Volkswagen Golf GTD Estate: Driven

Gran Turismo Diesel makes its first appearance as an estate and it's rather good as well

A Golf diesel estate. "Slow news days lads?" rings out across the land. Get a Focus ST follows soon behind. Of course it's easy to be cynical about yet another sporting VW MQB product, largely because it's hard to keep track. But much like everything else spun off that architecture, there's a predictably high level of talent and sophistication to everything the GTD does.

Coming to an office car park near you soon!

GTD to GTD Estate is much like R to R Estate. Same engine, power, transmissions and so on, with a little more weight as the pay off for the additional space. Price is £28,285, or £920 more than the equivalent five-door hatch.

Out on the road in a manual GTD estate and it's initially, well, a little disappointing in fact. For no other reason than we've been spoilt by GTIs with fancy front axles and Rs with unimpeachable traction. The GTD feels a little clumsy, slipping into understeer and wheelspin where they simply wouldn't be an issue in the petrol cars. There's no escaping a heavier engine up front too, the GTD a little less settled over bumps particularly on corner entry and exit. But these are churlish observations really; it is, after all, a Golf diesel estate. That it doesn't corner like a petrol hatch shouldn't come as surprise. Rather it's that those cars have set the dynamic bar so high for quick Golfs that anything that doesn't quite match them seems odd.

Adopt a slightly more relaxed approach and the Golf GTD is a fairly agreeable thing to drive on the incredible roads near Malaga. Yes, the powerband feels pretty narrow and there's more hideous noise fakery in Sport mode but it changes direction smartly, the gearbox is slick and 280lb ft pushes it along just nicely. There's always the sense it could use the VAQ 'diff' to contain that torque but there are precious few other complaints about the drive. It's quite enjoyable in fact.

See, they do still make big, practical estates

Predictably enough, the familiar Golf traits shine through the rest of the time too. It can while away hours on the motorway with ease, the interior is a model of clarity and, wouldn't you know, it's an estate with genuine load-lugging abilities. In that terrifying place motoring hacks refer to as 'the real world', the Golf GTD Estate would appear to tick many boxes.

There's one missing though. The GTD isn't exactly what could be called great value for money, with that £28,285 starting price. It feels a very high quality and talented car but not quite that much. Here is where it's worth pointing out an Octavia vRS wagon with the same underpinnings and engine is three grand less (£25,170). With the hatch equivalents it's easier to recommend the Golf for the slightly sharper dynamics and sprightlier performance, but they're probably lower priorities with estates. A three-door Golf GTD is much sportier than any Octavia but as estates they're much closer. The Skoda offers more space as well as much of the Golf's ability for considerably less money. It's really quite hard to argue against that.

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTD ESTATE
Engine: 1,968cc, 4-cyl turbodiesel
Transmission: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 184@3,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 280@1,750rpm
0-62mph: 7.9sec
Top speed: 143mph
Weight: 1,475kg
MPG: 64.2mpg (NEDC combined)
CO2: 115g/km
Price: £28,285

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