You have to hand it to VW. Yes, the company is deservedly taking heat for the emissions scandal, and the repercussions will be felt for a while … but it really knows how to make a hatchback.
As a pioneer of this vehicle type, the endemic knowledge developed by VW’s designers and engineers has resulted in a series of hatches that, over the decades, has been imbued with an all-round ability that’s become a calling card.
We test two of its models in this issue – the Golf GTI Clubsport and Up! fi vedoor.
They might sit at opposite ends of the hatchback spectrum, but a strand of DNA that’s unmistakably Volkswagen connects both. The Golf GTI remains the fl ag bearer, of course, and the Clubsport is the iconic three-lettered badge’s fi nest derivative to date. Yes, it’s the quickest front-wheel-drive, mass-production Golf ever produced, but it’s the progressive and manageable way in which the Clubsport delivers this power that makes it really special. The chassis is both supple and athletic in a way no other hatchback matches (full test on page 60).
Its progenitor, of course, is also the car which started the whole hot-hatch segment that now has to swap “hot” for “hyper” in an effort to accurately describe ever-increasing performance levels. We test the latest gunslingers in
a three-way shootout on page 52.
It might be the least powerful hatch in VW’s range, but the little Up! nonetheless deserves its exclamation mark. Like its GTI big brother, the Up! delivers that trademark duality. It’s not quick by any means, but there’s a certain
sparkle to its engine and, even at this lower end of the price range, a level of engineering quality and fi nesse in its handling that remains the benchmark.
I sincerely hope this current mess doesn’t stop Volkswagen from creating hatchbacks like the Clubsport and Up!, because the motoring world would be a poorer place without them.
