Cabrio Performance Doesn't Live Up To It's Cheeky Good Looks
Saturday December 2, 1995
IN ELECTRIC-pearl magenta with a cream roof, the Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet test car had people walking into telegraph poles and little children shouting ``Look, Mummy!". It's cute, cheeky, stumpy, aggressive and in-your-face all those things at once.
Most people wanted to pick it up and cuddle it. Some didn't like the inbuilt roll hoop. Others blinked and shook their heads when they heard the price. But it is certainly incapable of being ignored.
At $48,900 it's gone up $2000 since it was launched last March the Karmann-built convertible is more of a cruiser than a bruiser, but as I've said before, soft-tops are for being seen in.
This is the third iteration of the VW Cabriolet, providing you forget those awful chop-tops created by taking the gas axe to an old Beetle. In Germany the car is relatively cheap, and given its size and the fact it's an identical package to the $30,000 Golf GL sedan, you don't expect it to cost more than the V6-engined VR6 version of same.
In that, it's similar to the Peugeot 306 Cabriolet, which is just as pretty but with a puddingy 1.8-litre engine. Both are marketed by different arms of the same importer, who obviously believes there are enough poseurs willing to pay a premium for having to comb their hair more than once a day.
LOOKS.
SO FAR I've also seen the car in a kind of orange-bronze and in maroon, both with the cream top. All three pearl-finish colors are stunning. Of all the convertibles on the market, this is the one that still looks very stylish with the hood up, which is certainly a bonus for retaining the rollover bar.
The handle-like hoop and thick windscreen frame are an integral part of the occupant safety cell, and a lot of buyers would prefer to have it there rather than none at all or something like the BMW and Benz automatic pop-up rollover bars.
ACCOMMODATION.
SWAPPING the greys and blacks of the Golf hatch interior for a combination of white and light grey has banished the gloomy feeling of the roofed car, even though with the soft top up there's a big blind spot at the rear quarters. The roof has a glass rear window with heater-demister (score big Brownie points there), and has the simplest fold-erect system of all except the Mazda MX-5, which you just unclip and throw back over your head.
Dropping the Golf lid is simply a matter of unlatching two grab handles at the front corners and holding down a button; it all folds back into its own well in less than 30 seconds and the tonneau buttons with two snaps. Unusually, raising and lowering it must be done with the engine off, whereas with the 328i BMW recommends running the engine to ease the battery load.
The roof has thick padding and lining that gives good sound insulation. With it up there's hardly any shake and vibration, and even though when it's down you can see some mirror shake and hear some window shiver, this convertible has a really solid, strong feel.
It's quite roomy for four adults, with a comfortable rear seat with enough leg room. Those seats fold well forward and, thanks to the knurled knob reclining adjustment, they flip back to the memorised position.
The rear seat folds for easier access to the boot, which is welcome, because the boot opening itself has been made as small as possible to improve body stiffness. But as the top doesn't fold into a bag inside the boot, there is a reasonable amount of luggage space, due in part to a space-saver limp- home spare.
Inside, you get two big door bins and small boxes beside each seat, but because of the dual airbags there's no lockable interior space a major sin in a convertible.
The driving position is dead right even for someone my size, and with height adjustment for wheel, cushion and belts you sit very comfortably behind a nice, fat little wheel. The doors open almost to 90 degrees, although some mug lairs will doubtless simply vault over them, particularly if someone is watching (I used to be able to do that once).
The dash is boringly identical to every VW on the market as well as several Seat models (owned by VW and built in Spain).
I suppose that doesn't matter, particularly when you are reminded of several intelligent touches like small steering column wands, big rotary knobs for the air conditioning and lights, and generous air vents. EQUIPMENT.
AIRBAGS, ABS brakes and aircon are all standard, along with electric windows there are no window buttons in the rear electric (heated) mirrors and central locking. The latter includes a full-on immobiliser security system, which allows you to walk away from the Cabrio without having to erect the roof every time.
The sound system is the same as in the base hatch, and thus a bit ordinary, despite four large and two smallish speakers, and kept losing AM stations around the city. An expensive open car deserves a premium system, surely.
One infuriating accessory I could cheerfuly have strangled is an insistent buzzer with a sort of pulsating tone that chanted its little mantra when you left the key in the ignition, moved off with the handbrake on, left a door ajar and maybe even to tell you you'd left the iron on at home.
MECHANICALS.
THE ubiquitous two-litre single-cam eight-valve engine that powers the Golf, Passat and Vento as well as the Seat Toledeo is best described as robust rather than spirited. And it has to haul 145 kilograms more fat than the GL hatch.
It runs a highish 10.4:1 compression ratio, but VW engines are noted for their excellent digitally controlled electronics.
The five-speed manual is given a longer (numerically lower) final drive ratio than the auto, reflecting the extra ratio and the fact that both fourth and fifth are indirect and fairly closer together, with no direct drive (as in one-to-one ratio), leaving a bit of a gap between third and fourth.
While the front is conventional MacPherson struts with lower wishbones, the rear is the excellent torsion beam axle slung on trailing arms that keeps all four tyres as square as possible to the road as well as promoting some passive rear-wheel steer.
The brake setup is disc front/drum rear, with ABS, and as usual, this gives a wonderfully squidgy pedal, where an all- disc setup mostly delivers a pedal feeling like a block of wood or with a hair-trigger temper.
PERFORMANCE.
THE GOLF Cabrio's performance doesn't live up to its exuberant good looks. The engine isn't a mad revver, and the acceleration figures reflect that, and you notice the gap between third and fourth enough to leave the car in fourth rather than look for fifth which is nevertheless a lovely cruising ratio.
The gearshift is meaty but positive, although reverse (left and up alongside first) was at times either baulky or slipped- in too easily instead of ringing-up first slot. It's not the sort of shift you can rush.
Steering is power-assisted, but is pleasantly on the heavy side; that might sound contradictory, but it's far better to get information about what the front wheels are doing than to lose it entirely in featherlight frippery.
The weight and the body strengthening have changed the handling and ride from what you get in the roofed car. The Cabrio will tramp and spin the front wheels on wet and loose roads under hard acceleration, but so good is the steering that it's fun rather than nervous-making, and there's little or no kick- back.
The ride quality is generally good, although it does hop and jounce a bit over some road surfaces. The tyres are mice- quiet on smooth bitumen, but moan and grumble on coarse surfaces.
Of course, despite those (minor) criticisms, once you drop the roof and get going, the rose-colored glasses go on and you start driving the car with flair and style and youthful con brio all at under 60 km/h. I guess it's fair to say that at this price it's a car that will often be bought by older people who can indulge themselves and they'll find it's given them a daily trip to the fountain of youth I kid you not. VOLKSWAGEN GOLF CABRIOLET.
PRICE: $48,900 (plus on-road costs).
ENGINE: Transversely mounted four-cylinder of 1984 cm3, with digitally controlled fuel injection, one overhead camshaft, two valves per cylinder; 82 kW at 5400 rpm, 166 Nm at 3200 rpm. Compression ratio 10.4:1, recommended fuel ULP (prefers PULP).
TRANSMISSION: Front-wheel drive, with five-speed manual transmission.
Final drive ratio 3.67:1. SUSPENSION: Front, Macpherson struts, coils, lower wishbones, stabiliser bar; rear: torsion beam axle, trailing arms, coils.
BRAKES: Front discs, rear drums, with anti-lock braking system.
STEERING: Power-assisted rack-and-pinion, 3.2 turns lock-to- lock, turning circle 10.7 metres.
WHEELS AND TYRES: 6.0 x 14-inch alloy rims with 185/60R14 Dunlop SP Sport D8 tyres.
PERFORMANCE: Top speed 192 km/h, standing 400 metres 17.9 secs, 0-100 km/h 11.8 secs; fuel consumption 9.6 litres/100 km, fuel tank capacity 55 litres.
WARRANTY: Three years/60,000 kilometres, three years on paint, six years on body rust, 24-hour roadside.
RIVALS: Peugeot 306 Cabriolet, Mazda MX-5, BMW 316i Open-Air.
INSURANCE: $695 a year, $400 excess (Kenyon Insurances, over 25, rating 1).
© 1995