Golf is better with a T.

Volkswagen's Golf is now in its fourth iteration.  It's still a square hatchback with a lot of room inside; it's still tightly built and more fun that you expect a small useful car to be.

VW recently expanded the kinds of fun you can have with a Golf, by making available its 1.8 liter turbo motor in addition to the standard four an optional six.  The 1.8 T is a hoot, torquey and fun to drive.  A smooth and satisfying shifter, unusual in a front-drive, adds to the excitement.

The Golf is still softly sprung, though, yielding an unusually good ride for a small car -- but not the kind of handling performance you'd expect to go with this motor.  Body roll, even on the hot GTI model, is too motorcycle-like for our comfort.

Still, when it comes to small cars, the Golf is easily above par.



The same dough; different cookies.

Car companies have in the past been guilty of making cookie cutter cars, machines differing little from nameplate to nameplate except in minor trim details.  (I won't mention the main culprit's name, but its initials are GM.)  Now Volkswagen has made four different cars from one chassis -- and they really are different.

VW's Golf is a small hatchback.  Change the clothes, and that square, dour hatchback becomes a sunny, round New Beetle.  Give it a suit, adjust the suspension, and it's an upmarket Audi A4.  Put it in a Speedo, tweak the chassis some more, and you have a hot Audi TT.

And Volkswagen is just the leader.  More and more, you'll see manufacturers making very different cars from a single platform.  That kind of engineering saves them money.  But they heard your message, that making the same car with different names simply doesn't do.  Now they know they have to add character along with the chrome.