Is VW’s cheapest Golf good value for money?

So a Golf for £17,765, or £18,420 if you want five rather than three doors. While that makes this the cheapest Golf available, it’s another matter as to whether it represents sound value or not. After all, it’s only got a 999cc engine.

VW makes various versions of this three-cylinder four-stroke, but this one only makes 84bhp. To put that in perspective, that’s the same as the engine in a Hyundai i10 small city car. There are cars with more powerful starter motors.

Guess what, try to keep up with the faster traffic on a motorway and you’ll struggle. To keep up you’ll be caning the engine and making the most of that slick six-speed manual gearbox. You can do it, but it’s not especially pretty.

On the other hand, when used as a city car it’s remarkably quiet, smooth and refined, and there’s more than enough oomph, even from low revs, to scuttle you around quite easily.

City streets can be pretty rough, but here this economy version has an advantage over sportier models. True it doesn’t turn in with quite so much sharpness and changes of direction aren’t quite so immediate. But this model has 15in wheels shod with high-profile tyres. The effect, as you’d imagine, is a ride that is delightfully smooth and supple, even when the road looks like it was last resurfaced before a war of your choice.

That means a comfy experience for those in the cabin. Which is handy as you can only have this model with S spec, which gives you fairly unsupportive seats. Otherwise it’s a Golf, a finely crafted cabin where everything feels solidly made and solidly screwed down. And it’s very grey.

To underline the economy spec, there’s no leather not even for the gear knob or steering wheel, and you’d need a disproportionate £410 to add a leather wheel complete with knobs for stereo and trip computer. Keep your hands where we can see them.

As it stands, this is a good idea on paper and not such a good idea on the road. Everyone says they want something like a classy Golf but they don’t need all the bells and whistles. Well, that really tests that claim, since you don’t even get alloys or an alarm, yet this still isn’t a cheap car, it’s a cheap Golf.