Car UK May 2019

Alex Tapley

may 2019 | subscribe To cAr for jusT £2.60 A MoNTH! http://www.greATM AgAziNes.co.uk

‘A Leaf and Golf

GTI combined...’

At least, that was the thinking when CAR subscriber Simon Hull

swerved the golf gTi he always wanted for a gTe. And?

I’ve wanted a vw

Golf Gt I f or years

i just couldn’t quite make the

sums work. Then my brother, who

like me is a car enthusiast (my

first car was a ford fi esta Xr2,

at 18), bought a Nissan Leaf and

became an electric-car evangelist.

i wanted to combine the two, did

a bit of research, test drove the

gTe and bought it. i got lucky – a

month after i ordered mine Vw

stopped taking orders, citing high

demand and long delivery lead

times. Mine’s in a basic spec and

leased – i lost so much money on

my last car, an Astra, i wanted to

try leasing.

a class of one

i was coming at it from the enthusi-

ast angle, so i didn’t consider cars

like the Leaf. The gTe was pretty

unique in that respect. The other

option was an Audi A3 e-tron, but

that was a little more money and

didn’t promise to be as much fun

to drive.

f uel sI pper

My big worry was whether i’d

get anything like the claimed

fuel economy: Vw claims more

than 150mpg. i’m not getting that

but i’m getting a lot more than

CAR did in its long-term test gTe

[38.5mpg]! si nce i last fuelled up

two weeks ago i’ ve covered 567

miles and averaged 91.4mpg. i live

15 miles from the office, and i can

get to work and mostly back on an

electric charge. i charge it every

night, as you would your phone.

i have off-street parking and a

normal three-pin plug outside. it

takes four hours to fully charge

and you get 28 miles on that. over

christmas i went three weeks

without using any petrol at all, and

the infrastructure isn’t bad locally

• in town there’s free parking with
  free charging, and from there it’s
  an easy walk to the football.

t he compromI s e s

My wife has a 2017 Audi A3 –

same platform – and when you

jump from one car to another you

can tell the Audi’s a lot lighter. The

gTe, with its batteries, is a heavy

car [1585kg versus 1386kg for a

five-door gTi]. The boot’s also

compromised by the batteries

[272 litres versus 380 for the

standard golf] – we took my wife’s

Audi to b&Q at the weekend

because of its bigger boot – but

overall i’m more than happy with

the trade-off.

s o far, so delIGhted

i really like it – specifically the

combination of refinement, driving

fun and economy. The golf gTe

really is all things to all men. i can

drive it like a hot hatch, enjoying

the chassis and using the Dsg

paddles in full-power gTe mode, i

can use it as an electric car around

town and on my commute, and

on longer drives you just set the

adaptive cruise control and enjoy

how quiet and comfortable it is.

e lectrI c Id next?

i’m tempted to go full eV next.

i’m so impressed with electric

power and with Volkswagen that

i’m looking at the iD Neo hatch.

That’s coming out next year and

might work out for me – my lease

expires ju ne 2020. if i have to

wait, i might buy a Mk5 golf gTi

for a couple of grand, use that for

a few months and then sell it when

i get the iD.

thIs

much I’ve

learned

Volkswagens

really are reliable.

Everything on the

GTE just works, which

wasn’t always the

case with my Astra...

1

I wish I’d embraced

electric sooner. I

wasn’t ready for an

EV when I bought this

but my next car will

be pure electric.

2

I didn’t count on

driving it quite as

much as I am. My

lease is based on

12,000 miles a year,

which I’ll exceed.

3

Your cars

One
ye ar on

141

One year intO

a beautiful

rel atiO nship?

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