Paddy Comyn

One of the questions that you get asked as a motoring journalist a lot is, “what would you buy if you were buying a new car?” and up to now I always had to think about it a little bit. Obviously a lot depends on how much money you have to spend and what you want to use it for, but there are certain cars that just hit the right note and we have been driving one this week.

The Golf TDi might just be one of the best all-rounders on the market. Lets look at the evidence. Here is a new version of one of the best family cars on the market and while it might not be a huge step change from the model it replaced, Volkswagen would argue that when a car is as successful as the Golf has been then there is little need to tamper with a winning formula too much.

The thing is that there has been some tampering and it is where it matters most. The 2.0-litre TDi engine under the bonnet has 110bhp and while that might not sound much in the context of today’s horsepower wars there is a reason for this. This engine will produce just 119g/km of CO2 and that means that it sits in Band A when it comes to VRT and road tax.

You will pay just €104 per year to tax this Golf and that makes it one of the cheapest cars to run in Ireland. And don’t for a second assume that it feels sluggish or overwhelmed because there is more than enough power on tap and aside from a slightly lazy biting point in the clutch there is little to complain about from this car.

Our Highline model came with air conditioning and cruise control as well as 16” alloy wheels so you never felt short-changed as you used with Volkswagen. We figured out that you could drive from Cork to Dublin on €15 worth of diesel in this car and that 1,000km from one tank of diesel would not be unrealistic.

You might assume then that we’d recommend the Golf as a good all-rounder and you would be right. This is a car that not only feels well-built but is powerful, cheap to run and good to drive. It might not be thrilling but it’s a superb all-rounder.