Al_in_Philly
Autocross Newbie
- Location
- Philadelphia USA
Yes, I know that there's now a Mk8 forum, but I typically find myself in this one, so here goes. . .
I've just been perusing the freshly released images of the new Mk8 Golf ( https://www.automobilemag.com/news/...ory-tracking-its-evolution-from-mk-1-to-mk-8/ ), and I have mixed feelings. First the few things which impressed me:
I've just been perusing the freshly released images of the new Mk8 Golf ( https://www.automobilemag.com/news/...ory-tracking-its-evolution-from-mk-1-to-mk-8/ ), and I have mixed feelings. First the few things which impressed me:
- The even less vertical headlights look good.
- The gradual taper of the roofline looks very good, and is probably great for further reducing drag.
- Kudos to VW for making the dash even more high tech, though there's still a soft-spot in my heart for the big analog blue needled gauges in my Mk7.
- That's it.
- The hood. The tall, maybe-people-will-think-it's-an-SUV hood. Any gains in the swoopiness of the roofline are totally negated by how the hood bulges up, in the most non-racy sort of way.
- The wheel to wheel wide lower grill. Yes, I can see that VW is trying to incorporate some of the design cues shared across the brand, but it simply makes the Golf look bland--just like most of the other cars VW sells. I could almost get behind this if most of the added horizontal area wasn't functionless, as only the center portion of the grill area is used for the radiator. Maybe the GTI and/or R will have something more interesting going on below the bumper, but I sort of doubt it.
- The fake rectangular dual exhausts on the base model. Here, there's much more hope that the GTI and R won't follow suit.
- The Mk7's interior was a unified series of smooth flowing lines; the Mk8's dashboard is a combination of hard rectangles, almost like the origami styled interiors of the 1980's. Again, this is in keeping with family design strategy already seen in the Jetta; but I've never heard anyone say that they liked the interior of the latest Jetta.
- The windows look to have a higher sill line, which is a shame, as the Mk7/7.5's relatively low sill line gives the car a sense of spaciousness which belies its actual proportions (plus you can hang your elbow out the window on a summer's day).