Volkswagen Golf Mk8 Review (2020-present)
Volkswagen Golf cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Desirable image
Great to drive
Comfortable ride
Cons
Fiddly infotainment system
Rivals offer more interior space
Not significantly better than a Mk7 Golf
The CarGurus verdict
Despite all VW’s talk of this being the ‘digital Golf’ and that swanky, eye-catching cabin, the Mk8 doesn’t do much, if anything, that the brilliant Mk7 didn’t. It does have more assistance technology than before and the pair of digital displays make the dashboard look crisper and more modern than the old car’s, but buyers might find the new touch-sensitive slider controls more fiddly to use than physical knobs and buttons when on the move.
The Mk8 Golf is no more spacious than before and nor is it significantly more fuel efficient. It isn’t any better to drive, either, although the Mk7 performed so well in that regard that by simply matching it, the Mk8 becomes one of the best handling and riding cars of its type. When all’s said and done, the Golf is still one of the best family hatchbacks you can buy. The difference is that rivals are much closer than they once were.
What is the VW Golf Mk8?
The Mk8 VW Golf is one of the most popular family cars in Britain. It looks rather a lot like the Mk7 from the rear, but the frontal styling is sufficiently different to mark the new model out from the old one. Whether it’s actually better looking is another matter altogether. As with its predecessor, you can have the Golf as a five-door hatchback or estate, but the three-door model has been dropped from the line-up.
Within the cabin, a pair of 10-inch digital displays (which come fitted as standard to all new Golfs in the UK) take centre stage in a clean, minimalist dashboard layout. There are precious few physical buttons, the infotainment and ventilation controls now either buried within the central touchscreen or relocated to a trio of (slightly awkward) touch-sensitive sliders just beneath it.
How practical is it?
There’s room inside the Mk8 Golf for four adults to sit comfortably. Build and material quality are good, but no longer outstanding for the class (in part because rivals has closed the gap, but also because the Mk8 doesn't seem to feature as many plush materials as the Mk7). Being a hatchback rather than a crossover you don’t get the elevated driving position that some people like, but that aside the Golf offers plenty of comfort as well as storage space for odds and ends. Headroom and legroom in the back of the car are good for the class, albeit not as generous as in the Skoda Octavia.
A Golf Estate model offers buyers useful added practicality thanks to a boot that’s grown from 381 litres in the hatchback to 611 litres in the estate. Do note, that if you opt for the plug-in hybrid GTE hatchback the boot capacity falls to 273 litres to make way for the hybrid system.
What's it like to drive?
There are various powertrains from which to choose when it comes to the basic models, including three petrols and two diesels. The petrol range starts with a 1.0-litre turbo that delivers 109bhp, followed by the 128bhp 1.5-litre turbo. This engine does also have a more powerful sibling, which develops 148bhp. There are mild hybrid versions of all three petrols. The diesel line-up, meanwhile, consists of a pair of 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbodiesels developing either 113bhp or 148bhp. There's no weak link in the engine range, with even the 1.0-litre petrol doing a decent job. However, the highlight is the 1.5 petrol in 148bhp tune, which offers smooth and strong performance combined with the potential of 50mpg on a long run.
The Golf Mk8 line-up also includes the high-performance GTI and R models. Although there’ll be no full Golf EV this time, VW has brought to market a plug-in hybrid in the form of the GTE. Meanwhile, mild hybrid versions of the certain petrol models were available from launch. There is a six-speed manual gearbox and seven-speed DSG (dual-clutch) automatic gearbox to pick from.
In terms of the way the Golf drives, there’s been almost no progress from Mk7 Golf to Mk8. That’s not necessarily a criticism given the previous model was perhaps the best family hatchback you could buy, although with rivals such as the Seat Leon, Ford Focus, Audi A3 and Honda Civic all making substantial improvements with their own hatchback offerings, the Golf is no longer the clear class leader. Expect a good blend of ride comfort and refinement, combined with good body control and crisp handling.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
For the Mk8 Golf, VW focused much of its effort on a new suite of connected technologies and driver assistance systems. One such function is called Car2X, which enables the new Golf to communicate with local traffic and roadside infrastructure to warn the driver of hazards in the road ahead, traffic jams and even approaching emergency vehicles.
VW calls this the ‘digital Golf’. Among the driver assistance systems are familiar programmes such as lane keep assist. That particular system has its uses, but many drivers will find themselves habitually switching it off at the start of each journey. There’s also traffic sign recognition, an automatic speed warning (which can also be switched off), adaptive cruise control, and forward hazard detection.
VW’s latest touchscreen looks smart and has plenty of features, but not all drivers find it the most intuitive system to use, with some controls being a little too buried. The touch-sensitive heater controls below the infotainment system, and the buttons on the steering wheel are also easy to hit by accident.
Volkswagen Golf Mk8 running costs
Even the most powerful of the 1.5 TSI petrol engines (in theory the least fuel efficient engine in the line-up, bar the sporty models) should return fuel economy of just over 50mpg, says VW. Of course, the high-performance variants have rather more of an appetite for fuel than that – you shouldn’t expect more than 30mpg in mixed driving from a Golf GTI, for instance.
Meanwhile, the less powerful petrols will return as much as 53mpg and the diesels almost 70mpg. Keep in mind, though, that these are all official figures supplied by the manufacturer – the real-world returns will fall a little short. For local journeys, the plug-in hybrid GTE is easily the most efficient. With a 37-mile electric-only range, you might find you rarely awaken the petrol engine at all, depending on your own driving habits.
VW offers fixed-price servicing on its cars and it also gives you the option of spreading the cost over a number of years. A minor service should be carried out every 12 months or 10,000 miles at a cost of under £200. Meanwhile, a major service will set you back in the region of £360. You’ll need one of those every 24 months or 20,000 miles.
A brand new car shouldn’t need any unscheduled remedial work during the first couple of years of its life, but as the vehicle ages the odd job might need to be carried out to fix faults or replace worn out components. For a new set of front brake pads, for instance, a VW dealership will charge around £200. For front pads and discs, you’ll pay around £350.
Volkswagen Golf Mk8 reliability
VW offers a full manufacturer warranty on all of its new cars that lasts up to three years. For the first two years there’s no mileage limit. The warranty then expires after the end of the third year or once 60,000 miles have passed, if that happens sooner. Most car makers offer a fixed three-year/60,000-mile warranty on their cars, meaning VW’s warranty is pretty much par for the course. However, certain manufacturers such as Hyundai and Kia underwrite their cars for five or even seven years.
Golf drivers can pay to extend their warranties for as little as £136 per year. The Golf Mk8 is too new for us to know how reliable it’ll prove to be or how many warranty claims the typical owner is likely to make. Given that this new Golf is essentially an updated version of the previous model, though, prospective buyers can take comfort from the knowledge that VW should have ironed out any major problems that afflicted the Mk7 by now.
Related to that is the Golf’s excellent safety certification – like the previous one, this latest model was awarded the full five stars by Euro NCAP, thanks in part to its six airbags as standard and suite of driver assistance systems.
- The most basic versions of the VW Golf use front-wheel drive and a simple and cheap torsion beam rear suspension arrangement (the same was true of the mk7). Meanwhile, higher-spec models feature a more sophisticated multi-link rear end. For some people that won’t matter one bit, but keener drivers will appreciate the improved ride quality the multi-link arrangement confers. Be sure to choose a Style-specification car as a minimum if you’d rather your Golf came fitted with the better of the two rear suspension layouts.
- In UK trim levels, entry-level Golfs are badged Life (in other markets there’s a trim that sits beneath Life, but there are no plans for it to be offered here). Next comes Style, followed by R-Line. These are broadly comparable with the SE, SEL and R-Line badging on other VW models. The company expects the Life version to be the best-seller, most of those being fitted with the mid-range 1.5-litre TSI turbo petrol engine that develops 128bhp.
- The sporty Volkswagen Golf GTI, GTD, GTE and R models are among the most enjoyable hatchbacks and hot hatchbacks on the market, with strong performance and excellent handling. Of the two peak performance models, the Golf R is actually better than the GTI: while you might expect this, in fact it wasn’t the case before. But the turnaround comes thanks to a rejigged four-wheel drive system in the R, which doesn’t just shuffle power from front to rear as before, but from side-to-side between each rear wheel, too. That means it’s more responsive to the throttle, pivoting around its centre of gravity when you apply the power on the way out of a corner so that the nose hugs the apex of the bend. Of course, it’s still hugely fast and incredibly grippy, too, as was always the way.
- If you’re on a strict budget: the cheapest, most basic Golf is a Life model with the 1.0-litre petrol engine. Just make sure its 109bhp will be sufficient for the sort of driving you mostly do (that amount of power will be perfectly adequate around town, but may feel a touch undernourished on the open road).
- If you want to save at the pumps: the less powerful of the two diesel engines officially returns 68.8mpg on the combined cycle. However, if you drive fewer miles than most, a petrol version might prove to be cheaper to buy and run.
- If you live in the city: pick one of the hybrids. The mild hybrid powertrains don’t offer any electric-only range, but they do help to reduce emissions and fuel consumption. The plug-in hybrid Golf GTE is the pick of the range for town driving.
- If you’re a petrolhead at heart: with 242bhp and completely reengineered suspension, the GTI is a thrilling hot hatch (while also being perfectly usable day-to-day). The even more powerful four-wheel-drive Golf R variant is even better still, with the kind of performance that'll leave you breathless. A Golf R 20 Year model was launched in late-2022 and is arguably the most coveted fast Mk8 Golf of all.
