No pressure to perform

GOLF 8.5: NEW VARIANT OOZES COMFORT AND REFINEMENT... BUT AT A PREMIUM

- Charl Bosch

After offering the Golf 8 only in GTI and R derivatives, South Africa's poor fuel quality forced Volkswagen to backtrack and reintroduce non-performance models of the Golf 8.5.

But its pricing has been somewhat of a contentious issue. It might be significantly more affordable than the R853 400 Golf 8 GTI and R1 016 600 that remain on sale, but it's hard to look past a starting price tag of almost R600k for a new Golf without a fancy badge.

The four-model Golf 8.5 lineup are all powered by the stalwart 1.4 TSI engine, which doesn't have the same particle filter issues as the GTI and R, and is compatible with our low-rent fuel.

Finished in Grenadilla Black Metallic, the effective middle-of-the-range Golf 8.5 Life+ we recently received on test proved the understated ideal at first glance.

The Mk 8.5's visual changes involve new headlight clusters with standard LEDs, a new front bumper and lower air intake, a restyled bonnet and grille, and the "must-have" illuminated logo bar and Volkswagen badge.

An area seldom covered, the rear fascia has also been revised with new LED light clusters featuring slimmer graphics reminiscent of the Mk 7.5, and the Golf badge is positioned directly below the Volkswagen logo on the boot lid.

Opening the door reveals the main area of improvement that copped the biggest backlash of the Mk 8.