2015 Volkswagen Golf
The latest Golf goes aggressive but still looks suitably upscale.
|
Well, folks, here it is, after months of renderings and spy photos:
the 2015 Volkswagen Golf hatchback, revealed to the world. Volkswagen
debuted the car previously at an event in Berlin and has now shown the
car at the 2012 Paris auto show .
The seventh-generation Golf is based on VW’s new MQB modular front-drive architecture—shared with Audi’s new A3—and
is 2.2 inches longer, 0.5 inch wider, and 1.1 inches lower than the
outgoing model. Volkswagen also stretched the wheelbase by 2.3 inches,
and as you can see from the photos, these changes allow the latest Golf
to shed some of its previously upright and squared-off look. According
to VW, the new Golf is up to 220 pounds lighter than the old car,
courtesy of the expanded use of high-strength steel.
Although the new Golf's cosmetic changes
fall squarely into the category of evolutionary, its tastefully
restrained styling appears upscale, handsome, and fresh. Up front, the
headlights are reshaped and resemble the units on the latest U.S.-spec
Passat sedan, and the lower fascia gets more-expensive-looking
detailing. The Golf’s rear end appears lower and wider than before,
thanks largely to the newly pointy and slimmed-down taillights that
extend farther toward the car’s center line on the rear hatch. We
especially like the C-pillars’ strong boomerang shape, which gives the
back end a pert, athletic demeanor. Cooler still, the fuel-door cutout
is angled so that it lines up with the body cut-lines for the rear
bumper and rear-passenger doors that form the lower half of the
C-pillars’ boomerang outline.
|
The new car's interior marks a more
noticeable break from that of the current Golf, with an expressive
dashboard design that cants the instrument panel toward the driver and
adds visual pizazz from piano-black trim. There’s also a new
touch-screen infotainment system (the standard setup in the U.S. will
be a 5.8-inch unit) and accompanying color instrument-cluster display
that appear to be a major upgrade over the outgoing Golf’s
dated-looking dashboard touch-screen and dot-matrix gauge-cluster info
screen. A new flatish-bottom steering wheel rounds out the major
updates to the Golf’s already-posh cabin appointments.
Here in the U.S., the Golf will offer three
turbocharged engine choices: A 1.8-liter four-cylinder, a 2.0-liter
four for the sportier GTI model, and a diesel-fed 2.0-liter four for
the Golf TDI. The 1.8-liter makes a healthy 170 horsepower and 184
lb-ft of torque, figures nearly identical to those of the outgoing Golf’s naturally aspirated five-cylinder that it replaces.
As for the GTI’s 2.0-liter four, VW is still working on final output
figures, but expects it will make around 210 ponies and 258 lb-ft of
torque. Finally, the American TDI model gets Volkswagen’s latest
2.0-liter diesel, a member of the new EA288 engine family, which makes 150 horses and 236 lb-ft of torque—10 more ponies (and the same amount of torque) than the current Golf TDI.
|
Overseas, the Golf engine range will include two diesels and two
turbocharged gas-fueled engines. The diesel outputs are 105 hp for the
smaller 1.6-liter and 150 hp for the top-dog 2.0-liter. The base gas
engine offers up a tiny 1.2 liters of displacement and 85 hp; the
uplevel 1.4-liter motor puts out 140 hp and features cylinder
deactivation that shuts down two cylinders in low-load situations. (The
1.4-liter belongs to VW’s new EA211 engine family,
while the Euro diesels also are members of the new EA288 diesel clan.)
A five-speed manual is standard with the 1.6-liter diesel and 1.2-liter
gas four, whereas the 2.0-liter diesel and the 1.4-liter turbo have
six-speed sticks. A seven-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic is optional
with the 1.6-liter diesel and 1.4-liter gas; the 2.0-liter diesel can
be had with a six-speed DSG. The base 1.2-liter gas engine is stick
shift only.
The new Golf will be followed by the sportier GTI sometime next year. Europeans can expect to see the Mark VII Golf in showrooms by the end of this year, but we won't be getting the new car until 2014.
View Photo Gallery
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق