While the regular Golf gets silver highlight panels along the dash and door trims, the TSI offers sporty, glossy black highlights with a triangular pattern running through each (presumably to evoke a carbon-fibre look).

Above photo courtesy Volkswagen

A revised instrument-cluster moves the temperature and fuel gauges to the restyled speedometer and tachometer, allowing for a larger multi-function display to dominate the centre of the cluster - bringing with it a slick blue-on-black display.

Overall space is little changed from the previous model in any practical sense, and the leather front seats are well bolstered and well-suited to a bit of spirited driving. The back seats - leather as well of course - are a little more bench-like than the cosy front seats would have you expect, but comfortable regardless.

Mechanical Package

The Golf 118 TSI is powered by a 1.4 litre inline four, and while that might sound like a piddly little engine, this one’s both turbocharged and supercharged.

Delivering 118kW (the name makes sense now, right?) at 5800rpm, the Golf also boasts 240Nm of torque coming online at a remarkably low 1750rpm. It’s worth mentioning here that those 118 kilowatts break down to 84.3kW per litre of displacement.

That low-end torque is thanks to the 118 TSI’s supercharger, which, mechanically belt-driven and geared to enable higher performance at low engine speeds, delivers torque lower in the rev range.

At higher engine speeds, the turbocharger kicks in, leading to the two systems working in tandem until 3500rpm, where the turbocharger takes over.

Volkswagen claims the Golf 118 TSI will return a fuel consumption figure of 6.2 l/100km in the manual version, and 6.5 l/100km in the seven-speed DSG-equipped model - which is the very model we tested.

The seven-speed DSG  transmission at first seemed to verge on overkill, considering the torque  spread. But the point here is to aid fuel economy at cruising speeds. With well-spaced ratios though, the DSG ensures power is never out of reach.

The Drive

Firstly, power. We took the Golf 118 TSI for a weekend jaunt out to the sleepy little gold mining town of Walhalla in Victoria’s eastern highlands, and it was clearly evident that this surprisingly hot hatch offered a phenomenal amount of performance for an engine of such minute displacement.

With the help of turbo and supercharger power, the 118 TSI - with or without the DSG - bolts to 100km/h in a considerably shiny 8.0 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 220km/h.

While the DSG in the Golf 118 TSI takes some getting used to - perhaps due to the absence of paddles behind the steering wheel and the hesitation off the line as the transmission figures out what you’re asking for - Sport mode  improves the experience, keeping things high in the rev range and ready to turn on the power at command.

And we did command it.

Entering the twisty bits, the 118 TSI held its own thanks to the already excellent chassis carried over from the Golf V and the Michelin tyres wrapped around each of the 17s - a step up from the Hankooks on the 90 TSI.