Styling
You know what a Golf looks like and you certainly know what the Mk8 looks like, with its hawkish headlights and familiar shape. Well, allow us to tell you that we were shown front and rear three-quarter images of the pre- and post-facelift Golfs side by side, both of them clearly annotated with what had been changed and where. And even armed with that information, it was a struggle to discern the differences. For what it's worth, the 8.5 has revised designs of LED light signatures, although the clusters they are housed within are exactly the same shape. There's a very moderately different front bumper and air intake on models below the R-Line level, but the biggest giveaway that you're looking at the latest Golf is that its VW logo on the nose illuminates at night. And that's it, save the usual additions of some fresh body colours and alloy wheel designs. Available in both hatchback and Estate formats as before, if you liked the Golf 8, then you're going to be pleased with the 8.5 because it's almost exactly the same. And if you've always dreamed of your car's conk lighting up in the dark, then it's the perfect choice for you, isn't it?
Interior
A similar story as to the exterior plays out within, where really the only notable alteration is, at least, a crucial one. Like so many cars right throughout the Volkswagen Group that are undergoing their own midlife facelifts and technological updates, the Wolfsburg outfit has decided that arguably its most famous single model line deserves a better infotainment system than the flawed set-up it was unceremoniously saddled with four years ago. So there's the slicker MIB4 operating software presented on an enlarged 12.9-inch touchscreen, underneath which the previously and inexplicably unlit sliders for the temperature and volumn controls now have backlighting. And it's about goddamned time, in (roughly) the words of Richter.
Oh, Volkswagen has also seen sense with those infuriating touchpads on the steering wheel and replaced them with proper buttons in the Mk8.5, and honestly these two changes alone do a huge amount to improve the human-machine interface within the updated Golf. We're still not blown away by material quality, though. A few trims and specifications look nice within, but you can tap things that ostensibly look metallic and then listen in a disgruntled fashion as they make a strangely clacky, plasticky noise. It also remains one of the least-interesting fascias in terms of pure design compared to other vehicles in the wider group, but there's also nothing particularly wrong with the Golf's cabin now so it's a fine place to have to spend some time.
Practicality
With useful amounts of in-car storage in the front of the cabin, the Volkswagen Golf gets off to a strong start in this department and then follows it up with good rear passenger space in the hatch, although the much-longer Estate - it's an extra 349mm from tip to tail - has 49mm more space between its axles, so legroom in the back of the wagon is even more generous. As is its boot. At 381 litres, the hatchback is decent by comparable standards, but the 611-litre cargo bay at the rear of the Golf Estate is a whopper that is only eclipsed by the absolute cavern tacked on the back of the related
Skoda Octavia Estate, although the ICE-powered
Peugeot 308 SW models get close to it with 608 litres. Honestly, there are big, expensive SUVs that don't claim boots as vast as that found in the Golf Estate.
Performance
Engines and drivetrains for the revised Golf range were never a problem previously, so below the level of the GTI and R - updated versions of which are soon to follow - it's carry-over stuff. There's still the 1.5-litre turbo petrol with 115- or 150hp, and if you have it as a six-speed manual then there's no mild-hybrid (MHEV) assistance and therefore it's a TSI; any model fitted with the DSG is an MHEV, though, so the boot emblem switches to 'eTSI'. Plug-in hybrids called eHybrid will be along soon, but for now the only other real choice is the 2.0-litre TDI, again with either 115- or 150hp (but a chunk more torque than this eTSI).
Nevertheless, the 1.5 150hp has enough muscle from its turbocharger and MHEV system to make good progress, with our usual lament about this drivetrain coming to the fore again. If you rev it beyond 4,000- or 4,500rpm, it sounds quite coarse and thrashy, but realistically you don't need to do that to easily keep up with regular traffic flow, as the horsepower and 250Nm are more than enough to shift 1,440kg of estate around at a reasonable lick. And economy is decent too, because you'll probably get 40mpg all the time without even putting any effort in, while achieving the 50mpg-ish claimed for the Golf shouldn't be too hard with more careful driving.
Ride & Handling
The Golf, in its sub-GTI and R guises, has never been a particularly exciting car to drive and that holds true with the current model. The steering is light and feel-free, although it's reasonably well-geared, while the body control is good if not amazing, even for a regular hatchback or family estate. You can also discern very little about what the front end of the car is up to in the corners, yet at the same time the Golf always remains composed on twistier roads. It's quietly adept, without ever being remotely thrilling.
Which means you're better off focusing on its ride comfort and refinement, and that kind of makes this R-Line specification somewhat pointless. It has sportier looks on the outside and a racier cabin within, while it has firmer suspension and, if fitted with £510 optional 18-inch alloys like our test car, wheels which are a bit too big to be unsprung at all four corners. With these and the R-Line trim grade together, the Golf Estate picks up too many imperfections in the road surface and amplifies them into thumps and bumps in the cabin, while it can be jittery at town speeds on streets with lots of transverse ridges in close succession.
Luckily, if you opt for a Match or Style on their 17-inch 'Nottinghams' and softer suspension (or even a Life with its 16s), the Golf is a much finer creation. It seems to have had some extra sound-deadening stuffed into its hidden nooks and crannies, so when it's travelling at speed it feels more refined than it did in its pre-facelift format, and the ride comfort is noticeably improved on the smaller wheels so the overall package feels much more convincing without trying to inject some pseudo-sportiness into it. In essence, as you would expect with a Golf there's a good car underneath everything with the Mk8.5, but you need to specify the VW quite carefully to get the very best from it.
Value
Five specifications are available for the Golf, which run Life, Match, Style, R-Line and then Black Edition. Prices start from £27,025 for a hatchback in Life specification, while the Estate kicks off at £28,400 and isn't available in either Match or Black Edition trims. There's another reason for avoiding the R-Line here, as our Estate 1.5 eTSI was almost £36,500 as tested, which seems a lot for a car of this size and power. Thankfully, even base-spec Life cars come with a fair roster of kit, including (but not limited to) LED exterior lights, the 12.9-inch infotainment screen, the Digital Cockpit Pro instrument cluster, adaptive cruise control, parking sensors, wireless smartphone charging and ten-colour ambient interior lighting, among more, so if you do the sensible thing and opt for a Golf Estate in mid-grade Style trim, you're not going to be left with something with windy-up windows and no carpet mats.
Verdict
When we were being briefed on this car, someone from Volkswagen said 'you know what you are getting with the Golf'. And that's true - it's a safe, solid choice in a hotly contested sector of the market, and for some people that will mean it has an appeal all of its own. There are also plenty of buyers for whom anything less than a Golf just won't do, so luckily we're here to report that while the programme of updates for it has been almost vanishingly modest, the Golf 8.5 has been significantly improved by the few nips and tucks VW has wrought upon it. Do yourself a favour and avoid the R-Line specification, which has a minor detrimental effect on the Golf's ride comfort and rolling refinement, and you'll end up with a very impressive family vehicle. And, in either Life or Style spec (or even Match, if you just want the hatchback), we'd give the revised eighth-gen Golf an extra half-star overall.
