Question: How long ago did Volkswagen launch the current Golf VI in Australia?
Answer: 2009.
Next question: That’s only three year ago. Why are we already seeing pictures of the next, seventh generation Golf?
Next answer: Probably because Volkswagen is intent on staying where it has always been: ahead of the game.
These spy pix that have just arrived on our desk from the team at Carparazzi show a disguised but indicative seventh generation Golf under development in frozen Scandinavia.
The photos show the next Golf will remain faithful to the familiar, iconic shape, but with suggestions it will be a tad longer and wider. The shooters reckon the car looked lower in the nose, with a steeply-raked windscreen and suggestions of bolder side creases giving the car a more muscular stance.
The back end is anybody’s guess. Heavily draped with cloth, the shapes can only be guessed at and are obviously not very much like the visible tail lights and dummy horizontal panel suggest.
The Golf VII will share its new Modulare Querbaukasten MQB platform with Audi’s A3 and, eventually, other members of the Volkswagen group. The all-new platform adapts easier to different requirements and is said to save about 60kg in the Golf VII. It is made of hot-formed steels said to be six times stronger than conventional steel and, Audi-style, more aluminium is also used in the suspension.
Powerplants will be interesting too, with Volkswagen having indicated it plans to introduce a plug-in hybrid version of the Golf.
Dates for the Golf VII aren’t certain, although late 2013 or early 2014 appears close to the mark – a year or two ahead of what would normally have been the case.
Otherwise the powertrains will embrace most of the current range of high-efficiency petrol and diesel powerplants, with a focus on smaller capacities to bring lower emissions and fuel consumption.
Also expected is a wider list of options, many of which will come from the bigger Passat versions, particularly the CC four-door coupe and including such things as adaptive cruise control.
— with Carparazzi
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