Renewed VW Golf in the driving report – as always, only better

Volkswagen's evergreen Golf is being carefully revised just in time for its 50th birthday. The facelift isn't particularly noticeable, but crucial things have improved.

Although electromobility seems to be on the rise across Europe (apart from an acute dip), one combustion engine model of all things cannot be dethroned: the Volkswagen Golf. It remains Volkswagen's best-selling car – at least this year in Germany. Now it's time to spice up the aging eighth generation a bit. Really drastic measures cannot be carried out on the functional compact, although one would be offended by the engineers by claiming that hardly anything had changed.

What matters is that the particularly disturbing things have changed. The difficult-to-control touch surfaces have finally disappeared from the steering wheel and have been replaced by classic push buttons with haptic feedback. A dream. And the Wolfsburg-based company is careful not to include the operation of central elements such as mirror adjustment in the menu selection on the touchscreen – fashionable stuff isn't always good. So that's out of the question, you can still find the small joystick in the left door. You can work with that.

Speaking of the menu. This has actually been drastically revised. And that doesn't even mean the wonderfully colorful surface. While you used to despair at the slowness of the system, you can now navigate through the colorful menus in no time. And it can't be emphasized enough how wonderfully easy it is to turn off annoying assistants like lane vibration and speed limit alarms. The touchscreen, which is up to 13 inches in size, is also impressive. And so that you don't have to dive into the menu to change everyday things, at least the automatic air conditioning basics remain permanently on the monitor for operation. That works quite well.

The Golf is an engineering car through and through

And as colorful as the screen appears, the Golf is ultimately so objective. However, the compact, long-running favorite not only stands for practicality, but also for the highest engineering performance and quality. Engineering performance that you can immediately feel in the first facelift model driven. This is a variant with a 1.5 liter eTSI engine and 150 HP plus E-Boost. And of course the 48-volt system turns off the combustion engine before it comes to a standstill or whenever the gasoline is not needed (saves fuel). And it does it quite smoothly, almost unnoticeably if you don't have an eye on the tachometer. So much for engineering.

Otherwise, the four-cylinder is not incredibly spectacular. It runs with sufficient refinement and doesn't make the Wolfsburg athlete an athlete, but there's no question of it being underpowered either (8.6 seconds for the sprint to 100 km/h and a top speed of 224 km/h). In the context of the mild hybrid, the seven-speed dual clutch transmission is installed, which is beneficial for comfort.

Incidentally, Golf Variant drivers not only enjoy decent space at the front and rear, but also a veritable trunk volume of 1642 liters (ideally suitable for the hardware store). That is a proper value in the segment.

And since Volkswagen has brought several versions along for test drives, the plug-in hybrid has to be used afterwards. Not that there wasn't a dual engine before, but the GTE version at 47,895 euros is significantly stronger with a system output of 272 hp. And so the top hybrid puts on a lot of pressure using its full power and pushes almost as energetically as its classic GTI model (6.6 seconds to 100 km/h and a top speed of 230 km/h). After all, it also has the typical checked sports seats.

Better GTI instead of GTE

But! Of course, Volkswagen thought of everything and also brought the original with them. And to be honest: If you don't plan on driving over 100 kilometers purely electrically with a full 20 kWh storage unit (which can be filled with 40 kW via direct current) or can't or don't want to do without the reduced company car tax (0.5 percent), you should go for the GTI.

The popular athlete, if you want to call it that, is a well-rounded offer at a price of 45,655 euros that is rarely found in competition. The GTI simply puts you in a good mood even without excess, there is no need to get into a massive horsepower race. Here the famous two-liter four-cylinder with the designation EA888 only has to produce a moderate 265 hp for sports car conditions. So what, that's enough. The 1.5-ton truck has enough bite to keep the corners of your mouth up permanently on the Lower Saxony country roads around Baddeckenstedt (the driving premiere takes place here). After all, it should only take 5.9 seconds to reach country road speed.

Of course, a top speed of 250 km/h is possible. And the traditional compact also takes the few curves in this area sportily in the true sense of the word. And that without rolling particularly hard over bumps. The standard limited-slip differential keeps wheel slip under control. The Wolfsburg-based company has also tuned the GTI to be acoustically harmonious (not exaggerated).

Are you already thinking about which of the countless Golf variants you would like to configure? There are two more things you should know about this. Firstly, the revised Golf starts at 28,330 euros and therefore remains below the 30,000 euro barrier. And secondly, please be sure to order the “IQ” light, which costs 1215 euros extra: This means that the Golf not only has variable LED matrix light, which is particularly recommended on country roads at night. There is also an illuminated brand logo in the radiator grille. After all, the old Golf also has to offer a bit of coolness factor, since an entire generation was named after it.