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Volkswagen Golf
By
Tim Pollard
30 July 2007 08:33
The next Volkswagen Golf: everything you need to know
One car defines the success of the Volkswagen group: the Golf. It's the bedrock of the range and when the Golf sells, VW makes lots of money. In many ways, it's a barometer measuring the financial health, and wealth, of Wolfsburg. Today's Mk5 Golf is a strong seller, but it's also a complicated, expensive car to build. That's why VW is going back to the drawing board for the sixth generation, caught here testing in California at the weekend. It's wearing only light disguise, as befits a car that will be seen at a motor show in 2008, with sales slated for winter '08-'09.
It looks just like the last Golf!
True, but then radical and Golf aren't exactly comfortable bedfellows, are they? The sober styling of VW's small family hatch has gently evolved over the years and maintained its kinked C-pillar and solid substance, in preference for the wacky excesses of the Ford Focus and Honda Civic. Unsurprisingly, Volkswagen is repeating the formula for the Mk6. CAR Online's photos reveal a similar outline as today's Golf, but with VW's new family face grafted on the nose. You can make out a new grille and Eos-style wedge-shaped headlights under the front disguise. To save money, the roofline and glasshouse will be carried over, but fatter door frames, an integrated roof lip spoiler and more sculptured side panels give the car a tauter look. Evolution is the name of the stylists' game.
