Volkswagen Golf interior

Inside, the same strong points that have made the Golf the automatic choice for generations of car buyers over the past half-century remain.

The driving position is excellent, aided by generous adjustability of the driver’s seat and the steering wheel.

Volkswagen has been slow to bring the Golf’s digital capabilities up to the level of its traditional hatchback rivals, but with this facelift, it now competes on an even level with the best of them. Response times for the infotainment system are notably improved, as are the menu structures and overall operation.

Greg Kable

European editor

Overall interior space and luggage carrying capacity are competitive, if hardly class-leading. The Golf’s trick continues to be to offer greater space than you expect in what remains a fairly compact footprint.

Apart from some hard, shiny plastic, the perceived quality remains one of the more convincing purchase considerations.

While the majority of the interior, including the dashboard and associated trims, has been carried over, the facelifted Golf introduces a number of changes aimed at countering criticism of the less-than-satisfactory user experience.

They start with a reworked steering wheel with physical buttons that replace the fiddly capacitive controls used originally. Additionally, there’s now a larger free-standing central infotainment touchscreen, measuring 10.4in in diameter as standard and 12.9in as an option, replacing the 8.3in and 10in displays used before.