Apologies for 2 Weeks of Absence : Let's Talk About Golf (the car, silly!)

Well, here it is then... from the e-mails that came in, you would have thought that I was the President of US of A and lost somewhere in the Pacific Ocean or so. So, thanks for the well-wishes and no, I am not missing in Banting, yes, I am still alive and no, I have not sold off the Kia Forte and switched over to the Golf 1.4 TSI.
 

The new faces of Volkswagen Das Auto!

Speaking of the MK6 Golf 1.4 TSI, anyone reading this blog would most probably be a car lover, or at least a car user, so you could do well to give the Golf 1.4 TSI a test drive to see what the hype is all about.

Make no mistake, this is not the MK6 Golf GTI that looks and takes-off like stink and costs some RM200k with the stupendous car import tariffs that Malaysians enjoy (the same GTI goes at GBP23k or RM118k in UK).

Without the horrendous taxes, you can have this GTI for a mere RM118k, less than what you would pay for a Camry 2.0!

The MK6 Golf 1.4 TSI, in retrospect, costs app RM150k locally (or although, had I still lived in UK, the same spec would cost a mere GBP13k or RM65k after conversion). For RM65k locally, you can't even get a re-badged Kia Forte 1.6 EX at the home front.

And the 1.4 TSI at RM65k would be a no-brainer decision!

The Golf 1.4 TSI is the more serene-looking and family-approved model in the Golf stable, yet fast-like-shite given that it is powered  by Volkswagen’s award winning EA111 1.4 liter TSI engine, making 160 PS and 240Nm of torque. That's serious ponies coming from a mere 1,400 cc "puny" engine and this is made possible by the engagement of twin-charging. How exactly does that works? Well, let's sample what Paul Tan explained :

"Twin-charging uses both an exhaust driven KKK turbocharger and a mechanical supercharger to operate at different engine speeds. The turbocharger is tuned to provide maximum boost at the upper rev ranges, but when you do this normally low end will suffer with turbo lag and slow boost kick in. How Volkswagen solves this problem is by employing a second forced induction device – a mechanically driven Eaton Roots-type supercharger."

What it all means that this Golf 1.4 TSI has plenty of torque at even low rpms, and is fair game for your everyday stop-look-go driving. And Kia Fortes, even in 2.0 SX guises, may well steer-cleared of this fire-breathing little monster.

Fast yet comfortable, the Golf 1.4 TSI provides another new entrant into the competitive C-segment car choices in Malaysia. Had only Proton secured the JV with Volkswagen last year, the Golf 1.4 TSI could have been another Forte-ed ride with a local price tag of app RM75k, competing squarely with the Kia Forte 1.6 EX.

The EX still looks good from all angles!

And had that happened, the Kia Forte 1.6 EX could no longer be as smug as Stuart Baggs in Week 7 of Sir Alan Sugar's Apprentice.

Stuart Baggs is so full of himself in Week 7!