Freeze! All-new VW Golf is in the frame

09th October 2009

FORE! Here’s an unexpected arrival – it’s the new MkVII Golf.

The latest MkVI version of Volkswagen’s evergreen compact family car has been in showrooms for less than a year, but already we have the best preview yet of how its successor is shaping up.

And our information on this radical new hatchback, slated for a 2012 debut, has come from the most unlikely source – VW itself!

A promotional video for the firm’s L1 concept accidentally revealed a group of designers in the background hard at work on a clay styling model of the next-generation Golf. You can see a freeze-frame from that video in the pictures tab. It might be a bit blurry, but the photo proves that work is well underway on the new Golf, suggesting a particularly short lifecycle for the current car.

As with the transition from the MkV, styling changes will be subtle and evolutionary. Tweaks include a sharper nose much like the Scirocco’s and a more steeply raked
windscreen, as well as narrower headlights and more pronounced wheelarches – the latter indicating wider front and rear tracks.

The new arches would be down to the new, slightly longer and wider platform.

This will debut in the next Audi A3, due in 2011, and will also underpin a Passat replacement. It will result in extra cabin space, as well as shaving 130kg off the Golf’s weight.

New engines will include a three-cylinder 1.2-litre turbo in both petrol and diesel form, while the range will incorporate three and five-door hatches plus, for the first time, a cabrio and coupé.

There will also be the Estate, Plus, Tiguan, Touran, Scirocco and hot GTI and R.

Tell us about your car in our Driver Power survey.