Volkswagen Golf Plus

Halo everyone, in conjunction with previous posting which reviewed about the trip of over 500km from Soest to Ulm, this week I am writing about the car I had driven in the road trip which was the not-very-much-new Volkswagen Golf Plus. I am honestly not interested in writing a review about Volkswagen cars, or maybe even talk about it. I had always underestimated nearly all Volkswagens because it seemed that people who work at Volkswagen simply had no idea how to build cars with distinctive style and character. An awfully thought might just pop out from my mind that people at Volkswagen build cars merely because they need to make money, feed their family and that's it. All Volkswagen cars were built by a bunch of people who couldn't care less about cars and had absolutely no passion for automobile. This is the main reason why I had always found Volkswagen's cars were gloomy, lifeless and had no character. Furthermore, I even think that the designers and engineers discussed about a new car design during a Sunday brunch and then put it immediately into production line the next day without considering further research about consumer's taste, needs or anything. I mean just think about the tag line which is recently introduced by Volkswagen, it completely emphasizes how unimaginative this car manufacturer is: "Volkswagen. Das Auto." or in English "Volkswagen. The car." I sincerely don't mean to be sarcastic, but it feels like saying, "Rico. My dog." Why can't they be a little bit imaginative, cheerful and alive?! Apart from the New Beetle and Eos which I found are nice cars to be driven and looked at, several cars they have built are totally tasteless: Lupo, an awfully ugly car because only morons will buy such a mini car which looks line an elf; Phaeton, a Volkswagen that costs as expensive as a Mercedes S-class or BMW 7-series, it might presumably another unique form of German joke; Jetta: I could barely recall that this car exists because it is indeed forgettable; Touareg, sharing the same platform with a preposterously expensive Porsche Cayenne and yet feels cheap. So, the last question will be: Has Volkswagen ever built a good car? I hate to say it, but the answer to this question will be... Yes, they have. It’s called Golf which has been around for more than 35 years and it is factually Volkswagen’s cash cow. I seriously mean it if you consider the 2007 figure that they built 20 millions of Golfs and Golf is the third best selling car around the world that year. It absolutely is a people car and so, what about his slightly bigger brother Golf Plus, is it any good to drive? Well, that is what I am about to point out next.

The Golf Plus was actually introduced in 2005 and targeted for those who expect a bigger car than Golf, but they didn’t want to enter the MPV territory. So it was kind of somewhere in the middle for someone who had a small family member and they were looking for a space functionality as you can find in MPVs. For starter, unlike the stupid looking Lupo, I was quite surprised with the exterior design of Golf Plus which looked like a modern school run car; it felt sporty, young and fresh. I also liked several small details which can be found in an MPV such as the blind-spot window in A-pillar; roof line which streamed smoothly from the upper windscreen to the back of the car and it is properly accentuated by roof rails; the horizontally opposed wiper blades and the tail lamp is indeed a stylish detail since the combination rear lamps have a two-part design. When switched off, four brilliant-white circles on a red base can be seen.The tail light, stop light and direction indicator are positioned at the respective outside edge of the vehicle. 36 LEDs per side serve as the light sources. For the tail light, all 72 LEDs emit red light. When the driver applies the brake, the two sets of 16 LEDs in the two inner circles light up with increased intensity and, together with the third stop lamp in the roof-edge spoiler which also uses LED technology, form the now classic optical "warning triangle". When the driver switches on the direction indicator, the respective set of 20 LEDs in the outer lamp rings are activated and emit the prescribed amber light.

"I hate the gloomy dashboard design which lent a feel of
sitting on an eerie cemetery."

The exterior was indeed cool, however the same thing didn’t apply in the interior since it still speaks the traditional language of Volkswagen’s cars: dull and gloomy. Despite the dark grey plastic they used which I thought an acceptable quality, the dashboard design was completely dreary and the buttons were just a matter of functionalities. I had sat inside for more than six hours and it didn’t generate the feel of relaxing or making you feel happier, it was just dreadfully bad and boring. However, I do found that the interior is unbelievably spacious and practical for a car its size. The boot space is quite huge and there are a massive amount of storage compartments and cubbyholes all over the interior, in the door panels, center console, under the arm rest, under the front seats; it was basically so many that I had actually forgotten where I had put my cell-phone in the car and I was biblically panicked for almost 2 hour of the journey. I then found it slipped in a tiny slot in the center console after I arrived. So far, things are going well for the exterior and quite good in the inside. The interior is surprisingly spacious up until a point where you can forget where you put your stuffs and yet, the dashboard design was uncreative and stressed on functionality too much, just like a tedious MPV.

Sadly, when it comes to power, Volkswagen seemed rather to trade a powerful engine with sensible fuel consumption. The Golf Plus I had driven recently was a 1.6L version generating a pitiful 102bhp; it was a 4 cylinder engine, mounted in transverse layout and paired with a 5-speed manual gearbox. For a car that weighs nearly 1.4 tons I thought that would simply be not enough and that clearly explained the reason why it had a 0-100kph time in more than 11 seconds. I am actually not joking about how slow the car was and it was plain to see when I sat behind the wheel, the speedometer was unbelievably lazy to climb again as you hit 160kph although Volkswagen claimed it can do 184kph. I am very much sure that it would eventually reach 184kph, but that would take the rest of my life to get it go that fast and you might obviously need to have a long runway to do that. Meanwhile, take into account that I am naturally not a fan of manual transmission, however I do find that the manual gearbox in Golf Plus had been very nice to work with, the clutch was light and changing gears was smooth, it was just easy. So what about fuel consumption? Of course, with price of fuel kept going up and especially its pathetic engine, I would expect it to be frugal when it comes to fuel. At the end of the journey, the trip computer told me that I managed to achieve 8.8l/100km in average, which I figured was presumably acceptable for a car this class. On the other hand, handling is the best part which I like the most about this car. I am actually not an expert in reviewing cars, but I do know whether a car is nice to drive and feels alive. The steering feels nimble and precise, unlike any other cars which feel very heavy on the bonnet, this car turned exactly where you wanted it to go and when you get it into a corner at middle speed, understeer was naturally unavoidable and yet, the car generates only a tiny body roll. As I looking in the internet the other day, I happened to know this car had the chassis code of FQ35 and surprisingly, this was the same chassis as you can found in the current Audi TT and the new Volkswagen Scirocco. Both cars are known to have a sporty handling and the Golf Plus seemed to inherit this gen, it just felt solid to drive and simply the best feature of this car.

Speaking of comfort, I found that Golf Plus was not as soothing as I was expecting. The suspension was most likely set for a sporty handling theme in conjunction with its responsive steering, which is why it was somehow nicer to drive in a twisty country side road other than a boring, straight Autobahn. The car even didn't wobble at all and remained stable as I drove at around 160kph in A7. On the other hand, your spine might be tortured if you drive this car over a pothole or on a bumpy road since the suspension was simply not smooth enough for this kind of road surface. However, it is quite straight forward actually since there had always been a compromise between driving comfort and driving dynamic, but I reckon that Golf Plus had an even composition between these two elements. As far as features are concerned, this version of Golf Plus came with several standard equipments such as 5-spoke 15" alloy wheels, fog lamps, on board computer, park sensors, sat nav, traction control, cruise control, radio CD with 6 speakers, seat heater, roof rails and multifunction steering wheel with audio control switches which didn't work at all. Of all this features I had to particularly emphasize on the sound level inside the car as you drive along because Golf Plus appeared to had a lousy noise insulation and it got worse as you hit the high way. All ambient noises including the tires, wind and engine noise were just not properly filtered and that made me had to adjust the volume level at a high position so that I could listen to the radio or the sat nav's voice guidance. And then when I pulled over for gas in a service station, the ear-bleeding speaker sound would announce my arrival to the surrounding environment, as other people turned their heads onto my car, which they might have thought that the driver was a wretched and deaf bloke.

After spending around 560km of driving, I found that the ride in this car was not very much relaxing for a long distance trip and I hate the gloomy dashboard design which lent a feel of sitting on an eerie cemetery. On this basis, I have to say that it didn't generate a feel which made me want to spend more time or go any further in it. Nevertheless, I did like the exterior design, sharp steering, precise gear change process and the big amount of space it had inside for such a car its size, a wide range of comfort features such as cruise control was also worth to be mentioned as well since it reduced the eagerness to get out of the car as soon as possible. Meanwhile, there is nothing particular about its engine or the fuel consumption. All in all, the Golf Plus was just another average 4-wheeled metal work piece made by a bunch of boring people in Wolfsburg, particularly because this car was not imaginative enough and the interior really explained everything although the overall car was well-engineered. In the end, Golf Plus was just an ordinary car built for space flexibility purpose which turned out to be an essential addition to the whole Volkswagen's range of cars.