with the Qashqai (Dualis Downunder), our customers in some cases have had nowhere to go back to.
“So it is important, as we anticipate our market share going up above five per cent, for us to get back into the mainstream.”
Mr. Palmer added that it would make no sense for the newcomer and current Pulsar to both be sold in Nissan dealerships.
“I don’t think it could exist with Pulsar (in Australia) because Pulsar plays in that same space.
“Clearly the intention is that we have something that sits in the mainstream C-segment hatch market, and the poster boy for that right now is the Volkswagen Golf of course.”
Nissan has not offered a full-sized conventional C-segment hatchback to take on the Corolla and co since the demise of the N16 series in 2007.
At the time the company’s European arm gambled instead on the then-novel Qashqai crossover concept that has since become one of the most successful UK-built vehicles of all time.
But the smaller B-segment based C11 Tiida that replaced the original Pulsar line in early 2006 bombed spectacularly in Australia, while its 2012 replacement – though faring better with buyers as the new Pulsar – has been outsold by the Corolla and Mazda 3 by a margin of almost three-to-one.
To help keep costs down, Nissan is expected to manufacture its premium Euro small car offering in Spain.
Both the Pulsar in C12 hatch and B17 sedan guises are currently sourced from Thailand.
DATSUN SILVIA and 200SX fans rejoice, because Nissan’s car czar has confirmed that the inexpensive rear-drive sports car is finally heading back our way.
Speaking at the Detroit motor show earlier this afternoon, company executive vice president, Andy Palmer, revealed to Wheels that the IDx Concept that wowed show goers in Tokyo last November is at last production-bound.
Expect to see the retro-infused coupe within the next two years, though probably not wearing the IDx badge.
Regular readers may recall that two visually similar but mechanically divergent concepts starred on Nissan’s stand back in Japan – the Freeflow (“a casual/lifestyle-focused vision” offering engine choices ranging from 1.2-litres to 1.5 litres) and Nismo (a sportier iteration employing 1.6-litre turbo power, and described as “an ultra-sporty model of the future that looks as if it came directly from a driving simulator”).
Underlining their importance to the company, both are on hand at the American show as well.
“We’ve made a decision on one of those two,” Mr. Palmer announced. “One of those two will go into what we call our ‘midterm plan’. Now whether we do both remains to be seen. Don’t say we won’t do both, but we definitely will do one of them.”
While he would not go into anything more specific for the time being, Mr. Palmer added that Nissan is keen to return to a market it helped pioneer for four decades from the 1960s.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of the conceptually similar Kia GT4 Stinger’s surprise debut in Detroit today.
Both are aimed at the same affordable rear-drive sports coupe market revived by our Car of the Year 2012-winning Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ.
Stay tuned for more IDx news as it comes to hand.
A CONVERTIBLE version of the Detroit-show stealing GT4 Stinger could already be in the pipeline.
Kia Motors Corporation president and chief design officer, Peter Schreyer, revealed that he would like to one in the range should the three-door coupe enter production, since the low-slung styling lends itself to a drop-top very easily.
In fact, instead of the seemingly obvious Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ that GT4 Stinger evokes, the German design veteran name-checks the evergreen Mazda MX-5 as the inspiration for the concept vehicle.
“We have not yet worked on it. But I could imagine it,” he told Wheels magazine at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit today.
“Of course, it is pretty obvious how (this car) would look with a soft top. I would do it anyway. I would always do it with a soft top.”
Unbelievably, Mr. Schreyer admitted that most of Kia’s senior management in South Korea was unaware of the concept car’s existence until its surprise unveiling at this afternoon’s motor show press day.
“We usually just go ahead in design and suggest something (like this concept), and then top management see it and have to decide,” he said.
“And today is the first time they’ve seen it, so I don’t know their reaction. “We have to wait now to see how the reaction is, what top management thinks and how they react to it. But from a technical point of view it is realistic.”
Mr Schreyer added that he has always longed for an inexpensive sports car to boost the brand. It has not been able to happen until the right off-the-shelf underpinnings – in this case the Hyundai Genesis’ – became available.
“Basically the underpinnings are the Genesis,” he said. “We always wanted to make a little sports car and finally we’re allowed to try one out. I think something like this would have potential as a product, and it would suit our product range very well, and make it spicy and give it some character.”
Mr Schreyer explained the liftback configuration was chosen to increase the coupe’s appeal as a more practical sports car option compared to rivals such as the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86.
“If we made it as a 2+2 notchback the boot would have a very small opening, making it impractical. But if it came as a convertible it would need a different kind of solution.”
While the GT4 Stinger Concept’s design contains a number of fanciful elements – namely the semi-transparent crosshatched A-pillars that are designed to dramatically improve forward vision – the basic design principals appear to be sound for production.
“(The A-pillars) still need to be properly researched and engineered. I don’t think they are unrealistic but they would need a lot of development. But I don’t expect to see any problems.
“Once it gets a green light it might take – I don’t know – two to three years? We still haven’t done any feasibility work on it.
“But my understanding is that there is nothing about it that is impossible.”
By the way, the GT4 Stinger name came about when the US-based exterior design team led by Chris Coutts suggested bee-like yellow paintwork, while the GT4 prefix pays homage to a European sports car touring race series.
The first sketches were only penned in February last year, too.
So unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know the 2014 Detroit Motor Show is in full swing.
But with so much shiny new metal on display, what have been the showstoppers? The cars everyone wants to see, that caused journalists to gasp and rush forward like a pack of wild animals?
Well, after elbowing fellow journos out of the way and walking what feels like a million kilometres, our men on the ground bring you this – the highlights of Detroit 2014…so far.
