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Wheels24 reader and On-Air personality at Heart Fm radio, Tyrone Paulsen, shares his thoughts on the popular Volkswagen Golf, dubbed the Mk7.5, 1.0-litre TSI .
Cape Town - I’ve been wanting to drive the Volkswagen Golf 7.5 1.0-litre TSI for a while to see how the world’s favourite hatchback fares with a small engine.
On paper, a car weighing 1127kgs and powered by a 1.0-litre TSI engine sounds like its going to go be sluggish and a bore to drive. Yet the international and local reviews have all given it a thumbs up and having driven it I share their positive sentiment.
The 81kW TSI engine is great in peak hour traffic and on a freeway it easily cruises to highway speeds.
Mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox, it’s engaging enough and easily allows to overtake and make full use of the 200Nm of torque when needed.
Its auto-hold function and electronic gearbox works in conjunction with stop/start technology, making peak hour traffic a breeze.
What do you think of the VW Golf 1.0-litre TSI? Email us
Image: Tyrone Paulsen
There's no need to pull up the handbrake on an incline, no need to switch into neutral while you wait to move off in traffic. The clutch is light and easy, and gear ratios are close enough to make those changes smooth.
The interior is pure VW, everything is where its supposed to be and the new touchscreen display is fantastic and intuitive to use.
The multimedia system easily integrates with my phone's Bluetooth.
Overall I have been very impressed with the Golf.
Sure there are the GTD, GTi and R variants but this one is kinda special; you know what to expect from the peformance variants yet this 1.0-litre will surprise you.
