Sadly the mk6 Golf looks too much like the previous mk5 VW. This is a criticism that is echoed around the world, but I kind of see whySSSSSS D Volkswagen have made this decision. Ok, there have been some historical hiccups from the Deutsch drawing board over the years; the mk3 a prime candidate, with little improvement with the fourth generation. This was rectified with the edgier fifth; now we have the marginally indifferent six. 

From the pre-launch hype I did expect a lot more, but the partial re-skin and aggressive Scirocco-style treatment up front does do the hatchback a justice, as does the vastly superior interior. I personally still like the look of the car, but I fear customers will not be so cut and dry with VW’s decision not to switch design direction, expecting a more radical change: Even if it is a lot more car for a lot less. The mk5 was, after all, an outstanding car that by all accounts cost the Wolfsburg plant an absolute fortune to build; expensive compared to the more streamlined production values of the latest hatch.

VW are pleased though, with great pride in the microscope details they have developed, such as the sound deadening. Volkswagen hypes this advanced aural refinement, achieved with new door and window rubbers; great for those that seek such luxury at very little cost, but for me it was too quiet. Golf interiors have always had a numbness all of their own to begin with so why further mute the interaction by blocking out all the outward sounds. For this reason I found it difficult to connect with the latest Golf. It is a competent car that will probably rocket itself to the top of its class, but the muted way it performs is hardly exciting.

If you’d mentioned this showroom spec back (in say 1984) on a mk2 Golf GTI; seven-speed paddle-shift DSG transmission, both a turbocharger and a supercharger under the same bonnet and 158bhp they would have sold out as soon as the first marker pen had swept a shoulder line on the designers sketch pad. But in the sixth gen Golf, a 1.4 TSI twin-charged hatch is less impressive than it sounds, the ‘improved’ TSI engine lacking the fire of the torque-laden revy 168bhp unit in the previous Golf GT.

So what better place for Volkswagen to launch the base model Golf than Reykjavík in Iceland. Throughout the week days, which is when we were there, this place is like any other dreary fishing town. It blends into the daily bland of day-to-day life oh too easily, subsequently no one batting an eyelash when we investigated the local delicacies in the Golf. But then Reykjavík (translated as the Smokey Bay) has probably seen its fair catch of International journos this season testing the latest VW – every hack and his hound descending on the town made famous by Björk, the World Chess Championship of 1972 – and Reykjavík’s infamous weekend indulgence. I’m guessing the mk6 GTI will be launched here too, on the weekend of course, where the place gets its reputation for being the nightlife capital of the north.

In the meantime I’d opt for a Scirocco instead of the entry-level Golf, even though the adaptive dampers now being offered as an option work way better on the Golf than the Scirocco, offering genuine change of comfort instead of three modes of rigidity. The ride is way more supple than the mk5 Golf, making it even better to drive – but it's no GTI – make no mistake. Aside from this, Volkswagen truly deserve an award for diverting everyone's attention away from the non-GTI Golf with a spread of gorgeous girls, gigantic geysers and nightly nuggets of Nordic nuance.