July 23, 2003 - The Golf has been an absolutely success story. It arguably rescued Volkswagen during the dark days, when it debuted 29 years ago, it has been a best seller, and – one must presume – a money-spinner for Volkswagen Werk during the history of the four Golf generations we have lived with up to now.

Design-wise the car is an enigma. The first was an icon of course. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, compact, roomy, with a character all it’s own. And, it turned out, easy to transform into the first really popular hot hatch, the GTI, or into a very usable Targa drop head or into many other variants.

The following editions, Golf II in 1983, Golf III in 1991 and the current version, from August 1997 won little praise from the design fraternity, but I suspect everyone looking at a three to four year old Golf will admit that maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. The normal accusation has been that the new car has been modelled too close on it’s predecessor, but put one of todays models alongside the three forerunners and it will be fairly obvious that there has been an interesting evolution and development, not dramatic or obvious, but subtle and discreet and, as the registration statistics will demonstrate, in accordance with public taste.

There is nothing from the few photos of the Golf V released now to suggest anything like a Megane revolution this time either. And, I’m sure, none was intended. Even if it is obvious that the whole car is new, and that the design may be further removed from the model it will replace, than has been the case with earlier model changes. The surface treatment seems more 'Japanese', the big flat spaces seem to be replaced by more concave and convex shapes, and details like the B pillars or the more pronounced V-form of the front represents a fairly new design language. More akin to the Touareg than the Touran.

The Golf V is built on the same platform as the Touran (and the Audi A3) so there are no unknowns from chassis or the powertrain departments. The outside dimensions have increased slightly in all three directions, and wheelbase will be 2670mm if it is identical with the Touran, and explains the more pronounced wheels-in-the-corners than we have been used to. That wheelbase is 160mm more than on Golf IV, but Total length has only increased with 60mm.

A very flexible platform will permit the Golf Plus to arrive in less than a year from now. It will be a Ford Focus C-Max/Renault Scenic competitor, and then we will have an Estate, the Variant, a lot of very hot models and probably booted and open models as time goes by. Initially the model will be sold in 3 and 5 door configuration.

The interior volume must have benefited from the increased width and height too, which actually has made the new Golf as big as the first Passat (May 1973, also by Giugiaro), but no details yet. Not on how the interior looks either, but if it follows the Touran recipe it will prove to be one of the segments less inspired ones. We are only told about redesigned seats, an independent heater that works when the engine is not running, and a luggage volume at 347 litres.

Herbert Schäfer was responsible for Golf II and III, Hartmut Warkuss signed off Golf IV and this new one – to be officially launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September – will probably be one of his last efforts before retirement. I am pretty certain that when we compare this car with the much more dramatic, contemporary, Meganes, Astras or Mazda3s in four year’s time, we will all agree that he did a very decent job this time too.

A nice bookmaker’s touch might be to invite bets for this car’s position in the Car of the Year selection. Golf I ended second after Citroën CX, Golf II came third after Fiat Uno and Peugeot 205 whereas Alfas 156 beat Golf IV. Only Golf III – and what made that a special Golf I don’t know – carried the COTY award handsomely beating the Astra and the ZX. What odds the Golf V?