2015 Volkswagen Golf TDI and 1.8T Review

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2015 Volkswagen Golfs

Taking account of its gasoline, diesel and high-performance GTI variants, the latest Golf highlights Volkswagen engineering at its best. A Euro-sporty hatchback that the world has long embraced, the Golf helped VW to sell five million cars in the first half of 2014, sneaking past General Motors and barely trailing Toyota as the global sales leader.

But like soccer in some quarters, the Golf’s virtues have largely been lost on Americans. Here, the Golf has played the sporty German underdog to dependable Asian appliances, and — before they got serious about small cars — cheap disposables from the Detroit Three.

For decades, the hatch-only body style has been the Golf’s main obstacle here. Americans have stubbornly resisted liftgates, unless they came attached to the soaring hulls of S.U.V.s. But people are finally wising up to the do-it-all virtues of hatchbacks, including Golf rivals like the Ford Focus and Mazda 3.

And today’s small crossover utilities, so popular with Americans, are essentially hatchbacks on tiptoes.

But no crossover, and no hybrid for that matter, can do what I managed in the new diesel-power Golf TDI: 60.6 miles per gallon over 75 highway miles along the Jersey Shore. That’s my personal highway m.p.g. record for any American-market car I’ve tested, including the Toyota Prius.

In stark contrast to a Prius, a car in which I feel my life force oozing away with every mile, the VW isn’t a sluggish chore to drive. The Golf is richly designed and executed, and it is economical and fun to drive even when you’re running to the drugstore for a prescription.

Gas, diesel or GTI, the 2015 Golf is a bit longer, lower and wider than before, with a touch more passenger and cargo space. The shape, as familiar in its own way as a Porsche 911’s, is subtly retailored, with crisply stamped hood creases and horizontal strakes across its chin. The Mazda 3 and Focus flaunt their curves, but the VW is handsome in its own temperate way.

The chassis, interior and powertrains are decisively upgraded. The Golf rides on VW’s new weapon of mass consumption: The MQB architecture will be the flexible building block for dozens of VW Group models, including Audis.

This is sophisticated stuff. Between its well-tuned suspension and a chassis heavy on high-strength steel, the Golf feels as smooth, solid and poised as its small Audi cousins. It shushes noise like a no-nonsense librarian.

An airy, smartly crafted interior makes its own deluxe statement, with no trace of the cost-cutting that once marred the Jetta. A 5.8-inch touch screen is standard.

One change appears small, but sums up the advances: The Golf ditches VW’s awkward rotary seatback-adjuster knob, the wrist-wrenching bane of VWs for decades.

Cargo space, always a strong suit for the Golf, expands further to outstrip that of the Ford or Mazda hatchbacks: There’s 16.5 cubic feet below the hatch’s parcel shelf and 22.8 cubic feet if you load up to the roof, much more than in the typical full-size sedan. Folding the rear seats opens a bountiful 52.7 cubic feet of storage, nearly as much as in BMW’s X1 crossover. The VW is one small car that can help you move to a new apartment, rather than just fetch pizza.

The gasoline-powered Golf banishes its aging 2.5-liter in-line 5-cylinder for a 1.8-liter direct-injected TSI turbo 4 that’s more powerful even as it sips less fuel — up to 20 percent less. It combines 170 horsepower and a class-thumping 200 pound-feet of torque with an E.P.A. rating of 25 m.p.g. in the city, 36 on the highway (up from 23/30). Those figures apply to the 6-speed automatic transmission; an available 5-speed manual does 1 m.p.g. better on the highway.

The TDI gets a new quiet-running 2-liter turbodiesel that makes 150 horsepower and 236 pound-feet. The TDI now carries an onboard tank of urea, a pollution-fighting fluid, to meet coming emissions standards. The TDI also trades the gas version’s conventional automatic transmission for a dual-clutch 6-speed DSG automated manual. So equipped, the Golf TDI is rated at 31/43 m.p.g., or 30/45 with the 6-speed manual.

But forget the official story. The E.P.A.’s crazy fudge-factoring of fuel economy tests has forced Ford, for one, to reduce its hybrid mileage ratings.

Yet while the E.P.A. rules tend to overstate hybrid mileage, they vastly underestimate diesels’ real-world economy. In my testing, the TDI effortlessly delivered 50 to 53 m.p.g. even as I cruised at 65 to 70 miles per hour and passed dawdlers at will. And in an admittedly Prius-like run, holding at a resolute 55 m.p.h., the TDI sipped at a wallet-friendly 60 m.p.g.

Quibbling about the performance of a car that gets 50-plus m.p.g. seems churlish, but the TDI is almost a bit too obsessed with fuel economy, with a languid throttle and transmission programming that resist efforts at haste. Popping the transmission into Sport mode helps to keep things moving. And with its generous midrange torque, the TDI still has no trouble negotiating or passing traffic.

Car and Driver magazine found that the automatic-equipped TSI was barely faster, at 7.7 seconds from 0 to 60 m.p.h., than the 7.8 seconds of the diesel automatic, but that the stick-shift gasoline Golf whipped its diesel counterpart at 6.8 seconds versus 8.3. Still, in my automatic-transmission test cars, the gasoline version felt much quicker.

Both versions are pleasingly agile, with tightly controlled body motions — right up there with the class benchmark, the Mazda 3. The standard XDS system automatically dabs a front brake on the inside of a turn to quell wheelspin and sharpen handling. Disc brakes combine impressive strength with direct pedal feel.

A limited number of two-door Launch Edition Golfs are available at $18,815. The better-equipped two-door Golf S starts at $19,815 with a manual transmission, $20,915 with the automatic and $21,515 for a four-door automatic. A deluxe Golf SE, available only with four doors and the automatic, starts at $25,315. A range-topping SEL at $27,815 is stuffed with everything from a navigation system and 18-inch alloy wheels to sport seats, keyless locking and ambient LED cabin lighting.

Diesel Golfs come only with four doors, though every trim level offers a manual transmission. VW’s diesel brigades will notice that the least-expensive TDI S starts $3,000 less than its predecessor, at $22,815. That rises quickly to $26,315 for the TDI SE and $28,815 for the TDI SEL. For every diesel version, add $1,100 for the dual-clutch DSG automatic.

The Golf S 1.8T that I tested was priced at $21,515, with no added options. The diesel TDI S test car, which had the $695 Driver Assistance Package with parking sensors and forward collision warning, was $25,610.

As ever, this VW hatchback is not cheap. But if you’re about to buy a small car, and you’ve never driven a Golf, take a test spin and prepare to be impressed. As with its premium Ford and Mazda peers, you get what you pay for.