It's Like A Golf

I’ve now been the owner of a Volkswagen Golf Mk6 for 5 days. So what’s it like? Well, if you have ever driven, ridden in or even vaguely seen a Golf, it’s like that. Whilst some manufacturers will drastically alter their models from generation to generation, VW’s designers are locked away in a room for years at a time and rack their brains as to what exactly they should be producing: and then they always seem to come up with a Golf. To this extent, it is very difficult to tell the different versions apart. The first two look distinctly different from the later versions with their round headlights and their 1970s origami styling. The Mk2 is slightly bigger than the MK1. The Mk6 that I have looks almost identical (to my eyes) to the Mk5 except that it loses the plastic protection strips at the side. The Mk4 looks pretty much like the Mk5 except it has smaller headlights and the Mk3 looks like the Mk4 except it will have broken down. There is now a Mk7 which replaces the one I’ve just bought which is possibly slightly longer but whatever they have done it is still unmistakably a Golf. The end result of producing exactly the same car for the best part of 40 years is that they seem to have got very good at it.

I picked the car up on Tuesday night and, after paying for it with my debit card as if it were a packet of cornflakes from the local Asda, I drove off somewhat nervously and gingerly through late rush hour traffic in Glasgow. By the time I had made it to the motorway I was feeling a little more confident and put the radio on. This was my first rather happy surprise with the car as Radio 6 came on. I didn’t know it was available on FM in Glasgow and it isn’t: the car comes equipped with a DAB radio which was one of the few features that I wouldn’t mind having but which I assumed the base models would be without. I made it home easily enough and also made a mental note of a few things that are different from the Toyotas: the windscreen wipers work the other way around and the rear one does intermittent only rather than continuous only which strikes me as a much better arrangement. Also, reverse gear is on the other side which does get some getting used to – personally I think sticking it below 5th is more secure but most cars now allow for a 6-speed gearbox: I had better get used to it.

Although the car came with a fair amount of fuel (£50 rather than 50 litres) I thought it would be a good idea to top up to get a good feel for the consumption. I parked up at the local filling station and then re-parked as VW have the filler cap on the other side. I then ended up looking a complete idiot as I had to consult the owners manual (translated directly from German to Gibberish) to work out how to open the filler cap. I also reset the trip computer so I could see what the accuracy of it is like. The trip computer is rather good and the mpg figure gives both a long term reading which can be manually reset and an individual trip reading. It also has functions such as average speed, miles left on the tank, duration of journey and something that bleeps every time the car goes over 20mph. This last feature is excessively annoying as I don’t want a nagging German car commenting on my driving like my nagging German mother-in-law. Fortunately, another quick reference to the Gibberish manual advised how to switch this feature off (the speed warning, that is, not the mother-in-law).

After getting used to the very long gearing and turbo lag on the engine the first thing that strikes me about the Golf is how smooth the whole thing is. Whilst most of the gears are very long, 1st gear is very short which allows for very refined slow speed manoeuvring with the car capable of moving off slowly from idle. What it doesn’t allow for is very fast starts at junctions so that does have to be taken into account when turning right or joining roundabouts. The other thing that struck me on my first drive into work is how well the car handles speed bumps. Part of this will be down to the greater width of the car compared to the Yaris and partly down to the more sophisticated suspension set-up. The difference between the two is remarkable. Whilst I am used to getting back pain at whatever speed I negotiate the things at, with the Golf I can barely feel a thing. Also much improved is the amount of cabin noise. It’s not perfectly insulated but it is rather Radio 3 friendly. I tried an Arvo Pärt CD which is almost unlistenable in the Yaris and yet is quite audible in the Golf – not perfect by a long way but still a huge improvement.

I’m still waiting to see how the costs pan out but so far it looks promising. According to the trip computer, I have been averaging around 55mpg driving to work and 60mpg on the way home (this difference is accounted for by the fact I work at an altitude which is 100 metres higher than where I live). I will get a better idea of the accuracy of those figures once I have used a full tank of fuel but it shouldn’t be that far away from the Yaris. In terms of reliability and durability it remains to be seen. The vehicle feels quite substantially built although some of the switches and dials feel a little fragile. This is not really something that can be determined from a new car but older VAG vehicles still feel well put together so I can hope it will last. Depreciation is also something VW’s are meant to be good for but since I have just bought a 10 month old car that has lost 40% of its value I can only hope that I’ve bought it at the right time (otherwise the car would end up valueless before the warranty expires).

It’s worth, at this point seeing how much the Yaris has cost me in the 5 years I have owned it. I typically cover 1,000 miles per month so that makes things easy to calculate but depreciation worked out at £78/month; warranty and breakdown cover £20/month; repairs, servicing, tyres and other consumables around £38/month, tax & mot £15/month; insurance £13/month and fuel (52mpg avg at £1.35)  £118/month. That comes to a total of £282/month or 28.2p/mile. Writing all this down makes it sound a lot and, in truth, it is - it is part of the reason why I have always said that if I didn’t need a second car for work I wouldn’t have one. However, as a necessary evil, it needs to cost as little and cause as little trouble as possible. I’m hoping that the Golf will live up to that – driving home on Friday with Miles Davis’s Milestones playing I did, at least, feel happy with my purchase.