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It has the touch of a Golf, it has the feel of a Golf and its name is Golf. But it doesn't really look like the recent Golf. Volkswagens Golf V Plus, available by now at car dealers around the world, is quite an interesting vehicle. Although the term "Golf Plus" is officially not intended to mean "better Golf", apart from slight setbacks concerning fuel consumption (the newcomer weighs around 100 kilos more than the regular Golf) and performance, it actually is so: For just 600 Euros more than you would pay for the regular Golf and (except for its height) the same overall dimensions and almost identical engine options you get multi adjustable and partable (40:20:40) rear seats that can be folded to an almost totally flat cargozone (if you go for the Comfortline-version or better), a boot (with between 45 and 145 litres more capacity than the normal Golf) that can be adjusted in size (by moving the rear seats), a sitting position seven centimetres higher and so much headroom that, similar to the good old beetle, you wouldn't have to take off your beloved hat ever again – that is, if you prefer to wear one anyway. Because the Golf Plus is 95 mm taller than his "little brother".
All Golf Plus (starting at 16.740 Euros in Germany, diesel starting from 19.490 Euros) are equipped with air conditioning, radio/CD player, ABS with ESP and six airbags. And beginning from the Comfortline version (starting at 18.150 Euros) you get the variable cargo-floor with a "secret panel" underneath as well as van-typical foldaway tables for the back row.
During first test drives we noticed the exceptionally flat windshield, that narrows down the drivers view range quite a bit especially if you prefer a high seat position. Also the lucidity of the front end of the car could be better for maneouvering.
Funny: The probably quite laborious third little sidewindow between A-column and side mirrors that seems to say: "When I'm grown up I'm gonna be a Touran."
Seemingly Volkswagen has managed to invent a niche with the Golf Plus. Target group: small families who consider mini-vans too large. Sports enthusiasts that prefer more room for their mountainbike, but don't like estate cars. And, naturally: drivers with hats...
One side comment be allowed by the test driver of this interesting vehicle: At the presentation of the new Golf Plus the marketing geeks from Wolfsburg so terribly often stressed that the Golf Plus – "as we all can see" – has the typical Golf face, that this alone was reason enough to beleave the opposite. The suspicioun prevails that, considering the all but perfect sales in the beginning of the Golf 5 era, it might have been an unsurety of taste by VWs Golf 5 designers that in the end lead to the obviously new face of the Golf Plus. The new look is just too close to the not so conservative line cuts of the competitor modells of Opel, Citroen and Peugeot. A smart move that looks very much like the new style of Bernd Pischetsrieder. And it is easy to imagine that the follow-up Golf 6 might look more like the Plus rather then the regular Golf 5. After all the little word "Plus" can nowhere be found on the rear of the new Volkswagen. Just that very decent quote "Golf"...
Engines
PETROL:
1.4: 75 hp, 126 Nm at 3800 rpm, 0 – 100 km/h in 16,2 seconds
1.6 FSI: 115 hp, 155 Nm at 4000 rpm, 0 – 100 km/h in 11,8 seconds
2.0 FSI: 150 PS (arrives summer 2005)
DIESEL:
1.9 TDI: 90 hp (arives summer 2005)
1.9 TDI: 105 hp, 250 Nm at 1900 rpm, 0 – 100 km/h in 11,9 seconds
2.0 TDI: 140 hp, 320 Nm at 1750 rpm, 0 – 100 km/h in 9,7 seconds
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