Golf Mk6 wins Wheels 2009 WASP award

[Manaz]

Volkswagen Golf

A gold-medal performance in slalom test, backed by bronze in steady-state cornering and reversing vision, seal Golf's victory.

OUTRIGHT first in the slalom was a huge performance that saw the Golf rip up transient turns 1.5 seconds ahead of the slowest-paced Toyota Aurion. It narrowly nudged aside other sharp contenders Holden Astra and Mazda 3 by less than one percent in this discipline. Think of it like this: if a kid runs out between two parked cars and you've the choice between driving a VW Golf and a Toyota Aurion, make it the Golf...

Third place in absolutely grip on the circle saw 16.45 points out of 20 - more than 80 percent of the way to the win, across the field - added to the Golf's tally, so it's one of those rare cars that excels in both steady-state and transient cornering.

Almost 12 out of 20 points added for the high-speed lane change, call it 60 percent relative to the field of contenders, means the diminutive base-model 90TSI Golf's not out of its depth on the highway. It equalled the Cruze's capacity for swerving at high speed, and beat the Euro and Mondeo, as well as the Impreza, Forester and Mazda 2. Only Commodore, Aurion, Falcon and Astra out-paced it around our cone-based approximation for the successful high-speed avoidance of Skippy.

Seventh out of 13 under brakes makes you think the Golf's a mid-fielder, but that assumption misses the point. The field spread between 39.9 metres to 44.6 metres for the 100km/h emergency stopping event, and the Golf's 41.3-metre stop placed it 3.3 metres in front of the last-placed Mazda 2 and just 40-odd centimetres behind the winner (Mondeo). Accordingly, it received 70 percent of the 25 points on offer for the event. Those first seven cars were all incredibly tight, but the gap back to eighth (Forester) was significant. But the Gold is probably the last of the top seven cars in the field you'd be comfortable pulling an emergency stop - for real - in.

Overtaking? The 90TSI is a wonderfully sexy bit of turbocharged engine kit, delivering 10 percent more torque than the Mazda 3 despite having only two-thirds the displacement. Unfortunately, it's still 0.4 seconds slower to 100km/h from 60, compared with the Mazda. Look at it like this: The Aurion's a rocketship; nothing beat it in the overtaking test here between 60 and 100km/h ... just hope that it doesn't have to swerve when it gets there. And, compared with the Impreza or the Astra (the two slowest cars in the field), the Golf accelerates to 100km/h almost 2.5 seconds faster.

The new Golf is also a fairly safe bet in the driveway at home, with third place in reversing vision seeing 4.26 out of a possible five points awarded there. Golf's reversing vision trailed Astra by just 44cm, and saw it about 2.5 metres ahead of the Accord Euro when it comes to spotting average-height two-year-olds behind.

Others excel in particular disciplines; the Mazda 6 had a slight (1.8 percent) edge when measured against dynamic criteria only. But as a safety all-rounder, the VW Golf is at the top of the heap.

[Manaz]

1st: VW Golf
2nd: Mazda 6
3rd: Holden Astra
4th: Mazda 3
5th: Honda Euro
6th: Ford Mondeo
7th: Holden Cruze
8th: Holden Omega
9th: Ford Falcon XT
10th: Toyota Aurion
11th: Subaru Forester
12th: Mazda 2
13th: Subaru Impreza

ANCAP Rating: All cars bar the Mazda 2 and Toyota Aurion (each having 4 stars) have 5 star ratings.

[dubbed]

Great result for the Dub!

I take it these were all base models?

[gerhard]

That's a superb effort for the base model which has steelies and sh/t tyres.

The result for the 118TSI would have been far more interesting - better tyres, more grunt, would have seen it win the tests in which the 90tsi fared "poorly".

High speed swerving and braking are never fun when your tyres are crap.