If you were standing too far away to notice the 4MOTION badges, and failed to appreciate the significance of the twin tailpipes, you'd think that this car was a Golf GT. And you would very nearly be right, because in almost every respect that's exactly what it is. The 4MOTION mirrors the GT in trim level and specification, and in its choice of three or five doors and FSI petrol or TDI turbo diesel engines.There is, however, the small matter of four-wheel drive. The GT does not have this, but the 4MOTION does, thanks to the presence on the rear axle of a second-generation Haldex system. This distributes power to the front and rear wheels, and in normal circumstances it sends 90% of it to the front.The day may come, however, when trying to transmit all that power may be more than the leading tyres are prepared to countenance; if so, Haldex will vary the power distribution according to which pair of wheels is more able to deal with the situation. The extreme case is that you may briefly find yourself driving that rarest of mainstream motoring concepts: a rear-wheel drive Volkswagen Golf.Not that you'd notice, really. The Haldex system operates as effectively and discreetly as the best butler. Most 4MOTION owners need not know it's there, or how it works, any more than they should be able to identify the location or purpose of a gudgeon pin.This isn't the first 4x4 Golf by any means, but one question still arises. Why would anyone want or need an all-wheel drive Golf? Volkswagen says it is catering for people who need to tow, or to do occasional light off-roading on fields or lakesides, but do not fancy the greater height and bulk or an SUV.There are other possibilities too. A friend of mine used to live on a farm, a mile or so from the nearest public road down a rough track which was impassable in snowy conditions in any small hatchback apart from her Subaru Justy. If she still lived there, and if she could afford something more comfortable than the Justy, she would find that this Golf answered her needs perfectly.There are no claims about improved tarmac performance, and I've heard people say the 4MOTION does not offer this. I'm not so sure. I spent some time driving the test car along hill roads in Yorkshire, and it coped superbly with dizzyingly steep uphill corners. Even with the early application of full throttle, when the inside front wheel could barely have been touching the ground, there wasn't a hint of potential wheelspin as there surely would have been in any non-4MOTION Golf.My car was a three-door TDI which, like the others in this sub-range, cost just over £1000 more than the equivalent GT. Five-door cars cost £500 more, and remarkably enough the turbo diesel engine adds just £325 to the price of the FSI - an exceptionally small premium.The TDI produces 10bhp less than the FSI, but in true turbo diesel fashion it does its best work at much lower engine speeds and is therefore easier to use. It's slower, but by the most trivial of margins - 3mph down on top speed and 0.3 seconds off the pace from 0-62mph. Fuel economy is a dazzling 13.9mpg better on the combined cycle and there's a 41g/km advantage in CO2 emissions. Surely only someone with a full-scale diesel phobia would consider the FSI the better choice.As with the GT, standard equipment includes air-conditioning, rain-sensing wipers, an automatic dimming rear view mirror, 16" alloy wheels, a CD player and ESP. The sense of everything being beautifully put together (which I think you still get with the latest Golf, even if not everyone else does) is also part of the package, as is the delightful handling made possible by the well-designed rear suspension.The GT is cheaper to buy and will be cheaper to run. For that reason alone the 4MOTION is likely to remain a minority-interest product. But for a small proportion of buyers, it does make sense. Whether all of those buyers need the GT's performance is another matter, and I can't help thinking that if 4MOTION is worth the effort at all, it must also be worth applying further down the range. Engine 1968cc, 4 cylinders Power 138bhp Fuel/CO2 46.3mpg / 165g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 9.5 seconds Top speed 126mph Price £18,370 Details correct at publication date
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