Family car review – Volkswagen Golf SV

As most of our Mums will testify, having kids means making personal sacrifices. Many pre-parenthood luxuries invariably disappear as the family expands. How many Mums have had to trade in their sporty hatchback for a dull family car so they could fit in the buggy? Well, Volkswagen has honed in on this problem and created a more practical version of their iconic and much loved Golf hatchback perfect for Mums – the Golf SV (which stands for Sport Van).

The Volkswagen Golf is Ireland’s most popular car, and it is all about style, quality and prestige. Its class leading interior quality, timeless styling and impressive build quality never fail to impress Irish buyers. The Golf SV offers family buyers all of that with much more space inside and a raised driving position, larger windows and wide mirrors which so many Mums love.

Sitting into the driver’s seat the first thing you notice is the blend of sheer quality and well thought out

convenience. From the soft materials to the piano black dashboard panels and the plush seats it feels like a premium quality car, way ahead of most family cars in terms of build quality. There are neat touches like a strap beside the cup holders to keep a mobile phone in place, and the Samsung and Apple phone leads which are supplied with the car and can be connected to a designated power point.

Our car was fitted with the most impressive touch screen / media system we have tested here at Mummypages. You can adjust literally everything from the sound levels of the parking sensors to the information displayed on the dashboard and the level of the lighting in the cabin. At the time of writing Volkswagen is offering this system free on all Golf SV’s, and it includes built in satellite navigation. You can pair your smart phone, view your call history and make calls through the touch screen or the steering wheel mounted buttons, and you can play your music from your phone or ipod.

In the rear there is plenty of space for three tall teenagers, who can recline their seats or move them backwards and forwards as required to increase and decrease leg and luggage space. Volkswagen has resisted the temptation to go for a sleeker sloping rear design, and passengers get the benefit of that as the Golf SV is one of the more airy cars to sit in, with excellent visibility out of the back windows. Rear passengers get their own air vents also. Picnic tables and rear cup holders mean hungry children can refuel on the move or watch their tablet. On the move the Golf SV is relaxing and rather peaceful. The driving experience is serene with impressively low levels of wind and road noise, so the family can have a conversation without raised voices which could distract the driver.

At just €23,605 starting off the Golf SV is a well priced car which is cheaper and offers as much family space than the current Nissan Qashqai. We drove the 1.6 diesel version and our top spec test car is priced at €30,830. It is fast enough for motorway trips with the whole family plus luggage on board, and only costs €190 per year to tax. Notably, you can travel up to 800 kilometres on a tank of diesel costing roughly €60, and for those Mum’s who tend to stick around the city there’s a 1.2 petrol version which is well suited to lower mileage drivers. There’s an automatic version which is as cheap to run as the manual model.

Is there loads of storage space?

The boot is over 20% bigger than in a regular Golf and has a flat loading lip so you can slide bulky items like a buggy out rather than having to lift them. There are two deep compartments either side of the luggage bay for small items to stop them rolling around the boot when you are driving. While the glove box is small, the arm rest box is massive as are the door bins, and there are concealed storage compartments under the two front seats, on the dash top and in front of the gear stick, so there’s lots of room for odds and ends. The door pockets are big enough to take a two litre bottle. The rear seats fold completely flat so with its high ceiling the Golf SV is excellent for a trip to the DIY store, too.

Is it baby friendly?

ISOFIX mounts are fitted on either side of the rear bench, and the long, wide opening doors and high roofline mean lifting a baby in a seat into the back and securing it is straightforward, and there’s more than enough space in the four passenger seats for two baby seats and two older children. The rear windows are large so toddlers can see lots of what is going on around them. You can slide the rear seats forward, making it easier to quickly reach an unsettled baby from the driver’s seat when stopped at traffic lights.

Is parking easy?

Our car was fitted with front and rear parking sensors which made parking up a doddle. The 5 inch touch screen also has a clever radar so you can see how far you are from the car behind while parallel parking if you prefer to turn the sensors off. You sit high up in the golf SV, so even without sensors you have a commanding view out the large windows, and because the back of the car is flat it is easy to judge a reverse parking manoeuvre.

What about safety?

There’s a host of advanced ‘driver assistance’ safety systems on the Highline version we tested including driver fatigue assist which detects changes in the drivers behaviour and gives an audible warning to take a break, adaptive cruise control which automatically slows the car if it gets too close to the car in front, cornering fog lights which detect when you are turning a corner and provide additional light as you turn, and an auto holding parking brake which automatically applies when you stop at lights and releases when you need to move off again. The Golf SV has a five star Euro NCAP safety rating with an 85% child safety score, which is 9% higher than the Renault Scenic.

Verdict:

Thumbs Up:

A beautifully made, upmarket family car

Very baby friendly

Incredibly safety focused

Cheap running costs and suitable for longer family journeys

Thumbs down:

No alloy wheels on the base model

Our test car was over €30k, but you get what you pay for I suppose...

Mummypages Ratings:

Baby friendliness: 4.5/5

Safety: 5/5