Golf prepares to tee off again

Big changes in store for the seventh-generation Golf, expected to make its debut in Paris next year
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Volkswagen introduced the heavily reworked version of the Golf 5, known as the Golf 6, to Australia in 2009. That makes it something of a surprise that we are now seeing the first spy photos of its all-new successor, the Golf 7.

These spy pix from the Carparazzi team are claimed to be the first of a full-bodied Golf 7 and were snapped undergoing hot-weather testing in the USA just before the car was whisked back onto a trailer.

The seventh generation Golf will be larger than the current generation and will be built off the Volkswagen group’s new platform, dubbed MQB, which will make its first appearance on the next generation Audi A4 and will eventually underpin multitudinous vehicles from Audi, Volkswagen and Skoda. Where that leaves the new-generation Jetta, just released, is a mystery.

So serious is the disguise cladding that it is difficult to gain much more than a basic impression of the Golf 7’s elemental shapes. The three-door version pictured here hints that the detail design (front and rear ends, window lines) will be an evolutionary development of the current Golf 6. It could be easily assumed that the vehicle pictured here was simply a disguised Golf 6.

The Carparazzi team said the car was in company with an Audi S3. The neat twin exhaust suggests the Golf was a GTI — appropriately given the Audi S3 benchmark car. The S3's more mundane A3 equivalent is “sister” car to the Golf, apart from a few variations in overall dimensions. Both share an identical wheelbase which tends to be a little shorter than average for the small car class.

The new platform could be expected to redress that deficit while also adding more length and girth, improving passenger and luggage space, hopefully without a weight penalty. Carparazzi says the disguised Golf looked longer and lower than the Golf 6.

Rumour has it the Golf 7 lineup will include not just the regular lineup of engines and transmissions, but could also add a hybrid version.

The Golf 7 is expected to make its European debut in late 2012 or early 2013 with a first appearance at the 2012 Paris motor show. An Australian launch could be expected to follow some time in 2013.

— with Carparazzi

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