VW tees up new diesel Golfs

VW's new sixth generation Golf is already a hit with the road-testers, who've been busy testing the sporty GTI and GTD versions. Now the company has announced the mainstream diesel models that are likely to account for the bulk of Golf sales in the long run.

All have a capacity of 1.6 litres and deliver either 90 or 105 horsepower; both versions deliver 62.8mpg on the combined cycle but only the more powerful of the pair can be ordered in conjunction with Volkswagen's second-generation seven-speed DSG gearbox. A special economy BlueMotion variant featuring stop-start technology and other tweaks arrives in September; that achieves 68.9 mpg on the combined cycle and emits 107g of CO2 per kilometre.

The new Golf 1.6 diesels start at £15,305 on the road. Prices for the BlueMotion version start at £17,165

The adoption of the new 1.6 litre diesel in the Golf marks another step in what looks like the slow retirement of VW's older 1.9 litre diesel unit, which has been giving lively, economical and reliable - if rather noisy - service in cars across the Volkswagen group for over a decade now.