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Volkswagen Golf
Price
$37,990 RRP
Specifications
1.4 litre In-line 4, Petrol engine
5 doors, 5 seats
7 speed DSG with tiptronic and sport mode
90kW, 0-100km/h, 9.4 seconds
Fuel consumption 5.9L/100km
CO2 emissions 139g/km
Safety & Comfort
Safety rating:
Driver airbag(s)
Passenger airbag(s)
Alarm
1 disc, 8 speaker stereo
Volkswagen Golf 1.4 TSI
Once upon a time the normal response to getting a small car to roadtest was to do something stupid like finding out how many bodies you could pack into it. Knowing this to be a puerile and immature thing to do, I decided on something more fitting for the entry level 1.4 Turbo Golf.

Frankly I distrusted the advertised fuel efficiency rating of 5.9 litre/100km (combined city/highway driving). My experience is that manufacturers' fuel efficiency ratings seem to be taken downhill with a tail wind with a lot more highway than city. My wife's Peugeot 206 is a case in point.

With this in mind I put together a fuel consumption torture test for the Golf, aided and abetted by Wellington's hill suburbs and the cooperation of 21 workmates. Over the space of a week I acted as camp leader for my colleagues, ferrying them to and from work and exposing the VW to the horror hills of Seatoun, Stokes Valley and Belmont.

Before we find out how well it delivered on its fuel efficient promises, let's take a closer look at the beastie. Jump into the Golf and the first thing that strikes you is attention to detail. From the hand machined VW bottle opener in the cup tray through to the cooling unit in the glovebox and the stylish logogram/hatch opener, this thing is a designer's dream.

Fire up the DOHC turbo-charged inline 4 and you find yourself checking the rev counter to make sure it's going - the wee German is truly whisper quiet measuring in at a barely audible 70dbs. The surreal quietness continues when you drop it into gear. Much has been written about Volkswagen's DSG transmission, which effectively operates two gearboxes and pre-selects your next gear before you need it. I won't repeat that here, suffice to say the second generation DSG box on the Golf was the smoothest and quickest shifting I've yet found.

As well as 7 gear tiptronic and traditional automatic modes there is a sports mode. Nothing unusual about that you say. Well, this is unusual because it blips the throttle on the downshift, just like old school double declutching. Damn, that's cool. Once you discover this feature it's hard not to let one's inner bogan start to assert itself, blipping down through cogs whenever attractive pedestrians appear.

The suspension is terrific, with the four link independent rear suspension giving it an air of stability that one normally associates with a much longer wheelbase than a Golf. While only producing 90 KW of power, the 1390cc petrol engine produces 200 NMs of torque at a barely-above-idle rate of 1500 revs and flatlines it there until 4000 rpm. In simple terms that means the Golf behaves more like a turbo diesel than a petrol (sans the noise and the fumes). There's been a lot of talk about bio-ethanol and smart diesels, but personally I think the future is much more around hyper efficient small petrol motors like the Golfs.

With a carbon footprint smaller than my hanky (139 g/km) and Volkswagen's well known green credentials, the smallest Golf is clearly targeting the moral high ground of sustainability and fuel efficiency. So how well did it do when forced to ferry the maladjusted boys and girls of the Trade Me office?

Pretty bloody well is the answer. Over the week we loaned the car its overall fuel economy averaged out to 6.4 litres per 100km. Given it was seriously chocka with people and flogged up and down the hills of suburban Wellington, that gets serious respect in my books. The average bus fare paid by our staff is normally $3.50 each way to work. By taking the Golf, this reduced to a remarkable $1.89 per person each way (and includes parking). Part of this goes down to cost efficiencies around car pooling, but the learning is clear. We were able to commute to work more cheaply in the Golf than we could via public transport.

What's more the general feeling of those that rode in it was that this was a sexy car. Over 83% of the women passengers rated it as a sexy ride and 73% of the men passengers agreed. So not only will it get you where you're going cheaply, you might get lucky as well!

Despite my natural prejudices I enjoyed my week in the TSI Golf. I really do think this genre of car - high torque/high efficiency/small displacement petrol engine - is going to be the way of the foreseeable future. Specially when you wrap it up with five star EuroNCAP crashtest rating (the maximum possible) as the Golf does.

So what didn't I like? I wasn't crazy about the colour and I was damned if I could work out the radio (mind you I am from Timaru). And as with any technology intensive powerplant, reliability over the long term is key.

Yes, at $37,990 it's selling at a small premium over the Corollas, Lancers and Mazda3s. But it's also cheaper than the Mini Coopers, the Audi A3s and the Alfa 147s - and in my opinion it's a better car.

And by the way, just in case you wondered, we managed to fit 19 people in the Golf (but don't tell Volkswagen).