Aside from possibly Volvo, no automobile companionship has championed station wagons inwards the USA every bit consistently too every bit ardently every bit Volkswagen. While other automakers abandoned the trunk trend every bit SUVs too crossovers rose to dominance, VW has persisted inwards selling wagons inwards America for to a greater extent than than 50 years now. But over the past times few decades, a accuse led past times the Subaru Outback has caused fifty-fifty the niche carriage marketplace position inwards America to skew toward a preference for all-wheel drive, raised ride height, too SUV styling cues, too VW responded past times introducing the Alltrack variant of the Golf SportWagen for 2017.
Ardent champions of the station carriage that nosotros are, we’ve merely welcomed a Golf Alltrack into our long-term stable. It follows a 2015 Golf GTI too a 2015 Golf SEL every bit the tertiary version of the 10Best Cars–winning Mark seven Golf to larn through our 40,000-mile examination regimen. Our Alltrack, similar almost all 2018 Golfs, is the beneficiary of a mild visual refresh too an updated infotainment system, too it right away besides sees wider availability of merely about active-safety features.
Choose Your Own Wagon Adventure
For our long-term car, nosotros decided to receive got payoff of the 2018 Alltrack’s novel paint-color option, the attractive Great Falls Green Metallic, which looks natty alongside our Marrakesh Brown leatherette interior. Every Alltrack comes measure alongside 4Motion all-wheel drive too a turbocharged 1.8-liter inline-four making 170 horsepower. We chose the mid-level SE cut back too hence that nosotros could row our ain gears courtesy of the six-speed manual transmission (the top-trim Alltrack SEL comes alone alongside a six-speed dual-clutch automatic). Compared alongside the base of operations southward model, the SE adds a panoramic sunroof, proximity-key entry, forward-collision warning too automated emergency braking, too an 8.0-inch touchscreen alongside SiriusXM satellite radio.
Volkswagen no longer offers whatever pick packages for the Alltrack, but nosotros did crunch out $235 for rubberized flooring mats to assist protect the car’s interior during the wintertime months too $546 for a roof-mounted bicycle-attachment kit. The full came out to a reasonable $31,396, merely about $6000 less than the better-equipped SEL.
Manuals FTW
This was the kickoff fourth dimension we’ve strapped our examination equipment to a stick-shift Alltrack, too nosotros were surprised to notice that it’s significantly quicker than the automatic version. Zero to threescore mph happened inwards merely 6.7 seconds, which is 0.8 instant ahead of a 2017 Alltrack SEL automatic nosotros tested. After a quarter-mile, the manual has a 0.6 instant lead. This despite the xv lb-ft of additional torque inwards the automatic cars.
Our Alltrack SE’s dissimilar wheel-and-tire bundle besides turned inwards meliorate results than the SEL, alongside the 205/55R-17 Falken Sincera SN250A all-season tires pulling 0.86 g on the skidpad too helping the automobile halt from seventy mph inwards merely 162 feet—that’s compared alongside 0.84 g too 172 feet for the wider, lower-profile 225/45R-18 Continental ProContact TX prophylactic installed on the SEL.
That tire size is a piffling odd, or at to the lowest degree non really popular, because the alone winter-tire pick available at our commons source, Tire Rack, was a Pirelli run-flat. Instead, nosotros looked at Nokian’s describe of piece of job of Hakkapeliitta wintertime prophylactic too constitute that the R2, a tire that won our final winter-tire test, was available inwards that size. Nokian sent us a set, but online retailers sell them for virtually $200 apiece.
What We Think So Far
Spoiler alert: We’re loving the Alltrack already. It’s a manual-transmission station wagon, but beyond that novelty—and the aesthetic appeal of the green-on-brown color combo—there’s besides enough of substance: the generous thirty cubic feet of cargo infinite behind the nurture seats, for instance, too the plush ride quality, the rigid too refined engine, too the smooth-shifting manual.
As alongside whatever long-term test, the theme of reliability volition hold upward on our minds throughout our fourth dimension alongside the Alltrack, fifty-fifty though neither of the most recent Golfs presented whatever major mechanical issues during their long-term tests. But notably, our car, along alongside almost all other 2018-model-year VWs, right away comes alongside vastly superior warranty coverage every bit operate of the company’s novel People First Warranty, which increases both bumper-to-bumper too powertrain coverage to 6 years or 72,000 miles.
We won’t hold upward keeping our VW for that long, but nosotros are looking frontwards to spending 40,000 miles behind the wheel of this attractive too well-rounded wagon, the kickoff longroof inwards our long-term fleet since our 2014 BMW 328d finished its tenure.
Months inwards Fleet: 1 calendar month Current Mileage: 1851 miles
Average Fuel Economy: 25 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 14.5 gal Fuel Range: 360 miles
Service: $0 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0
Get the Best Deal on a Volkswagen Golf Alltrack
Source : caranddriver