Return of the soft-top Golf cabrio 23 | 02 | 2011

    VW'S NEW Golf Cabriolet — shown here for the first time — will be available to order from Scottish dealers in July with the first deliveries expected in September. The soft-top Golf will sit alongside the folding hard-top Eos and, from next year, a new Beetle convertible.

    Building on the company’s heritage for producing popular convertibles, the two-door, four-seater, front-engined soft-top is the first Golf Cabriolet available since the Mk IV Golf back in 2002.

    To be unveiled officially in Geneva next week, the fabric roof opens in 9.5sec, and VW says it can operate at speeds of up to 30km/h (19mph). But unlike previous Golf drop-tops, the MkVI doesn’t get a fixed rollover hoop. Instead the car's designers have opted for the same deployable system featured in both the Eos and the Beetle cabriolet.

    Smaller than the Eos — the new Golf cabrio is 4215mm long, 1424mm tall and 1779mm wide — VW claims the car offers 250 litres of boot space, even with the roof fully opened. And despite being 208mm shorter than the Eos, the cars share a 2578mm wheelbase which means there's plenty space for four passengers.

    Buyers will have the choice of three trim levels – S, SE and GT – and all will have a high level of standard specification which is likely to include 16in alloys, a fully automatic electro-hydraulically operated soft top, DAB radio and Bluetooth.

    There's a choice of six engines: three from launch — two petrols, a 1.2TSI 103bhp, 1.4TSI 158bhp and a 1.6TDI turbodiesel producing 103bhp — and a further three later in the year. These will include a 1.4TSI 122bhp, 2.0TSI 2o8bhp and a 2.0TDI with 138bhp. BlueMotion Technology modifications will be applied to the diesel engines to ensure high efficiency and low emissions.

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    Jim McGill

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