45 years ago, in March 1974 Volkswagen had introduced a car named after a sport universally loved. It was a successor to the highly successful VW Beetle and had really big shoes to fill. It was a modern car with enough space and drive. It was the first generation Golf. on 24 Oct 19, VW unveiled the 8th generation Golf, considered as one of the most successful and popular cars in the world with more that 35 million cars sold across the globe.

In keeping with the times, the new Golf is connected, digitalised, smart, intuitive to use and clean. Notwithstanding, it offers the same level of emotional pull as the older generation cars. VW is offering the Golf with no less than 10 engine options and 3 fuel options. Now that is a difficult menu to choose your daily does of fun from. VW has offered the car with three gasoline options with mild hybrid technology called e-TSI, two gasoline engines with plug in hybrids, two conventional gasoline, two diesel and a single natural gas engine.

All the cars have been installed with the high voltage high efficiency 48 V systems with Li-ion batteries. The mild hybrids reduce fuel consumption by 10% along with the attendant advantages in reduced emissions. The three e-TSI engines generate 110, 130 and 150 PS of power.

The two plug-in hybrids are the high performance cars with a 13 KW-h Li-ion battery pack which gives them a pure electric range of 60 KM. This gives them access to parts of the cities where only zero emission vehicles are permitted. These power packs generate 204 PS and 245 PS in the GTE version.

There are two three cylinder conventional petrol engines producing 90 and 110 PS powers while the four cylinder diesel TDI engine produce 115 and 150 PS. The last engine on offer is a natural gas burning TGI engine producing 130 PS of power.

Outside, the car has retained the basic Golf shape and remains distinctly a Golf with a thick C-pillar. The 8th generation golf has taken several cues from its increasingly electric cousins with a narrow grille joining the thin LED headlamps. A wide and broad air dam compensates for the airflow needs of the engine, brakes and cooling system. The waist line connects the top of the DRL at front to the top of the tail lamps at the rear. These DRLs also act as the turn indicators. The hatch is typical VW Golf with a large VW logo dominating the center of the hatch and the number plate positioned in the rear bumper. There are two exhaust openings in the rear bumper displaying the sporty credentials of the car. The wheel are tasty alloys with asymmetric pattern and are large enough to fill the wheel arches.

Inside, the car has been given a digital makeover with an elongated touch screen infotainment system combining the conventional dashboard function. All the controls are in the form of digital touch buttons or sliders. The instrument cluster can be chosen to show the conventional instruments or the navigation map aka Audis. There is a headup display provided to help the driver concentrate on the road and not get distracted by other functions.

The car is connected to the outside world through the Car 2X system which communicates with the traffic system as well as other cars installed with the Car 2X system up to 800 meters away. All this information is provided to the driver via a display. The 8th generation Golf is provided with an external online connectivity unit (OCU) via an e-sim. This unit provides a number of online and connected services via the “We Connect” and “We Connect Plus” services.

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