Volkswagen Golf 1.5 TSI 130 Life 2020 UK review

It’s not as if you need to go through the touchscreen for every process from opening the sunroof to turning down the heater, like on a Tesla; usability has evidently been carefully considered.. Permanent capacitive controls stand in for regular switches for climate control temperature and audio system volume, and they work well. For the latter you can simply swipe your finger along a touch-sensitive strip to adjust the level, rather than jabbing away at a ‘zone’.

For the touchscreen infotainment system itself, you can switch between some of the more important menus via a small shortcut ‘buttons’ underneath the screen, but it’s also easy enough to navigate to where you need to be from the system’s home screen which is only every one tap of the finger away. The car’s digital instruments are clearly presented, adaptable for layout, and they provide useful additional warning and prompts without bamboozling you with too much information. Wireless device charging and full ‘wireless app connect’ networking are standard fit even at the lower trim level of our test car. And so, yes, those of the oft-referred-to smartphone generation will like this car. As for those who don’t instantly like it; well, I dare say they’ll grow to. 

Of the more long-established strengths of the Golf’s cabin, there is more familiar credit due - albeit in somewhat limited quantity. Perhaps some of the money that might otherwise have been ploughed into smart, pudgy, richer-than-average materials, or spent on lining cubbies in ways you don’t see and making minor fittings simply feel better and move just-so, has been diverted to pay for the onboard technology we’ve already mentioned. There’s the merest under-isolated ‘ping’ to the sound made by the car’s doors as they close, for instance, and one or two places around the interior where VW’s colour and trim department could have spent more. 

Generally, however, you’d say this Golf is beaten for perceived quality only by the hatchback market’s self-declared premium-brand operators such as the Mercedes A-Class and Audi A3, which is pretty much how the last was defined. Meanwhile, outright cabin space and boot capacity are both very competitive; this isn’t the most practical car in the class, but it is as well-packaged as ever.

Measure, moderation, predictability and ease-of-operation remain the abiding characteristics of the Golf’s driving experience, although a clear attempt has been made to give the car’s handling a fresh, youthful and slightly sportier flavour - and it’s detectable even with the car in this humble mechanical specification. Broadly speaking, it’s a successful attempt. Whether it makes this car the match of an equivalent Ford Focus is a question we’ll return to in the coming weeks. But there is certainly a tauter feel about this car’s body control, and a keenness about its off-centre steering response, than equivalent Golfs of previous generations have shown.

In this particular Golf it comes at a slight cost, and that’s secondary ride comfort. If this car is representative of the Golf’s dynamic character more widely, no longer can we instinctively recognise it as the most comfortable, best-isolated, best-riding car in the hatchback class. Our test car permitted just a shade too much surface noise and vibration into the cabin for that to be true, and felt just a little too keen to become excitable over uneven roads on its firmed-up suspension springs. It’s far from unrefined, though; and further tests will tell if the ride comfort that the car has surrendered on UK roads in lesser forms can be returned to it in pricier mechanical specifications.

The longish ratios, limited power and slightly fussily precise shift quality of our test car would likely have combined to prevent you from describing it as fun to drive in outright terms, but it certainly handled in precise and fairly eager style, the chassis seeming ready for greater exercise than the powertrain could really give it. 

As it was, the real-world fuel economy of our test car outshone all else about its performance (refinement was good but not great, drivability, flexibility and responsiveness likewise). On a 30-mile motorway trip at typical UK motorway speeds, it returned an indicated 65mpg - which suggests VW’s efforts to improve the Golf’s aerodynamics really will pay dividends for owners. From a 1.5-litre turbocharged, non-hybridised petrol hatchback, an easy 65-to-the-gallon is very impressive indeed.