What is it?
The eighth-generation of Volkswagen’s market-leading, class-defining family hatchback is perhaps more usefully thought of not so much as a new Volkswagen Golf as a different one. This car may use an updated version of the same model platform and chassis as the seventh-generation car; it may be pretty much the same size; and it may also use reworked versions of many of the same engines and gearboxes. But don’t be fooled by that stuff.
The Golf has changed, subtly but noticeably. It’s a car that suggests Wolfsburg has realised, underneath the familiar media messaging, that ‘progressive’ understated design and product positioning will no longer allow this car to sit at the epicentre of the European car market, and to top the continent’s annual sales volume statistics, in quite the way it has for decades.
In its exterior design, interior layout and in the way it drives, this is a Golf that risks more; that puts more of itself out there to be perceived, commented on, and liked or otherwise. This is the Golf of our social-media-obsessed, Youtube-selfie-stick-broadcast times, after all - and that’s beginning to show.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Still has the rubbish 1.5 engine
Don't buy with the 1.5 engine, so many people have had trouble with stalling, kangarooing, jerking etc with the previous mk7.5 Golf between 2017-2019. VW has at first ignored the problems, then tried to fix it but with rubbish results. This new mk8 Golf will probably be still the same with that engine. Google "No end in sight for Volkswagen 1.5 TSI engine problems" before buying.
Extremely ugly front end
Extremely ugly front end design.
The rest of the car? Meh.
Meh ..
To me this review reads like a series of sugar-coated excuses and mild disappointments; I therefore expect the car to be competent but no longer a class leader. The exterior styling does nothing for me: most of the car is safe (bland?) enough but the droopy front looks ill-at-ease with the rest of the design. Conversely I think the interior looks fine, and if you must have a digital dash, this one's smart enough. Surely the last hurrah along this model's current and very long evolutionary path - I have a feeling it just got a little tired.