Following my colleague Danielle’s appraisal of the Golf in last month’s AM, in which she voiced her concern about whether this 40-year-old icon retained the charisma to ensure it had many more years left in the motoring mainstream, I decided to take a deep dive into its 2014 performance and Volkswagen’s plans for it.

The signs are positive. Sales grew 15% year-on-year. There was significant growth in the numbers of Mk7 estates registered (1,002 to 5,295 units) and the SV, of course, that only came out in May 2014 boosted overall Golf registrations by some 2,619 units.

The best seller in 2014 was the Golf Match 1.6-litre 105 PS TDI five-speed, five-door (this also includes sales of SE as Match replaced SE in the summer), which accounted for about 22% of total UK sales.

The Golf remains Volkswagen’s most popular model and the introduction of the Match trim last year boosted sales in that direction.

Changes in engine, trim and kit will come at ‘model year’, i.e. cars built from week 22 in 2015, which are then delivered in the summer. Volkswagen wouldn’t say what this will entail yet.

On finance offers running from now to the end of March, the headline is 7.5% APR with £750 deposit contribution. VW also has a focus on PCPs (Solutions) around low-cost fixed servicing. Until March 31, if a consumer buys a new car with Solutions from Volkswagen Finance they receive up to two years or 20,000 miles servicing for £149 (excluding  GTI/GTD and R).

¦ Go to www.am-online.com/offers to see VW‘s new car finance offers alongside other manufacturers’ programmes

 

What’s been said about the VW GOLF

Parkers.co.uk

The VW Golf has been on a serious diet and shed 100kg, which improves the car’s handling to make it more agile.

Honest John
The competition is now better than ever and Volkswagen is well aware of that. At the official unveiling of this, the seventh-generation Golf, VW took the unusual step of talking about how good the Ford Focus is. It seems the Germans might be just a bit worried.