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

Volkswagen Golf
2.0 TDI 170 GTD 3dr
List price £23,600
Target Price £22,167
Run by Euan Doig
Tested for One month/4200 miles

One month, 4200 miles, or around 1000 miles a week – all travelled in what I reckon is now the best car on the What Car? fleet: my new Golf GTD. At this rate I’ll be doing a couple of laps of the world over the next year.

It’s all thanks to that kindly Mr Editor Fowler, Sir: he knows I love to drive, and that I live a long way from the office, so he was only too happy to agree when I asked if I could take ownership of a GTD.

Much poring over the VW website ensued, and eventually I settled on a three-door body in non-metallic Tornado Red. I stuck with the standard wheels and tyres because I’ve yet to drive a car that has been improved by having larger wheels fitted, and I went for standard cloth seats because they look fantastic with the traditional tartan design.

I wanted to keep things simple, so added only a few options. Given that the past couple of winters have been somewhat trying, the £365 Winter Pack seemed like a worthwhile investment, because it includes headlight washers, heated front seats and heated windscreen washer jets. I park in a fairly busy street, so the next box I ticked was for the £125 Luxury Pack, which gives you electrically folding door mirrors and a self-dipping kerbside mirror. The final option was chosen in a bid to keep my polished alloy wheels looking the same as when they left the factory: if the Park Assist system that parallel-parks the car itself manages that, it’ll be £500 well spent.

I picked up the car from West London VW (020 8996 5380), where sales manager Brett Wiggins gave me the full handover experience. He not only explained every aspect of the car, but also made me feel like a genuinely valued customer.

However, life with the GTD hasn’t been perfect: the car arrived with a number of faults, including misaligned headlights, non-functioning heated seats, an irritating whistle from the driver’s door at high speed and a fuel filler cap that wasn’t attached to the car.

West London VW traced the seat fault to a bad earth, realigned the lights and attached the cap, but the issue with the driver’s door eluded them. I’ve recorded the noise as evidence, so the Golf will be heading to my local dealer shortly.

Logbook
Volkswagen Golf 2.0 TDI 170 GTD 3dr
List price £23,600
Target Price £22,167
Test started March 2010
Total mileage 4200
Extras Park Assist, including front and rear parking sensors £500 Winter Pack £365; Luxury Pack £125
Test fuel economy 43.4mpg
Official fuel economy 53.3mpg
CO2/tax liability 139g/km/19%
Servicing and repairs Misaligned headlights and faulty heated seats and fuel cap all fixed under warranty