EVERYONE selling brand-new family hatchbacks, take note. Orderbooks for next January’s MkVI Volkswagen Golf are now open.
What’s more, the range opens with a headline starter price of £13,150 for the three-door 1.4-litre S.
Rivals, here’s what VW’s offering: an opening gambit of the S, with ABS, ESP, seven airbags (including a driver’s knee airbag), remote locking, air con, CD stereo, electric door mirrors and body-colour bumpers.
Next up is the SE – this has alloys, cruise control, a better stereo with MP3 player connectivity plus automatic wipers and lights. You can only get this with the 122bhp 1.4-litre TSI engine and above, so prices start from £15,705
The range is, for now, topped by the GT. This costs from £18,400 and includes lowered suspension, bigger alloys, suede sports seats and front fogs.
The engine range is limited at the moment, to turbo and non-turbo 1.4s, and a single 2.0-litre TDI with 110bhp or 140bhp.
But VW dealers will be hoping to make a heap of money on options, which include many features more normally seen on luxo-barges. Adaptive Chassis Control with electronic adjustable dampers is available, for example, as is ParkAssist – here, the driver controls the pedals, and the car ‘steers’ into parallel-park bays.
We’re sure every dealer demo in the land will be so equipped, for it to become an integral part of the test drive…