The Mk8.5 Golf, revealed in a camouflaged GTI version, is slated for pre-order in the spring. This launch comes nearly four years after the debut of the current model. 2024 also celebrates the Golf’s 50th anniversary as Volkswagen's flagship model, with over 37 million units sold worldwide.
The Mk8.5 Golf features a revised interior focusing on ergonomics, quality, and functionality. It includes a larger 12.9-inch central infotainment display and a 10.4-inch digital instrument cluster. The latest generation of VW’s MIB infotainment platform is introduced, addressing previous criticisms with improved processing speeds and display resolution. The platform integrates an enhanced IDA voice assistant powered by ChatGPT AI, offering expanded voice command capabilities.
VW Golf Mk. 8.5
Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer told Autocar last year that widespread criticism of the interiors of its current cars – including the Golf – “definitely did a lot of damage” to the brand, which the firm is looking to rectify with a new approach to cockpit design.
Volkswagen's quest for greater usability also means that the Golf's much-maligned haptic steering wheel controls have been replaced with more traditional physical buttons - an arrangement that is visually familiar from the previous, seventh-generation Golf, often regarded as a high point in the model line's history.
The new Golf will seek to re-establish its reputation for quality construction with a range of more upmarket materials throughout the interior, including one called Atrilur, a recycled material similar to Alcantara, in top-of-the-range variants.
But perhaps the most obvious and useful of all the changes to the new Golf's cabin is that the touch-sensitive climate control sliders now light up, making them much easier and safer to use when driving at night.
VW Golf Mk. 8.5
Revisions to the hatchback's exterior are less obvious, with the camouflage still in place, but Volkswagen promises the Golf will be "visually refined" for 2024, no doubt by virtue of reshaped bumpers, tweaked air intakes and new-look lights at each end that will use VW's latest IQ Matrix LED technology.
Further details will be revealed at a full public unveiling of the new Golf, when VW will also give an idea of changes to the Golf's pricing structure.
Source: Volkswagen, Autocar
