Nine months ago, I upgraded my car to a new Volkswagen Golf 8, and I thought it was time to put together some of my thoughts so far.
I bought the car myself, with my own money, after an extensive search of multiple manufactures. VW had no editorial input into this review, nor have they seen it before publication.
Car Spec
My specific car is a Golf 8 Style with the 150HP Petrol TSI engine and manual gearbox. It is in Atlantic Blue with the following factory fitted extras:
- Winter Pack – Heated front seats, heated steering wheel and three zone climate control.
- Reverse Parking Camera – Camera Hidden in the rear VW logo shows you the area behind your car when reversing.
- Park Assist – Allows it to automatically parallel park or reverse into perpendicular parking spaces.
- Dynamic Chassis Control – Allows the car’s handling to be controlled by the driver’s selection.
- Variable steering – Changes the steering ratio based on speed and driving profile.
- Spare wheel – Adds a space saving spare wheel in place of a puncture repair kit.
- Keyless entry – Allows the doors and boot to be unlocked with the key in your pocket, by lightly touching the door handle.
- Mobile key – Allows a phone to be used in place of the car key (currently supports a small number of phones)
Purchase Experience
I bought my car in person (between lockdowns) at a local VW agent. While much of my experience will be specific to the agent rather than the Golf or VW, they are the franchise of choice for VW and form an important part of the end customer experience.
I found the experience to be a bit of a mixed bag; On entry, not knowing what I was looking for, I was very impressed with the no-pressure way that the agent showed me the range, listening to my thoughts, and helping me understand the differences.
Andy Bradford 