Volkswagen's Golf SportWagen has a new name, same utility

Hey, remember the New York Auto Show from a few weeks back? Well, Volkswagen showed off a car that it called a concept, but that was basically a production-ready vehicle. It was called the Golf TDI SportWagen Concept, and we didn't need to exercise our powers of deduction to figure out what car this thinly veiled concept was foreshadowing.

This is the production Golf SportWagen, and while it is the successor to the Jetta SportWagen, this is far more than a renaming of its predecessor. When it hits dealers early next year, it will be with a 1.8-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder under its hood. Diesel aficionados, meanwhile can get their fix with Volkswagen's popular TDI SportWagen. For model year 2015, it boasts a new, 150-horsepower, 2.0-liter turbodiesel that churns out 236 pound-feet of torque.

Six-speeds - manual or dual-clutch - will be standard on the TDI model, while the 170-hp 1.8 can be had with either a five-speed manual or a six-speed auto. It's not specifically called out in the press release, but based on the press photos, 4Motion all-wheel drive will be available on the TDI model. It's not clear if the 1.8T will get its own AWD system.

Riding on the Volkswagen's soon-to-be-ubiquitous MQB platform, the Golf SportWagen is wider and longer than the car it replaces. That means it packs more room than the old Jetta SportWagen, with up to ten percent more space when the backseats are folded down.

It's unclear as to how VW will price the new Golf SportWagen. The old Jetta-based, 2.5-liter model maintained a $1,000 premium over the base Jetta Sedan, while the Jetta TDI SportWagen was $1,395 more than its four-door counterpart. Whether VW will apply that pricing structure to the Golf-based models is an open question that we hope to have an answer to soon.


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