Jam-packed year for Volkswagen

It is going to be a busy year for Volkswagen as the German carmaker introduces a host of new passenger and commercial vehicles to the South African market. Charl Bosch attended the annual VW Indaba in Kariega, Eastern Cape, to get a glimpse of its 2025 product roll-out.

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One of the most important models for Volkswagen this year is the facelifted Golf 8.5, the first non performance Golf since the Mk 7.5. For the time being, it will only be offered concerns hampering the GTI and R. Debuting on the back of its global reveal in January last year, the lastiteration Golf to offer a combustion engine won’t be made available solely in base trim as previously reported, but in a range of four variants powered by a single TSI engine. The same unit is used in the new Tiguan as a result of the newer 1.5 TSI Evo in Europe being ill-suited to South Africa’s fuel power and 250Nm of torque directed to the front wheels through an eightspeed Tiptronic gearbox rather than the ubiquitous seven-speed DSG.

The Golf 8.5 is offered in four trim grades: Life, Life+, R-Line, and R-Line+.

Standard across the range is a 10-inch digital cockpit instrument cluster and 12,9-inch infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

BASE T-CROSS MODELS

Two base models will be introduced to the T-Cross line-up, both powered by the familiar 1.0 TSI engine, albeit in two states of tune.

The most affordable model develops wheels though a five-speed manual gearbox. Opting for the sevenspeed DSG raises the respective Like the Golf 8.5, the T-Cross base models are set to go on sale in the second quarter of the year and are the only new models for 2025 for which prices have been confirmed.

TAYRON MAKES ITS DEBUT

Long known to have been under consideration for South Africa, the Tayron has been approved to replace the seven-seat Tiguan Allspace and is expected to make its market debut in the second quarter.

Measuring 230mm longer, 29mm taller and 6mm wider than the new Tiguan, the Tayron also gets a 115mm wheelbase increase with overall dimensions of 4 770mm, 1 660mm, 1 849mm, and 2 791mm.