Hope you enjoy this advertisement for Volkswagen’s upcoming Golf VI. Already released in Europe and the UK, it is due for Australian release sometime around the middle of 2009. More details on that as soon as they come to hand.
The ad was created by DDB London and, perhaps, Toyota should have employed them too.
(Thanks to Craig for the tip.)
Last month we brought you the news that the new Volkswagen Golf VI has received a 5-star crash rating from Euro NCAP. Here’s the video. Clips like this make quite sobering viewing.
Take note of the lateral head movement of the infant dummy with the side impact test towards the end of 1 minute 20 clip. Despite this, the Golf VI scored highly for infant protection, with a portion of the report stating, “Based on the dummy readings from the dynamic tests, the Golf scored maximum points for its protection of both infants.”
More detail on the Golf VI crash test can be read at the Euro NCAP website. Further information about how the tests are conducted can be read HERE.
Volkswagen’s Mk5 Golf GTI is a bloody good car. I know this not only because the motoring world has barely stopped praising the car since its 2004 launch, but also because I have one in my garage. However, the GTI’s latest accolade, 2008 Drive Car of the Year (Best Performance Car Under $60,000), has to be the most irrelevant the car has ever won. Why? Go down to your local Volkswagen dealer and try to order a new GTI and see how far you get.
Sure, you can get a new Pirelli model, but with an extra 22kW, factory body kit and garish seats, that’s not the same car the Drive judges awarded. You could get lucky and find a dealer with a GTI in stock, but the factory has stopped making them, so ordering one to your specification is impossible.
The good news is the outgoing GTI can still hold it’s head high. Good for the dealer stock still remaining, and during the current financial doom and gloom, demand for the GTI in the used car market may hold firm. That said, while we’re waiting for the Mk6 Golf GTI, I just wish Drive was singing the praises of a new Volkswagen model…
…the Scirocco, for example.
The Golf Plus is a kind of cool part Tiguan-part Golf thing that isn’t available in Australia. The facelifted version, based on the revised MkVI, is due for release in a few days at the Bologna Motor Show. But, as is often the case, there has been a bit of a leak. Brochures for the new Golf Plus were put on the Volkswagen stand at the Essen Motor Show. Oops! And, with the magic of the internet now everyone has a copy. Follow the autoblog link below for more.
Along with the Scirocco, put this down as another model Volkswagen Australia should bring down under.
Source: autoblog
The new Golf VI has recently started Germany deliveries, with the UK expecting to get their hands on the Golf VI in January 2009. While nothing has been confirmed, Australian customers will probably need to wait until around the middle of 2009 for local release.
In the meantime, you can check the detail of the right-hand drive models by checking out the new brochure and pricing PDFs from Volkswagen UK (thanks to Craig for the tip).
Current driveaway pricing for the new UK range starts at £13,150 for the 1.4 litre 3-door Golf S, up to £20,980 for a Golf GT 2.0 TDI, with 6 speed DSG. The new 7 speed DSG transmission is available in the following models: Golf S 1.6 5-door; Golf S 1.4 TSI 5-door; Golf SE 5-door 1.4 TSI; and Golf GT 1.4 TSI 5-door.
PDF downloads
Golf VI – UK brochure (3.7mb)Â |Â Golf VI – UK pricing (300kb)
The BMW 1 Series Coupé and the Volkswagen Golf VI have both joined Audi’s Q5 in the Golden Steering Wheel winners circle. The Golden Steering Wheel Awards, run by German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, were founded by Axel Springer 33 years ago and have been awarded every year since.
An expert jury from Bild am Sonntag honoured the best new releases of the year, among them the 6th generation Golf, for a “superior win in the compact class”.
“The win of four categories confirms that the whole Group took the right course. We offer an incomparable spectrum of models and an enormous variation of design and technology. We make the perfect cars for everyone”, says Prof. Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the Board of management at Volkswagen AG.
BMW’s result was based on a readers’ poll in which the 1 Series Coupé two-door received 26.4 per cent of a total of the 220,000 plus votes cast. Australian buyers have also been enamoured with the two-door BMW coupé since it went on sale in May, with over 500 customer deliveries.
A BMW TV commercial likewise won first prize in the 2008 Golden Steering Wheel. The ad, for the Night Vision system on the 5 Series, can be seen below in a clip from BMW-web.tv, which also includes a brief interview with Ian Robertson, Board Member for Sales and Marketing.
Imagine you have your (affordable) dream car and love the joy it brings you. Whether that’s behind the wheel, or simply admiring the gentle shoulder line of its three-door shape. Your car has oodles of torque that make it a delight to drive. There’s enough power to have fun, but not too much to be stupid. Fuel economy, too, is quite good, if you want it to be.
Life is good.
Then, imagine you have to sell the car you enjoy so much! Not because of financial or other outside influences, but simply because impending fatherhood is about to render that svelte three-door shape a bit too impractical for its own good.
This is a predicament a mate of mine recently faced, and while his initial quandary gave him a little displeasure, it’s nice to know that everyone looks like living happily ever after.
Steve’s dream car was his Mk5 Golf GTI (pictured below). Like myself (or my wife that should be), as soon as the three-door option for the GTI was announced by Volkswagen Australia in late 2006, he took his chance to buy the perfect complement to his near mint condition 1985 UK-spec Mk2 Golf GTI. A few months later, when his new car arrived, the first in the country in United Grey paintwork, he was smitten.
If the GTI had to go, then what would prove to be an adequate compromise between driving enjoyment and family-friendly Sunday outings? Given the picture and title at the start of this post, it’s no surprise that Steve opted for a Skoda Octavia RS sedan.
It’s fresh, it’s funky, it’s fast, and its not available in Australia! This is the SEAT León Linea R. Okay, so the Linea R range is not much more than a fancy body kit, and it’s only fast if you tick the 147kW 2.0 TSI engine option from the three choices available—but it does look the business. The other engines have been raided from the VAG parts bin and include the 125kW 2.0 TDI (as seen in the Golf GT) and the 118kW 1.8 TSI (as seen in the Audi A4).
The León Linea R also gets a bunch of goodies thrown in such as 18″ ‘Supercopa’ alloys, dual zone climate control, TCS (traction control), ESP and, of course, the funky body kit, complete with Linea R badging.
While the exterior of the León Linea R makes you take notice, the inside is not quite up to Golf standards. It looks sporty enough, but the fine detail is just not there and the low placement of the Sat Nav unit is questionable, to say the least. Never mind that, SEAT’s generally drive just as well as their Volkswagen cousins, and normally offer more bang, for less buck. You gotta be happy with that!
The new Volkswagen Golf VI recently achieved 36 from a possible 37 points in Euro NCAP occupant protection crash testing. This result earned the upcoming model a five-star safety rating. Pedestrian testing, however, was not quite as outstanding, with a more moderate three-star rating awarded to the Golf VI.
Featuring seven airbags, including knee protection, the new Golf range will also include an Electronic Stabilisation Programme (ESP) as standard equipment across the model range.
Full press statement form Volkswagen Australia shown below.
The Paris Motor Show was the official reveal for the MkVI Golf GTI Concept. Here’s a couple of short YouTube clips from CARandDRIVER.com (above) and Edmunds InsideLine (after the jump) filmed in Paris. There’s nothing really new in these clips, but it’s still good to get a closer look at what is shaping to be another great GTI from Volkswagen.
Video footage of the next generation 2009 Golf GTI has recently emerged on YouTube. The clip itself is not the most inspiring video ever made, but fans of the iconic GTI will be welcome this footage all the same. For more on the new GTI read this previous AUSmotive article.
With all the talk of the new MkVI Golf GTI, I thought it might be time to remind Volkswagen what the new model has to live up. With thanks, of course, to Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear (Series 5, Episode 6).
See below for a Random wallpaper surprise.