Can the cost effective 1.6-litre TDI Volkswagen Golfs still deliver the goods in other areas?
It seems that small diesel engines have a big role to play in the immediate future of the car industry. Theyre arguably the best solution we currently have to the problem of making cars fuel efficient and affordable, with enough shove to ensure driving them is a less than mind-numbing experience. Volkswagens 1.6-litre TDI isnt particularly small but its capacity is as low as the manufacturer is willing to go with a diesel Golf. Is it worthy of its crucial position in the range? The Golf is a massive car for Volkswagen, an icon of the family hatchback sector and of the world car market as a whole. As a result, it was never likely that Volkswagen would chuck the baby out with the bathwater and come up with a radically different car when it launched this MkVI version. What we got was more of the same but made tellingly better in a number of key areas. One of the most crucial was the diesel engines. The old direct injection units were replaced by common-rail injection powerplants offering
