FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW: VW Golf Sportsvan

The third model in Volkswagen’s new Golf range will be by far the most practical.

To be unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show tomorrow (September 10), the Golf Sportsvan will carry two rows of seats and up to 1500 litres of cargo capacity when it goes on sale in Europe midway through 2014.

The Golf Sportsvan will replace the Golf Plus as the go-to Volkswagen below the three-row Touran, even though it’s considerably larger. Aimed squarely at the European market, it is aimed at people who need extra practicality but not quite the emasculating kind of practicality that comes with a people-mover.

It will arrive in its major markets -- including Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Russia and Great Britain -- carrying six new engines, including four turbocharged petrol four-cylinder engines and a choice of two turbo-diesels.

Volkswagen is claiming it will deliver fuel economy benefits of up to 19 per cent over the Golf Plus, with the 81kW 1.6-litre TDI engine flying the flag with a claimed fuel consumption figure of 3.7L/100km. Its claimed CO2 figure is 95g/km.

The petrol range begins with a 63kW offering and walks up to 81kW, and then there are 92kW and 110kW versions, while the stronger of the two turbo-diesels has 110kW of power.

All come standard with front-wheel drive and six-speed manual transmissions, while all bar the base petrol motor have the option of a six-speed dual-clutch transmission. As with most Volkswagen Group products, the Golf Sportsvan will not offer a conventional automatic transmission.

Yet another product of the Volkswagen Group’s MQB small-car architecture, the Sportsvan is larger than the Golf Plus in almost every dimension and most of its extra room is given over to interior space.

At 4338mm long, it’s 83mm longer than a five-door Golf 7 hatch and 134mm longer than the outgoing Golf Plus. Its wheelbase is 2685mm, which is 50mm longer than the Golf hatch but a significant 107mm longer than the Golf Plus.

It’s also wider than its predecessor, with its 1807mm outreaching the Golf Plus by 48mm and the only dimension that has been reduced is the height, which drops a paltry 2mm to 1578mm.

While its front overhang has shrunk by 20mm, its rear bodywork sticks out 46mm further behind the rear wheels than before, largely to boost the cargo capacity.

There is a lot of internal flexibility too, even if there are only two rows of seats. The rear bench seat can be moved backwards and forwards by 180mm, it has a 60:40 split and both sides of the split can individually adjust the backrest angle.

It delivers 74 more litres of luggage space with the seats in the standard position, which claims a total of 498 litres, while that jumps to 585 litres when the rear seat is moved forward.

The passenger area has grown by 30mm over the Golf Plus and Volkswagen claims 1.9-metre-tall passengers can now comfortably sit behind one another.

While the Golf Sportsvan’s driver hip point is actually lower than in the Golf Plus, the driving position is still up to 87mm higher than the Golf hatch for better visibility.

Its goal of easy, flexible driving is helped by a five-inch, high-mounted touch-screen for most of the multi-media functions, while the air-conditioning controls sit a level beneath it.

Volkswagen brand design chief, Klaus Bischoff, claimed the Golf Sportsvan’s body delivered a unique challenge that not even the Golf hatch could match.

“It was a great challenge and at the same time a great pleasure to implement the proportions of the Sportsvan in an independent form,” he said.

“A typical trait of the new design is the prominent character line on the car’s sides, and this only works if the designers and engineers are following the same goals of quality and precision.

“In particular, the design team used the prominent character line to create a clean, well-defined shoulder, which gives the car a more muscular, powerful and wider appearance.”

Besides delivering a chiseled edge to a stiffly positioned machine, Volkswagen’s engineering team has also given it a raft of safety equipment, including one world first.

The Golf Sportsvan will use its array of sensors, including a windscreen-mounted camera, to deliver a park exit warning. This alerts the driver to unseen dangers when reversing out of tight or blind car parks or moving from kerbside parking spots into traffic.

The Sportsvan also delivers high-end safety systems, such as post-collision braking to prevent a second collision, a blind-spot monitor, emergency city braking, active cruise control and a lane-keeping assistant.

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