Volkswagen Golf Sport 1.4 TSI DSG Review: The People's Champion

What we like:

Better looking than before

improved refinement

brilliant fuel economy.

What we dislike:

Face looks like a Jetta now

piano-black touches in the cabin leaves thumbprints easily.

On winding roads, the Golf comes into it’s own. In these circumstances, it’s hard to separate out the car’s qualities because it melds into one impressively able whole, disguising the fact that it is a front-wheel drive. It continues to flow along, feeling all of a very rigid piece with well-controlled bodyroll.

There’s an uncanny sense of the car being pulled through the bends by an invisible tow rope, and is composed with good feedback when going into sharp corners. The steering is spot-on – accurate and properly weighted.

On poor, roughly surfaced roads, only the tyre’s propensity to pick up noise and vibration detracts the smooth experience. Superb brakes too, with excellent under-foot feel and really powerful, controllable retardation. Other active safety devices include ABS, ESP, EBD and brake assistant.

At the end of the day, the Volkswagen Golf Sport is set to sell all thanks to the vast improvements in both aesthetics and engineering, extensive equipment list and last but not least, a respectable combined fuel consumption of up to 20 km/L. And on top of that, it’s CO2 emission of 116 g/km puts it into band A2, qualifying it for a $15,000 CEVS rebate.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the leader of the family hatchback class; and most possibly, Singapore’s best-selling hatchback for this year.

Credits: Story and photos by Azfar Hashim