VW Golf (1998 on) in general

The Golf GTI 1.8T offers the perfect combination of style, performance and comfort. Its distinctive interior is elegantly finished with black wood inserts to the centre console, ashtray lid, gear lever and inside door handles. And is complemented by the leather trimmed sports steering wheel, gear level surround and handbrake. The "Recaro" sports seats confirm the 1.8T's lively image and include lumbar adjustment for maximum comfort. External aesthetics are enhanced with 16 inch' "Montreal II" alloy wheels and 205/55 low profile tyres and colour co-ordinated bumper strip. But the heart of this GTI is its 1.8 litre, 20V 150 bhp engine ...  Read the complete review

Family hatchbacks: what are they? They’re cars like you and me buy, that’s what. One-point-fours. One-point-sixes. You get modest comfort, a fair but hardly lavish specification, and…well, that’s about it. The missing factor is fun. Can you enjoy driving these budget-busters, or are they just dull run-arounds for fetching sprogs from school? VW’s Golf, the car that can claim to have started the hatchback boom, is particularly disappointing funwise. The current 1.4 takes a leisurely 16.4 seconds to reach 60mph from rest, and this modest performance is further blunted by high fourth and fifth gears; an attempt to give the Golf ...  Read the complete review