Our cars: VW Golf 2.0 TDI 170 GTD 3dr - August

Volkswagen Golf 2.0 TDI 170 GTD 3dr
Mileage 12,000

The annual Doig family holiday was a bit different this year. For a change, we didn’t stuff every cubbyhole and pocket full of camping gear and set off for the northern wastelands. Instead we went to deepest, darkest rural France for some peace and sunshine.

Packing the Golf was a doddle because it had more than enough space for all our kit (despite the fact that our luggage catered for every eventuality, including
a plague of locusts). Following a silky smooth ferry crossing
from Portsmouth to Caen, the Golf was truly in its element.

It cruised dual carriageways with ease and made the gnarly backroads near our destination a proper hoot.

Once we’d arrived at our holiday base, expat neighbours John, Daphne, Geoff and Pat reckoned it was a pretty good-looking thing. It certainly drew the stares in France, probably because it was pretty rare – we didn’t see another GTD for the whole fortnight we were there.

The best news was that the Golf managed the whole 1150-mile holiday trip on just two tanks of diesel. Brilliant.