VW Golf 1.4 TSI

It looks uncannily like the last one. This could be a good thing. A Volkswagen Golf must be instantly recognisable and eschew design trends. Or it could be a bad thing. The previous Golf was fine, so happy owners aren't going to feel an urge to trade it in.

Volkswagen is making a great play on how the new Golf appeals to the senses. The cabin is quieter, and there are softer, more expensive-feeling textures to see and touch. And there's a new look. Up to a point.

An obvious external change is a nose that's supposed to hint at the flat, rectangular form of the first two Golfs' front grilles. This is flanked by headlights which, while following the chamfered corners almost obligatory in a long-nosed modern car, don't go soaring up the sides. They still look like headlights, an example of new design chief Walter de'Silva's thinking.

The Golf, he says, is not an exercise in style. "It is practical and functional. Everything is defined with strict precision. The time of over-designing a car has been and gone."

The new Golf does have a clean simplicity about its looks. It also has a muscular air, brought about by the rising ridge below the waistline and solid haunches. It will make a good GTI (due next year). Inside, however, it looks very staid. For interest we must go to its gadgetry, which includes optional active cruise control to keep you a safe distance from the car in front, and optional self-parking which measures a space then steers you in. All you do is use accelerator, clutch and brake.

Every Golf at the test drive (which was in Iceland, unusually) had a DSG double-clutch transmission, with no clutch pedal and either automatic or sequential-manual operation. The less powerful engines were absent, which left a 140bhp version of the diesel and two TSI 1.4s. I've driven the diesel in other VW cars and it's excellent, so I went for the intriguing TSIs.

SPECIFICATIONS

Model: VW Golf 1.4 TSI
Price: from £15,000 (range will span £13,000-£21,000), on sale January 2009
Engine: 1,390cc, four cylinders, 16 valves, direct injection, supercharger and turbocharger, 122bhp at 5,000rpm, 148lb ft at 1,500-4,000rpm
Transmission: seven-speed DSG sequential/auto (on test car), front-wheel drive
Performance (DSG): 124 mph, 0-62 in 9.5sec, 47.1 mpg average, CO2 139g/km

These have both a supercharger to pressurise the intake air at low speeds and a turbocharger to take over at higher speed. So these 1.4-litre engines have the fuel economy (and low CO2 output) of a small engine when running gently, but the power of a larger one when roused: 122 or 160bhp are currently offered.

So it's off to find Icelandic geysers in a Golf capable of similar spurts of energy. The 122bhp version is under this one's bonnet, linked to a seven-speed version of the DSG (2.0-litre cars make do with a six-speeder). This Golf is also fitted with the optional "adaptive chassis control" or ACC, as tried recently in the new Scirocco. Here, too, the suspension's dampers automatically adjust themselves within three ranges: comfort, normal and sport.

The difference is that comfort is truly supple instead of taut-but-OK, sport is firm instead of solid, and normal feels, well, normal. On some quite choppily undulating roads the Golf in normal mode felt just right and very civilised. But there's a problem.

The DSG gives you seven forward gears, which is confusing if selected manually as each step is so small. That confusion is compounded by an engine so quiet you can't hear what it's doing. So after a time, you let the DSG's automatic mode do its smooth, excellent job. Some will love this characteristic. Others, like me, will think it makes for a dull, uninvolving drive.

I have little doubt that the GTI will be a great entertainer, and I expect to enjoy the forthcoming BlueMotion high-economy version too. As driven by The IoS so far, though, the handsome and quality-infused new Golf is a curious car. Somewhere along the line, the idea that driving can be an interactive pleasure seems to have gone missing.

THE RIVALS

Fiat Bravo 1.4 T-jet 120: from £13,105
Another downsized engine with added boost, this time turbo-only. Capable, good-value, worth a look.

Ford Focus 1.8: from £15,595
Conventional engine has Golf TSI power but greater thirst. Great to drive, improved looks and kit.

Peugeot 308 1.6 VTi: from £14,495
Golf-matching power from high-tech engine. Airy, high-quality interior, comfy, fun, but no beauty.

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