VW: What you need to know now about the new Golf

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What you need to know now about the new Golf

VW: What you need to know now about the new Golf-Front Polo rear last generation Golf

The seventh generation of the VW Golf (here a computer retouching by the magazine “AutoBild”) will have sharper facial features that again emphasize the width. Besides, there will be…s car a lane lower and a little longer than its predecessor.

Source: AutoBild / Larson

The production lines for the most important novelty of the last few years have started up in Wolfsburg. The new Golf has been in series production since this week, and almost nothing remains as it was.

W.erksferien? 5000 of the 50,000 VW employees at the headquarters in Wolfsburg can only smile wearily. While the majority of their colleagues have until August 17th, a core team is working on the most important model of recent years: the new Golf will be launched in the autumn. But this car represents more than a generation change.

The new Golf, which will be the seventh since 1974, also heralds a new era for the entire group. With the Golf and the strategy on which it is based, VW wants to lay the foundation for becoming the world’s largest car manufacturer by 2018.

World premiere in Berlin

With the so-called modular transverse matrix (MQB), the engineers have created a technical basis on which they can manufacture different models from the Polo to the Passat, including those from other group brands, uniformly and cost-effectively – without the customers having to notice differences in the design and character of the Cars should do without.

What the new Golf looks like is still a top secret. VW won’t release any official pictures until the evening of September 4th, when the car is unveiled in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. But a revolution in design is not planned, on the contrary.

Golf I and IV as role models

While the current sixth generation Golf was practically just a facelift of the Golf V (with a new front, new rear, improved technology – but in the same body), the heads of design Walter de’Silva (Group) and Klaus Bischoff (VW brand) prescribed a kind of optical diet for the car.

The current Golf is too plump for them, they pursue a design of extremely clear lines and smooth surfaces, with a strong emphasis on the horizontal. De‘Silvas declared role models in the Golf ancestral gallery are the Golf I, which VW commissioned from Giorgetto Giugiaro at the time, and the Golf IV from the then VW design chief Hartmut Warkub.

“Giugiaro created an architecture that was absolutely innovative. It has the robustness, solidity and precision that is typically German, ”said de’Silva of the magazine“ auto, motor und sport ”. “Hartmut Warkub succeeded in creating a design whose lines and surfaces were perfect. We looked at the Golf IV with admiration because it is an almost perfect sculpture. "

The wide C-pillar is retained

How the Golf VII fits in here remains to be seen, but in June a heavily camouflaged Erlkonig was photographed and filmed on the Nurburgring. You couldn’t see any details, but the silhouette looked angular, lower and wider than the previous model.

The rear roof pillar remains wide as ever – it still restricts the all-round view, but the wide pillar has become so characteristic of the Golf that it will not be given up.

When it comes to the wheelbase, the Golf is increasing

Less because of the influence of the designers than because of the work on the MQB platform, the new Golf will be a little longer than its predecessor. MQB is not a rigid base, the length and width of each model are variable, only a few values ​​are fixed, such as the distance between the front axle and the pedals.

The Golf should increase its wheelbase in particular, i.e. the distance between the front and rear axles. This dimension determines the usable interior space for the passengers, and this is where the Golf, whose wheelbase has not changed since the fifth generation, can easily increase it a little: to put itself back at the top of its class and to distance itself from the very grown-up Keep polo.

The golf is not a special offer

VW will not pass on the savings that are possible through the more cost-effective MQB production directly to customers; the Golf will not become a cheap offer in its class. Today a Golf is available from 16,975 euros; initial estimates are based on a new base price above 17,000 euros.

But with more standard equipment, such as the multi-collision brake. This is electronics that fully apply the brakes after the first impact, should the driver no longer do it.

Other technological innovations, mostly for an extra charge, are the emergency braking function at city speed, traffic sign recognition, drowsiness detection and automatic parking for longitudinal and transverse gaps – systems that competing models such as the Opel Astra and Ford Focus already offer in some cases.

Some catching up to do with alternative drives

VW has to catch up here and wants to take a step to the top when it comes to the use of alternative drives. These were ignored in the Golf VI (there is only one liquefied gas variant), but the MQB platform is now also intended to help the company create space for gas tanks and battery packs at low cost.

The new one is not only offered with revised gasoline and diesel engines between 90 and 290 hp, a natural gas model, a hybrid, and a Golf that can fill up with E85 (bio-ethanol) are also coming onto the market in quick succession. There is even an electric Golf, all announced for 2013.

Every tenth car is already a Golf VII

The start of sales of the conventional variants will be in autumn this year, an exact date has not yet been set. After the unveiling in Berlin, the Golf will initially move on to the Paris Motor Show, where the general public will have the opportunity to view the car for the first time on September 29.

According to the company, work is currently only being carried out on the new Golf in Wolfsburg during the early shift and on a production line. According to the “Braunschweiger Zeitung”, every tenth vehicle that rolls off the production line is said to be a Golf VII.

Third place in the all-time world rankings

High numbers from the beginning are also important if demand should develop similarly to the current model: In 2011 the group built almost 914,000 copies of the Golf VI. According to studies, the number of jobs that the Golf will secure in Germany as a whole is more than 50,000.

A total of more than 26 million VW Golfs have been made since 1974 sold, it has long overtaken the no longer built Beetle (22 million), and in the all-time world rankings the Golf is only behind the Toyota Corolla and the pick-up model Ford F 150.

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