2025 Volkswagen Golf Life review

Fun, dependable, and versatile – that is what the Volkswagen Golf has been for the last 50 years.

There aren’t many cars around today with such a rich heritage, and it’s something a lot of new brands in the market, I’m sure, yearn to possess.

After a half-century of being the go-to small car, the latest Golf has arrived in Australia in the form of the Mk8.5.

It comes with updated styling, new features, and more power for the GTI and R high-performance grades. 

I have long been a fan of the Golf, and it’s been a part of our family for years. In the UK my husband owned an original, unmodified black 1983 Mk1 GL for many years, that we drove on a great number of road trips and holidays, as well as a 1989 Mk2 GTI 16V. My father-in-law had another similar vintage mint green Mk1 GLS, as well as a Mk1 Jetta GTI 16v.

Back in the noughties, I owned a V5 Bora myself and more recently a mid-range 2017 Golf Mk7.5 SE 1.5 TSI. The latter was fantastic and did everything so competently. It felt like the best Golf yet. 

Zoom forward to 2025 and the market looks a little different, with rivals from Mazda, Hyundai and Toyota all offering good value for money and, in most cases, hybrid options too to challenge the Veedub’s supremacy.

With a price tag pushing almost $40,000 for the Golf in its most basic form, though, is it still the affordable, do-anything hatch it used to be?

There are six variants of the updated Golf range: the 110TSI Life, Style and R-Line, the GTI, R and R Black Edition.

As the entry-level Golf, the Life has a new lower price to compensate for the base grade losing out on integrated satellite navigation, as well as tri-zone climate control.

The Life costs $38,690 plus on-road costs, $500 less than previously, and while it isn’t loaded with kit, the cheapest Golf available still has a lot to offer.

The only optional extra for the Life is metallic paint, so as standard, its features include a 10.3-inch infotainment screen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, fabric seats, a 10.2-inch display, a wireless phone charger  – which is now more powerful and has cooling – and a suite of advanced safety features.

If the base Golf is a bit too basic, moving up to the new Style grade will get you a few more frills.

For $43,690 plus ORCs, the Style adds: a larger 12.9-inch screen, 18-inch wheels, LED ‘Plus’ headlights, satellite navigation, 30-colour ambient lighting, chrome exterior lighting, privacy glass, and ArtVelours microfleece seat upholstery.

A sunroof is also optional on the Style grade and above for $1900, as is the Sound and Vision pack that includes a 360-camera, Harman Kardon premium sound system, and head-up display for an extra $2000.

If you want extras like heated and ventilated seats, drive modes, or a more stylish and leather interior, the next step is the R-Line for $47,990 plus ORCs.

There are six paint choices on offer, five of which are metallic and cost an additional $800, with only Pure White available as standard, which is what this test car wears.

The Corolla range, which is entirely hybrid-powered, opens at $32,110 plus ORCs for the Ascent Sport Hybrid, while the Mazda 3 starts with the G20 Pure for $31,905 plus ORCs.

The i30 line-up, which also offers hybrid power on some versions, starts from less than $30,000, so based on price alone, the closest match would be the N Line hatch for $36,000 plus ORCs.

This Mk8.5 Golf is more of an evolutionary update than a revolutionary one. That said, there are changes both inside and out that help distinguish it from its predecessor.

For the midlife update, Volkswagen has refined the front end with adapted air intakes and a slightly different bumper design, as well as illuminating the VW badge in higher grades.

All versions get newly designed LED headlights, while the top-of-the-range Golf R brings new high-performance matrix LED headlights.

Even though the Life is the base grade, there’s room for improvement on the inside with the trim, because, in a lot of places, it is quite harsh and scratchy.

The grey fabric upholstery used on the seats and doors feels quite rough and cheap for the money, though the seats in the front are comfortable enough to sit in and offer good support, and you can find a suitable driving position easily even with manual adjustment instead of electric.

Metal-look detailing on the dash and doors, as well as a leather-trimmed steering wheel, help raise the quality of the interior, offering a nice juxtaposition to everything else, which is black or grey.

There are four USB-C ports in total, two in the front and two in the back, and the front also gets two central cupholders; one with a retractable arm to fit smaller-sized vessels. There’s also room in the doors for large 1.2-litre drinks bottles – which are carpeted to reduce the noise of them banging around – and a small bin in the centre console.

And there are two 12V sockets too, one in the cabin and one in the boot, as well as map and two separate device pockets on the back of both front seats.

In the second row, space is okay but not generous. I’m around 167cm, and I only had a few inches in front of me or above my head with the driver’s seat in my driving position, so taller passengers may find themselves a bit cramped.

My six-year-old also found that he hit his head getting in the back.

The transmission tunnel is also quite high, which takes foot space away from anyone in the middle. I can just about fit in the middle between two child seats, but I wouldn’t want to do it for anything longer than a short trip.

Despite the Golf Life losing out on tri-zone climate control, there are still rear air vents in the back for passengers. And as well as room in the doors for large bottles, there are two more cupholders in the centre armrest too. The space behind it can also be opened up as a ski hatch, which is a handy – and rare – feature, especially in a base model. 

What isn’t so practical is the lack of privacy glass, which means there is a lot of harsh sunlight seeping in that gets in your eyes. In a country like Australia, and for almost $40,000, it would be good to have some level of tint.

And speaking of the younger members of the family, there’s room for two child seats on the outboard seats, which is where you’ll find ISOFIX anchors for capsules or convertibles, and three top-tether points accessible from the boot.

For a hatchback, the Golf has a surprising amount of room in the boot, and like its predecessors, harking all the way back to the Mk1, put the seats down and it’s ready to take on a tip run, a trip to Ikea and more.

With the back seats up, the Golf offers 374 litres of space, enough to rival some of the smaller SUVs, and 1230L with the second row folded. A lowered floor helps with fitting more in, and it can easily take a pram or several big bags of groceries if you need it to.

The Corolla, meanwhile, has a lot less, offering just 217L with the seats up, and the Mazda 3 has 295L. The i30 is the only one to hold more, with 395L with the second row in place and 1301L with it down.

This Golf goes without a powered tailgate, and while normally I’d say that would make life more difficult when you’ve got young kids, a combination of the VW badge doubling up as a handle, and a lightweight boot lid, and it’s really not that tricky to manage.

The rear doors also have a good weight to them, and open to a full 90 degrees, which makes a big difference when loading and unloading the little ones.

While only relatively small changes have been made to the exterior of the Golf, on the inside, Volkswagen has made some big improvements based on customer feedback.

The Golf is equipped with a next-generation infotainment system with a faster processor, and is designed to be more intuitive to use. It now also comes with an intelligent voice assistant feature, as well as wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The menu layout is indeed nice and straightforward to use, everything just makes sense, and the wireless connection is stable, if sometimes a little slow to get started. But at times the infotainment would lag, and even glitch, displaying pieces of text on top of one another in the journey history menu until it righted itself again after a restart of the car.

The 10.3-inch screen is slightly bigger than it was, but compared to a lot of larger modern screens, it feels small, and the fact that it is encased in piano black plastic doesn’t help. The apps on Apple CarPlay also look particularly shrunken, although they’re still easy enough to read on the move. 

Although VW has gone to the trouble of reintroducing physical steering wheel buttons that are less fiddly than the touch-sensitive ones found in the Mk8, the full heating and cooling controls are mostly contained within the touchscreen. 

You can adjust the temperature via a light touch of the sliders underneath the screen for both driver and passenger, but to alter the fan speed or anything else, it’s all within the infotainment, which is frustrating and forces you to take your eyes off the road.

Alternatively, the front and rear demist functions are also available on the lighting panel next to the instrument cluster, making it a little more convenient and negating the need to go into the touchscreen menu. 

Volkswagen now offers a dedicated GoConnect connected services app for 2025 Golf models, which is complimentary for the first five years, allowing owners to access features such as vehicle performance monitoring, location, and reporting when something goes wrong. 

When it comes to safety, the Volkswagen Golf is pretty well equipped. It has a five-star ANCAP rating dating back to 2022 when the latest new model was introduced. 

ANCAP awarded the Golf 88 per cent for its adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for children, 74 per cent for vulnerable road users, and 76 per cent for its safety assist technology.

In comparison, the only other five-star hatch among its closest rivals is the Mazda 3, which got its result in 2019. The Toyota Corolla is currently unrated after its previous five-star rating expired in December last year.

The same is true for the Hyundai i30 hatch; however, the sedan version has three stars from 2024.

As listed in the table below, a suite of active safety measures includes a driver attention and drowsiness monitor, as well as a total of nine airbags.

There’s not much that lower grades miss out on regarding safety equipment, with the GTI only adding expanded parking functionality in the form of Park Assist Plus, and the Golf R scoring a 360-degree camera.

Fancy parking tech is often reserved for higher-spec cars, no matter the brand, but a 360-degree camera somewhere lower down the Golf range would be good since you can get a decent one on an MG 3 for less than $30K.

In practice, the assistance systems do well not to be invasive or distract the driver, but equally, some could be more effective.

The lane-departure warning barely registers until you’re basically across the white line into the next lane, and then the lane-keep assist is weak in applying intervention to correct the steering. A small icon within the instrument cluster will flash from green to orange to warn you.

While a lot of criticism is levelled at brands taking things too far with these systems, the flip side is that if people know a car has something like lane-keep, they learn to expect it to take over, and if it doesn’t, it hasn’t done the job.

I’ve recently tested the Skoda Kodiaq, and it is just the same, showing it’s a wider VW Group problem.

In a similar way, the adaptive cruise control in both the Kodiaq and the Golf is okay, but it brakes too late.

Other models are now starting to get road sign recognition, as the Volkswagen Group has held back on introducing it in Australia until recently because it didn’t feel the technology was good enough. 

Over recent months, the company has been steadily rolling it out, with most new models getting it, but still not the Golf.

In practice, the Park Assist really isn’t good at all. The rear-view camera quality isn’t high, but the view given on the screen weirdly distorts reality, making it look like you’re trying to squeeze into a space that’s far too small for the car. 

I found myself ignoring it completely and just doing the old-fashioned way of looking over my shoulder and using the mirrors. 

The self-parking feature is a nice inclusion for a base model, but it also doesn’t do the best job and just sort of has a go and gives up when you’re 'close enough', usually on an angle and not quite in the space. 

The Volkswagen Golf comes with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, with service intervals set at every 12 months/15,000km, whichever comes first.

As with many European models, the Golf is quite pricey to service with, for example, the first instalment setting you back $538, or a total of $3549 for the first five years.

Volkswagen offers three- or five-year Care Plans for the MK8.5 Golf, however, which bring the cost down by $190 and $559, respectively.

Comparatively, all three competitors have the same warranty periods, and the Corolla has identical service intervals. The Mazda 3 and Hyundai i30, however, need to be taken in every 12 months or 10,000km.

The Golf will cost $1614.15 to comprehensively insure based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW.

Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The Golf Life is rated to offer 6.3 litres per 100 kilometres on the WLTP combined cycle.

On test, however, I only managed to get that figure as low as 7.7L/100km, and that’s from mostly freeway driving.

Volkswagen has skipped mild-hybrid technology for its latest Golf small car range, telling Drive earlier this year that small cars don’t benefit as greatly from emissions-saving tech as larger vehicles do.

That does put it at a disadvantage, though, if buyers are looking to balance outright cost with saving more on fuel down the track. Its rivals can all run on 91RON fuel too, while the VW needs 95RON premium petrol as a minimum.

The powertrain in this Mk8.5 Golf is unchanged, and in some ways that’s a good thing.

Under the bonnet of the Life and Style grades is a 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine making 110kW and 250Nm, with power sent to the front wheels via an eight-speed torque-converter automatic transmission.

The 1.4-litre is peppy, but it’s let down by the sluggish torque converter, with the two feeling fairly out of sync.

The DSG used in the Mk7 Golf was much more snappy and always found the right gear straight away. In comparison, the new gearbox gets left behind, making the car feel lethargic when accelerating again after slowing down, such as in slow-moving traffic, coming out of a roundabout or leaving a car park.

The torque converter doesn’t make the gutless droning noise of some CVTs, and it doesn’t have to hunt to find a gear, but it’s also not intuitive and doesn’t really seem to suit this car or the engine.

There are no drive modes in the Life per se, but you can knock it into ‘Sport’ via the rocker-style gear shifter to sharpen up the throttle response. There are also paddles on the steering wheel, but no separate manual mode, and the car will pop back into D automatically if you don’t change gear for a while.

The ride in the 8.5 Golf is mostly comfortable. It’s not firm or harsh, though you do feel a lot of the road.

Again, while the suspension is fine in isolation, it felt much better in the 7.5.

While the engine does a good job of keeping quiet most of the time, there’s a fair bit of noise from the wind that infiltrates the cabin, and plenty kicked up from the 225/45 R17 Bridgestone Turanza tyres.

The steering offers a good balance of being light and responsive, with an impressively tight turning circle, making it very easy to manoeuvre. It holds itself well through corners, with excellent grip coming from the Bridgestone rubber, and is quick and nimble on its feet thanks to its 1345kg (tare) weight.

Yes, but not very much. The Golf has a braked towing capacity of 1500kg and an unbraked capacity of just 690kg.

Fifty years on, and there’s still a lot to love about the Golf, even in this basic Life grade.

But there’s also a lot going on that doesn’t quite hit the mark.

The engine and gearbox are so at odds with each other, it ruins the experience, and the ride and handling are only so-so, but not enough to compensate.

The quality of the trim in the Life, as well as standard inclusions, is a little lacking for almost $40K, and the fuel economy is quite high in real life, with no hybrid option available to help bring it down.

All the things that have always been great about the Golf are still there, but just not lower down the range, which is a real shame because you should be able to get a great ‘regular’ Golf, with the GTI being another beast entirely. 

The Mk7.5 I had, I loved; this car will be but a faint memory.

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

Read more about Kathryn Fisk