Golf Alltrack – Quick Drive

The Golf 7 has won over 30 awards from the North American Car of the Year to World Car of the Year. In fact we can remember the last time any car (let alone a Volkswagen) consistently won that many awards in so many different countries around the globe. So why is that important in regards to this Golf Alltrack? Everything that is good about the Golf 7 is baked into this Alltrack making it a great addition to the Golf family. As a bonus to all of us in North America, this will also be the first Alltrack model offered here and we think it is great.

We had a chance to drive a 2.0 TDI version of the Alltrack in Austria while attending the annual Worthersee GTI Treffen and came away impressed. The exterior strikes a great balance of looking more butch and tough with VW’s typical touches of high quality details. With black plastic cladding added to the wheel arches, sills and front and rear bumpers giving the car a rugged look, there are also pieces of brushed aluminum and chrome mixed in to give the car a little bit of bright works and accents that look like more expensive pieces. The stock wheels look nearly perfect on this car and with the combined ride height and overall changes to the Golf Wagon, this thing actually gets a lot of looks. We could easily see this with bike racks, surf boards or snow boards mounted on top and you wouldn’t have to bring a step stool to get them down.

And about that snowboard… The Alltrack comes standard with 4motion AWD. The Haldex-based system is the latest generation and utilizes a fully electronic system that looks for minute amount of wheel spin and locks up the AWD clutch pack. Haldex gives the advantage of a FWD system with low friction and better economy when road conditions are normal and no slip is detected. But when slip occurs, Haldex can very quickly lock up into full AWD with a 50/50 split of power front and rear. The newest version of Haldex can also preemptively fully lock the clutch pack if, for example, you ask for maximum acceleration that might break the FWD tires loose. The computer in the AWD system sees that you asked for full throttle and asked for it rapidly, so it will lock up the clutch pack in anticipation to give you maximum traction. Which is a good thing with Volkswagen’s newer 2.0 TDI with 184ps/181hp and 292 lbs. ft. of torque. We don’t get this engine here, but the additional horsepower and torque is significant and moves the Alltrack down the road very quickly from a stop.

On the road the Alltrack possesses all the same qualities of the Golf 7 hatch and Sportwagen. With a very rigid chassis, supremely quiet interior, great ride quality and very good handling, even with the 20mm higher ride height. Body roll is a little more due to ride height and some additional weight of the wagon body, but overall there aren’t very many compromises as compared to the hatch version. If you drive a current Golf Sportwagen, they feel very similar, but the Alltrack has numerous cosmetic cues to remind you that you’re driving a different car. The Alltrack also gives the impression of feeling slightly more “solid” due to some additional weight in the rear from the AWD system.

We did some soft off roading in the Austrian hills and most of the dirt and rocky fire roads are handled just fine. Articulation of the individual wheels and ground clearance are the biggest hurdles to doing anything much more serious, but if you want to do some exploring off the beaten path, the Allroad can get you there and still pull it off. Well groomed dirt and gravel trails are very smooth and right in line with what you’d expect from this type of vehicle. Smaller rock hopping here and there also works and we’d hazard a guess that most people will exceed their comfort zone before the car gets in over its head. However, once the ruts get too deep or the rocks too big though, you’ll want to back off and think whether damage to the bottom of the car is worth the trouble.

Overall we think the Alltrack will be a great addition to the U.S. lineup. More importantly though, our Alltrack is going to be built in Mexico and that means Mexico will finally support Haldex/AWD on the assembly lines which opens the door for more AWD models in North America. Volkswagen has been hinting at regular Golf Sportwagen 4motion models coming as well. We’ll get the 1.8T version first with VW sorting out whether TDI will be feasible with all the strict emissions coming on the horizon. Look for the Alltrack to arrive in dealers this September.