First Drive: 2017 Volkswagen Golf Alltrack
Story and photo by John LeBlanc
FRANKFURT, Germany — Traction at all four wheels and a taller seating position are two of the main reasons why so many former car owners have recently moved into crossovers, trucks and SUVs. And these two features are the highlights of a new compact station wagon, the Volkswagen Golf Alltrack.
At this point in time, nobody knows how Dieselgate — Volkswagen’s diesel emissions cheating crisis — will play out. But regardless of what type of engine will power it when it arrives in Canada next year, the Golf Alltrack is the type of vehicle the German automaker could use to win over the buying public.
The idea of applying crossover/SUV attributes to a traditional wagon is nothing new. Volkswagen will say the Golf Alltrack’s genealogy comes from the existing European market's midsize Volkswagen Passat Alltrack. Yet the Golf long roof-cum-SUV can be traced through a line of half-wagon/half-SUV mutants that snakes back to the likes of the 1979 AMC Eagle Sportback, 1995 Subaru Outback, 1998 Volvo V70 Cross Country and 1999 Audi A6 Allroad.
First seen at the 2014 Paris auto show, the Alltrack is based on the current Golf Estate; known as the Sportwagon in Canada. Positioned in the slight gap between the front-drive Golf wagon and the AWD Tiguan compact crossover, the Golf Alltrack is already on sale here in Europe. In anticipation of the Canadian-market version arriving in about 12 months, I got the opportunity to drive a current Golf Alltrack on its home turf in Germany to see if it really is the magical blend of wagon and crossover these types of hybrids claim to be.
First off, the majority of what makes a Golf Alltrack different than a Golf wagon can be easily seen.
In addition to adding all-wheel drive, the Alltrack gets a 20-millimetre boost in ground clearance for added off-road ability. You’ll also find the requisite SUV-mimicking styling appliques, including restyled bumpers with plastic protection plates front and rear, contrasting coloured plastic cladding on the wheel arches and door sills and a set of roof rails.
Except for some “Alltrack” embroidery on its front seats, the wagon/crossover’s interior strays little from the Golf wagon it’s based upon, which is just fine by me. Roomy, stylish and feeling more expensive than it should for its price, I’m a huge fan of the current, seventh-generation Golf interior. And because the Alltrack version is specced the same as a topline Euro-Golf Estate GT, navigation, dual-zone climate control and bi-xenon headlights are all standard fare.
Aside from these exclusive visual cues, the biggest reason Canadians should be interested in the Alltrack over a regular Golf Sportwagon is the addition of traction at all four wheels.
As in other VW Group transverse-engine vehicles, the Golf Alltrack uses an electro-hydraulic Haldex clutch system that measures the amount of engine torque to either the front or rear axles, plus a locking centre differential when maximum, low-speed traction is needed.
All the better to test out the Golf Alltrack’s added traction capabilities, the morning I got to drive the car involved plenty of cloudy skies and bursts of rain. But whether the Volkswagen was on a high-speed, German autobahn, tighter two-lane country roads or muddy vineyard service tracks, its AWD system handled the slippery road conditions with aplomb.
For some of the muddy tracks I found outside the town of Ingelheim am Rhein west of Frankfurt, I discovered the Golf Alltrack’s exclusive off-road mode in the driver profile menu. Once set, it adjusts the throttle and anti-lock braking system for poor road surfaces. And just like many modern SUVs, the small VW wagon has hill descent control. On some of the steeper vineyard slopes I found, the Volkswagen crept down gingerly, without needing my foot on the brakes. More impressive: the large, 17-inch alloy wheels were wrapped in regular summer road tires, not chunkier winter snow and ice rubber.
As much as Volkswagen wanted to make the Golf Alltrack behave well off-road and appear like a crossover, the German automaker’s suspension engineers were told to make the small wagon perform on pavement like any other Golf. So while it can handle the type of light off-roading duties most crossovers are called upon to do, on pavement the Alltrack drives like the refined and sporty Golf wagon it is based upon.
Yes, because of its taller suspension, the Golf Alltrack rolls a bit more in the corners than the wagon. But it is very well controlled, and I suspect, the seat of the pants of most non-car critics will never notice the difference.
As much as Volkswagen’s “Clean Diesel” image is in question, the TDI engine under the hood of the Golf Alltrack I drove was both refined, powerful and frugal.
In Europe, the Golf Alltrack comes with a wide range of engines. My example came with the higher spec of two versions of the 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine that is currently under scrutiny worldwide. But whereas Canadian TDI Golfs deliver 150 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque, the TDI powering my Golf Alltrack tester is the same as in the sporty (and also Euro-only) Golf GTD hatchback, making 181 hp and 291 lb.-ft. During my brief stint in the car, I saw as low as 4.2 litres per 100 km fuel economy on the highway, and a high of 8.0 L/100 km bombing around on back roads.
While the lesser Golf Alltrack engines can be had with a six-speed manual gearbox, the topline TDI comes only with the same six-speed dual-clutch automatic we have here in Canada. Together, they provide the range-topping Alltrack with a zero to 100 km/h acceleration time of 7.8 seconds and a 218 km/h top speed (of which, I only saw an indicated 200 km/h in a short burst of speed on an unlimited speed stretch of autobahn). And for potential crossover buyers looking to tow a light taller of some sort, Volkswagen claims the Golf Alltrack can trailer up to 2,000 kilograms.
As the Golf Alltrack is still a year away from going on sale in Canada, pricing and final powertrain specs have not been finalized. But based on European models, the well-equipped Alltrack will be sold as the topline Golf Sportwagon model, so expect something around the mid-$35,000 range.
As much as Volkswagen’s reputation is currently in doubt, in isolation, the new Golf Alltrack is an attractive alternative to the common crossover.
And it should sell well. For many Canadians who enjoy trips to cottages in the summer or ski hills in the winter, AWD is becoming a “must have”. So although its extra ground clearance won’t protect the compact wagon on the Rubicon Trail, for buyers who want all the attributes of a crossover or SUV but not the compromised driving dynamics or poorer fuel economy, the Volkswagen Golf Alltrack hits that mark.