There it is. After tons of speculations of all kinds and forms, it was organized an event at the German capital to give the welcome to the latest generation of one of VW’s most successful cars of all time. The seventh Golf became the best exponent of its manufacturer’s technological arsenal, with an enormous list of improvements which not only allows it to compete equally with the increasingly demanding competition we see today, but also intends to establish a whole new level for it. This is the best Golf you’ve ever seen.
Long ago this car has stopped motivating expectations concerned to making design revolutions. To explain this we can use the simple fact that each change has been increasing its expertise at converting that anachrony into some kind of advantage. The thing is, besides the German designers love to make their cars preserve the “visual identity” with their previous generations, applying this concept at Golf’s lines since 1983 (when the second one arrived) gave them some prominence among its opponents. It takes just a quick look at most of the other mid-sized hatchbacks: the usual strategy is to promote a big redesign whenever it gets financially convenient, so it gets easier for them to follow the style tendencies of the moment. Ford can give an example: after taking out Escort, they replaced its tired but classic notchback with Focus and all that futuristic “New Edge” design. Later, its second generation improved those forms in a discreet but elegant way, but it’s reception wasn’t as good as the previous one, at least in Europe. So its third phase decided to change again, invoking the sportiness to attract that lost public.
Golf, however, followed a different path. It’s surprising to notice that its changes are, in fact, adaptations to each time made on the same basic design concepts. The car got a more solid appearance at the eighties, its lines became more aerodynamic at the early nineties and way cleaner at the end of that decade, and after that it evolved in lots of ways, becoming more comfortable, secure and fast, but also more efficient, especially at the sixth generation. But there still are the wedge-shaped front end with short hood, the two and only windows at each side, the iconic wide third column right after them, and the classic hatchback rear end with big tail lights at the conventional place, below the glass. This car is extremely different from the first one but at the same time incredibly alike, if we consider the almost forty years between them. And now, this famous style intends to distinguish itself at the 2010s focusing at the sophistication. From every angle we observe, it’s easy to notice a maturity impression. The round, breezy shapes gave space to a much more elegant style, which doesn’t try to make any kind of revolution, but gives an excellent sensation of quality.
Haven’t you already read about how the VW’s cars are getting too much alike, at their latest versions? Well, the style identity they follow so hard was started with the previous Golf, in 2008. Thus, instead of exhaust the public repeating that and therefore “following itself”, the company decided to use it again to present a new trend. We still can see a lot of the old concept, especially the idea of two black horizontal lines at the front, but it got much more evolved. The upper air intake got thinner, and the lower one got divided into three, probably to seem wider. However, it’s curious to see how the modern LED headlights end at such a discreet side section. That line right beneath the handles gives the overall impression that the whole are is lower than what seems to be a 2010s trend – VW still deserves credit for creating this much more original solution, though. The last column must’ve become as wide as the first generation’s one, but this is one of the unarguable charms of this car. It’s already known that the new Golf uses the new MQB platform, which made it longer and wider but with reduced weight, compared to the previous one.
This lighter weight allows it to return to the smaller engines, but now blessed with the downsizing tecnhologies, such as TSI. This makes the gasoline range go from 60 hp to 140 hp, while the diesel goes from 90 hp to 190 hp – before the sport versions arrive, of course. But as the pictures show, it’s already coming with the BlueMotion version, whose fuel consumption improvement technologies wasn’t revealed yet. Obviously, the sophistication impression doesn’t abandon the car when we enter at it. According to VW, the interior received much better materials, with different color options to match the classier design. There aren’t too much shiny parts that could give a terrible effect with the sunlight; lots of people could say they were entering a much more expensive car. It’ll have lots of comfort, technology and safety equipments, such as the ones revealed by the video VW released a few days ago, in order to offer more than any of its competitors. But the big touchscreen at the center console is one of the many symbols who converge into this car’s message: Volkswagen Golf has finally came to the new times. But it came with everything to make them old.