Which Volkswagen Golf Is Better: Diesel Or Petrol? - Buying A Car

By Stuart Johnston

The success of the remarkable Polo series in South Africa has come, to a degree, at the expense of the larger Golf hatchback. These days Volkswagen sells only one or two Golfs for every 10 Polos in South Africa, and consequently the range has been trimmed down to include just one diesel model.

When the Volkswagen Golf model was launched in South Africa back in 1978, one of the surprising engine options was a diesel model. In those days, economical diesel engines were non-turbo, which meant they were rather drastically under-powered in comparison with similarly-sized petrol engines. But there was a small but steady demand for Golf diesels for the first few years of its model life here.

In the second and third generation Golfs, there were no diesel options, but in the fourth-generation car, in the late 1990s, diesels made a huge come-back world-wide, and South Africa was no exception. Through Golf V, VI and VII, diesel-engined cars have been on offer.

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The Polo revolution

Change has come to the Golf range here in a number of ways. One of these has been the amazing sales success of the locally-built Polo and Polo Vivo ranges, which has resulted in sales of the (now fully imported) Golfs gradually giving way to the Polo.

As an example, in January this year, sales figures for Polo Vivo were 2 824, the more modern Polo sold 2 824 while total Golf sales were 259. That’s a pattern that has been in place through much of 2018. For the top five VW Golf reviews in AutoTrader, click here

The latest Golf engine line-up

The Golf VII engine line-up has been rationalised of late. As in the smaller Polo, diesel engines have been largely replaced in the line-up by the very successful one-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine. This little 81 kW engine gives excellent performance and fuel consumption figures.

The only diesel is a high-performance one

Unusually, the only diesel engine now available in the Golf range is in a high-performance model . This 2,0-litre turbodiesel is used in the GTD model, which was introduced to South Africa in mid-2017.

The GTD engine produces 130 kW and 350 Nm of torque. That torque figure is the same as the figure for the Golf GTI, the halo model of the Golf range, which uses a turbocharged petrol two-litre engine. The current power output of this understated, but highly competent direct petrol -injection GTI engine is 169 kW.

The GTD has excellent performance and offers smooth, unruffled progress with a DSG dual-clutch gearbox. And its performance figures are not far off that of a GTI. There is a significant price-saving too. The GTD sells for under R520 000, about R40 000 less than a GTI. For a review of a month-long driving experience with a Golf GTD, click here.

Which Golf engine would we choose?

Excellent as that GTD’s performance is, we would opt for petrol every time with a Golf. And specifically, we would choose the GTI engine. The GTi has been the top-selling Golf model in the range for close to a decade now. It is seen as a huge status symbol amongst many South African motorists, right up there with a Mercedes-Benz C-Class o a BMW 3-Series. And this halo status means that re-sale values for Golf GTIs remain very strong.

That smooth-revving, turbocharged, direct fuel-injection engine revs to over 6 500 rpm with great smoothness. It has gratifying performance (0100 km/h in under seven seconds, a top speed of just under 250 km/h) and good fuel consumption if you can control your accelerator foot!

Of course, if you can’t afford the GTI asking price of around R560 000, then the choice would be one of the smaller engine options. Much as we admire that little one-litre turbo, our second choice would be the proven 1.4 TSI petrol model. This one sells for under R385 000, and delivers a claimed 6,2 litres/100 km, a very similar consumption figure to that of the GTD.

And, in the long run, petrol engines are cheaper to maintain than diesel engines.