Is it good enough, therefore, to stand comparison with the legendary Mk1 – and, if so, does the new Mk8.5 crystallise the legacy of the Golf as a brand? Yes, and absolutely. We would say its evolutionary progress is every bit as significant as that achieved by the Mk5 when it replaced the woeful Mk3 and Mk4 at the beginning of this century. That’s how big a step the 8.5 represents – not only over its misguided predecessor, but for the Golf full-stop.
On the surface, the signs of such a radical improvement aren’t entirely obvious. There’s a range of subtle but effective styling tweaks to the exterior, many of which you’d be hard-pressed to spot in isolation, but which collectively provide the 8.5 with a genuinely fresh feel (think new LED lights, illuminated VW badges, redesigned front and rear bumpers plus a range of fresh colours and alloy wheel designs). All good stuff, but nothing major, visually.
Climb inside the cabin, however, and the improvements are somewhat easier to spot – and to appreciate, as well. To its credit, VW has swallowed hard and binned most of the things with which Mk8 drivers had become so disillusioned, including the haptic controls on the steering wheel, on which there are now buttons instead. As such, the Mk8.5’s cabin has a much more intuitive, more Golf-like feel to it – one that seems impossibly modern and refined in comparison with the Mk1, but still manages to bear an obvious relationship with the original, whereas the Mk8 almost felt like a different species inside.
The same goes for the way the Mk8.5 drives. In theory VW hasn’t altered much. The test car you see here (an R-Line 1.5 TSi) still comes with a 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine that’s been lightly turbocharged to produce 148bhp and 250Nm, enough to send it from 0-62mph in 8.6 seconds and on to a top speed of 139mph. Its power reaches the road via a six-ratio manual gearbox that feels implausibly slick beside that of the Mk1’s four-speeder, but which still retains a pleasant degree of mechanical precision after the Mk8, whose manual box did not impress.
