New Golf is the Answer; Which One is the Question

The GTI is Golf’s performance model but is subtle, with few external cues.

By John Gilbert

A car-buyer who strolls into a Volkswagen dealership to check on the 2015 Golf compact hatchbacks can be excused for feeling curious, impressed, confused, and overwhelmed — all in the space of several minutes. It’s like attending a dinner party, noting that available entrees includes your favorites, such as steak, pork chops, lamb chops, halibut, walleye, and salmon– and then you realize you have to select only one.

At the VW dealership, examining the Golfs used to be pretty easy. If you were seeking basic transportation you’d pick the base car with that pretty dull but smooth 5-cylinder engine. If you wanted the hot one, you’d pick the GTI with jacked up power, suspension and trim. And if you wanted the ultra-high-mileage version, you chose the TDI turbo-diesel and set off to pursue 50 miles per gallon. For the 2015 model, all versions of the Golf are improved, and with an electric version, a wagon, and a higher high-performance model, the decisions get more confusing but also more rewarding.

First glance may not betray any major change. The car looks pretty much the same, although a discerning eye can detect some rounding off of the squarer corners to streamline the aerodynamics of the boxy vehicle. You can’t tell that it’s mounted on VW’s new MQB platform, which will underpin all VW sedan models and a few Audis as well, and sits an inch lower, 2 inches longer and a bit wider than the 2014 Golf. Or that the new car is built of 80-percent high-grade steel, making it lighter and with an obvious improvement in torsional rigidity.

Slightly longer, lower and wider, the 2015 Golf adds roominess inside.

That squarish 4-door shape houses 52.7 cubic feet of interior room, an increase over the 2014 model, and more than many midsize cars. Inside, the appearance is mostly black in, with a little satin-finish trim here and there. Pleasant and straightforward, something that will be prized by those, like me, who have grown weary of fake woodgrain and/or bright chrome-like trim that gathers reflections and driver’s-eye distractions.

It’s understandable that the top models, such as the GTI and TDI, might have neat interiors, but perhaps most impressive is the base car with the new TSI turbocharged 4. Not only does it have nicely bolstered bucket seats, and the soft-touch material on its no-frills dashboard, but it also has a 5-speed stick shift in basic form, and you only miss the preferred 6-speed until you live with the 5-speed and its wide-ratio ease of operation. Read more

Mustang, Golf, Genesis are Car of Year Finalists

By John Gilbert

Much like the college football season, the nation’s top automotive journalists have finished the “regular season” of evaluating the newest 2015 cars and truck/utility vehicles, and now the focus is on choosing the “national champions.” The Volkswagen Golf, Ford Mustang, and Hyundai Genesis are the three finalists for 2015 North American Car of the Year, selected after each of 57 jurors distributed 25 points among their choices.     

The top three vote-getting vehicles for North American Truck/Utility of the Year are the Ford F-150, the Lincoln MKC, and the Chevrolet Colorado.

Having earlier voted to cut the field of all-new or thoroughly redesigned vehicles down to 10 or 12, jury members voted to determine the top three, with a maximum of 10 points allowed to one, and only one, in each category and all 25 points required to be distributed. That vote determined the top three, which were revealed December 8 in Detroit.

After a mad scramble to drive and evaluate all the cars on the original and shortened lists, the jury members  (including this writer) next reevaluate the three finalists in both categories, then distribute 10 points, which are compiled to determine both the 2015 North American Car of the Year and the North American Truck/Utility of the Year. The winners will be named at the Detroit International Auto Show on January 12, preceding the show’s first media preview day.

Ford Motor Company, with the Mustang and the F-150 and MKC, stands as the only one with a chance to duplicate the 2014 sweep by Chevrolet, which won both awards with the Chevrolet Corvette and the Chevrolet Silverado. Ford’s Mustang has been completely redesigned, adding independent rear suspension, and offering a new EcoBoost 2.3-liter 4-cylinder engine to join the 5.0 V8 and the 3.7-liter V6 and the 5.0-liter V8. Prices range from $25,000-$50,000, with all three engines delivering over 300 horsepower in the rear-drive coupe.

Golf revises engines for three-model family.

Volkswagen’s seventh-generation Golf retains its familiar boxy shape, but has several significant upgrades to its front-wheel-drive package in a variety of models that cover the compact segment as well as its price range ($20,000-$35,000). VW’s impressive new 1.8-liter turbocharged 4 replaces the boring and unloved 5-cylinder with more power and better fuel economy. Included in the Golf family is the TDI — turbo-diesel — which is a newly revised version of the already world-class 2.0-liter 4-cylinder diesel and can approach 50 miles per gallon. On top of those models is the GTI, a sporty version with the 2.0-liter turbo gas engine that has sportier suspension, wheels, tires, seats and interior appointments. Read more

Cars of Winter Blow Through Toughest Tests

Jeep’s new Cherokee looks good, drives well, and over-achieves in severe weather.

By John Gilbert

Any car can feel impressive to drive and live with when the weather is in the 70s and dry, but not too dry. The real test of road-worthiness is when you have conditions that give you trouble negotiating a road, or even seeing one — which made the winter of 2013-14 perfect. Only when we reached the end of May, 2014, did I dare to think winter might be over, because the 2013-14 winter was one of the coldest, harshest, most unrelenting I’ve witnessed.

It was bad elsewhere, I know, but in Duluth, Minnesota, we had both cold and snow in constant or alternating dosages. Records show 76 days when the temperature dipped below zero, with a record 28 of those days in one consecutive stretch. And we’re talking actual temperature, none of this sissy “wind-chill” stuff. Various regional temperatures along the North Shore of Lake Superior — where I live — hit 25-35 below on several occasions, and 98 percent of the big lake’s surface was ice-covered for a couple of months. But along with it, we had something over 130 inches of snow piling up as well on all the roadways and driveways in the area, starting out with the most significant single snowstorm I’ve ever witnessed.

It was in the first week of December, right after a pair of vehicles had been brought to my house for a week’s road test. Talk about good timing! They were a Jeep Cherokee Limited and a Nissan Rogue, both fun to drive versatile compact crossover SUVs. The Cherokee is all-new from the wheels up, and the Rogue is a thoroughly revised vehicle on a platform that will lead Nissan into the future.

It kept snowing until 40 inches buried a Jeep Cherokee and Nissan Rogue.

Both the Cherokee, left, and Rogue handled the huge storm with poise.

The official Duluth Airport snowfall was 29 inches in that 24-hour stretch, although an official weather-watcher who lives farther out on the same North Shore ridge as I do said her official measuring stake is 39 inches long, with a neon pink tip for easy spotting, and that morning she couldn’t find the stake above the surface of snow. So I don’t know how much we got at our yard from that one snowfall, but I’m estimating 42 inches. When I ventured outside the morning after the storm, the snow was hip deep, as I shoveled my way toward the thick white blanket that had been black asphalt just hours before. I climbed into the Jeep Cherokee, after clearing view-panels in the vicinity of the windshield.

I started it, and backed up as far as seemed reasonable, to point the nose toward our rural road. It was reluctant to move that far, and wasn’t convinced moving forward was a good idea, either, making me concerned the whole vehicle might be hung up on the snow. About then, I heard a snow plow going by, and watched as it left about a 5-foot pile of snow as if to seal us into our 100-yard-long driveway.

I broadcast a live morning radio show on KDAL 610am, and I immediately realized that I could shovel or make it to the show, but not both. I climbed aboard again, made sure the Cherokee was in its 4×4 setting, and clicked the selection knob on the console from automatic, past rock, past mud, to “snow,” which electronically assists the vehicle in determining what sort of power might be best for such conditions. Too much power, for instance, can make slippery conditions worse. I shifted the gear lever into low range. To my considerable surprise, the Cherokee churned ahead, with the undercarriage plowing little grooves, so I carefully increased speed near the end of the driveway, and then I hit the gas pretty hard.

A video might have looked like a speedboat bursting through a wave; I hit that pile of snow and blew through it, snow flying in all directions, as I kept churning out onto the rural road. I was free, and the Cherokee hadn’t spun a tire, although our roadway was hardly clear of obstructing snow. I favored the Cherokee for North American Truck of the Year, and going anywhere and everywhere that week was convincing enough to get my official vote as a member of that jury. It finished second, but I’ll guarantee the rest of the voters didn’t match my extreme road-test. Read more

CLA250 Tops Price, Style Standards

Compact and sleek, the Mercedes CLA250 is a coupe-shaped sedan at entry-level price.

By John Gilbert

Amid the exhaustive competition for assorted 2014 Car of the Year awards, the Mercedes-Benz CLA250 will NOT win any of them. An objective and discerning person with the chance to test-drive one might be left with one obvious question: “Why not?”

From the standpoint of style, technology, driving pleasure, agility, comfort, and the astounding tandem of low sticker price and off-the-scale real-world fuel economy — a pair of attributes not usually mentioned with any Mercedes model — the CLA establishes some true benchmarks.

If someone suggested you could buy the best-looking sedan Mercedes ever produced, built on the first winter-beating front-wheel-drive sedan platform and capable of well over 30 miles per gallon for $50,000, you might be impressed. When you’re told it can be had for just a smidgeon over $30,000, you might knock over the salesman’s desk in your zeal to sign on the dotted line before such an obvious mistake could be corrected.

But it’s true. The Mercedes CLA250 starts at $30,000, and climbs only gradually with enticing stand-alone options instead of the usual costly package-price deals. True, you can get an AMG super-hot version for $50,000, and it is truly a world-class screamer. But why bother? Read more

Car, Truck/Utility Finalists Named

By John Gilbert

The 2014 North American Car of the Year will be a near-exotic sports car, or a full-fledged sedan, with both costing up in the $60,000-$70,000 price range, or a high-economy compact sedan priced under $30,000 and closer to $20,000.

The Truck/Utility of the Year, similarly, will be either a luxury SUV in the over $50,000 category, a full-size pickup that can easily top $40,000, or a compact crossover with bold capability on and off road, priced well under $30,000.

All the preliminaries are settled, and the selection process to name the best for 2014 model year is speeding down the homestretch, so to speak. General Motors must be the numerical favorite with two of the three 2014 North American Car of the Year finalists, and it also has a major player in the companion North American Truck/Utility of the Year.

The Corvette Stingray is the redesigned sports car, and the Cadillac CTS sedan give GM two of the three finalists among cars, while the Chevrolet Silverado pickup gives GM one of the truck finalists. They are far from cinches, however, despite the continuing hopes for continuing success by GM.

The Corvette and the CTS both have a formidable contender in the Mazda3, a compact that costs half as much as either GM car and is capable of topping 40 miles per gallon with its holistic Skyactive engine-aerodynamic-design technology.

Same with the trucks, where the Silverado delivered on its long-awaited renovation, improving in every element of truck-building, and providing the tool needed to make up a clear deficit to rival pickups, but it faces a technically advanced Acura MDX as a thoroughly redesigned SUV, and a Jeep Cherokee compact crossover that is an entirely new vehicle with two new engines, dramatic styling, numerous high-tech features and a price that is about half the sticker of its two fellow finalists.

The jury of 50 auto journalists already has faced the pressure of reducing the original field down to workable groups of about a dozen each, then voted again to determine the top three vote-getting vehicles in each category to arrange the three finalists. The winners of the final vote will be announced at the Detroit International Auto Show in January.

Here’s a brief overview of the finalists, in alphabetical order:

Car of the Year

Cadillac CTS

Cadillac CTS

The CTS and its hot-rod CTS-V model give Cadillac a solid footprint in the high-performing sporty sedan segment. With a front-engine/rear-drive layout, those in snowy regions would be wise to select the all-wheel-drive versions, which are available. The CTS4 comes with a turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder with 272 horsepower, while the standard CTS has the familiar 3.6-liter V6 with 321 horses, and the CTS V-Sport has the V6 with twin turbochargers producing 420 horsepower.

Main asset: The CTS is undoubtedly the best handling and best performing Cadillac ever, and it is aimed at challenging the mid-range sedans from BMW, Audi and Mercedes. Main limitation: Price point is also up there in BMW-Audi-Mercedes range.

Chevrolet Corvette

Corvette Stingray

Redesigned body gives the Stingray a more exotic look, and the direct-injected power of 460 horsepower and 465 foot-pounds of torque from the revised 6.2-liter V8 are particularly appreciated with the 7-speed stick shift. The ‘Vette feels like a completely different — and mellower — performer with the automatic, almost like two different vehicles.

Main asset: Power, looks, handling and mid-20s mpg. Main limitation: A 2-seater may be a toy, but from $55,000-$75,000, it’s an expensive toy.

Mazda3

Mazda3

Mazda had to restrict the exhaust when it squeezed the first Skyactive engine into the existing Mazda3, while the new car has dramatic, eye-catching style and is designed around the full Skyactive treatment, with quick power and 40-plus mpg out of 13-1 compression ratio and regular gas. Mazda’s own manual and auto transmissions are slick 6-speeds, making the 155-hp 2.0 and the 185-hp 2.5 fours feel bigger than they are.

Main asset: A lot of style and technology in either sedan or hatch for under $30,000 and over 40 mpg. Main limitation: Perhaps none, for new benchmark in crowded compact segment.

Truck/Utility of the Year

Acura MDX

Acura MDX

Third-generation of the larger of Acura’s two slick SUVs is bristling with technology, offering front-wheel or all-wheel versions with the 290-hp 3.5-liter V6, adding performance to a lighter and firmer MDX. Styling is highlighted by rows of bullet-shaped LEDs that serve as distinctive headlights. It challenges the class and tightness of the best German SUVs, with technical advancements that set new standards for any SUV.

Main asset: Performs beyond preconceived limits for family trucksters. Main limitation: Impressive technology comes at a price — think $50,000-plus.

Chevrolet Silverado

Chevrolet Silverado

Changeover to all-new model is more than modest styling alterations suggest. It may not establish new benchmarks against Ford F150 or Ram, but it is clearly the best Chevy pickup ever. Nary an overhead camshaft among the 4.3 V6 (285 hp), 5.3 V8 (355 hp), or 6.2 V8 (420 hp), but Chevy engineers bring pushrods to life with direct injection and variable valve timing, and High Sierra model aims at the over-$45,000 bracket of luxury pickup buyers.

Main asset: Lighter but stronger frame, 6-speed auto may help approach highway EPA rating of 23 mpg. Main limitation: Best Chevy pickup ever still faces potent competition from upgraded Ram and F150.

Jeep Cherokee

Jeep Cherokee

Startling design makes all-new Cherokee different enough to be polarizing. First fwd platform for Jeep, with three different 4wd systems available. Console knob chooses auto/snow/sport/rock variations for new 2.4 MultiAir 4 (184 hp) or new 3.2 version of Pentastar V6 ((271 hp), and new ZF 9-speed transmission helps Cherokee conquer both extremes of Grand Cherokee on-road and Wrangler off-road.

Main asset: Great looks, interior, performance with 30-plus mpg capability, for $25,000-$30,000. Main limitation: Needs its agility so you can avoid owners of Liberty, Patriot and Compass, and maybe even Grand Cherokee and Wrangler; all will be bitterly envious.

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• About the Author

  John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
  
  For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
  
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• Exhaust Notes:

  PADDLING
  More and more cars are offering steering-wheel paddles to allow drivers manual control over automatic or CVT transmissions. A good idea might be to standardize them. Most allow upshifting by pulling on the right-side paddle and downshifting with the left. But a recent road-test of the new Porsche Panamera, the paddles for the slick PDK direct-sequential gearbox were counter-intuitive -- both the right or left thumb paddles could upshift or downshift, but pushing on either one would upshift, and pulling back on either paddle downshifted. I enjoy using paddles, but I spent the full week trying not to downshift when I wanted to upshift. A little simple standardization would alleviate the problem.
  
  

  SPEAKING OF PADDLES
  The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has the best paddle system, and Infiniti has made the best mainstream copy of that system for the new Q50, and other sporty models. And why not? It's simply the best. In both, the paddles are long, slender magnesium strips, affixed to the steering column rather than the steering wheel. Pull on the right paddle and upshift, pull on the left and downshift. The beauty is that while needing to upshift in a tight curve might cause a driver to lose the steering wheel paddle for an instant, but having the paddles long, and fixed, means no matter how hard the steering wheel is cranked, reaching anywhere on the right puts the upshift paddle on your fingertips.
  
  

  TIRES MAKE CONTACT
  Even in snow-country, a few stubborn old-school drivers want to stick with rear-wheel drive, but the vast majority realize the clear superiority of front-wheel drive. Going to all-wheel drive, naturally, is the all-out best. But the majority of drivers facing icy roadways complain about traction for going, stopping and steering with all configurations. They overlook the simple but total influence of having the right tires can make. There are several companies that make good all-season or snow tires, but there are precious few that are exceptional. The Bridgestone Blizzak continues to be the best=known and most popular, but in places like Duluth, MN., where scaling 10-12 blocks of 20-30 degree hills is a daily challenge, my favorite is the Nokian WR. Made without compromising tread compound, the Nokians maintain their flexibility no matter how cold it gets, so they stick, even on icy streets, and can turn a skittish car into a winter-beater.