Two and a half years later I'm watching this review and it cements the good decision I made in purchasing my TDI Sportwagen. Great review!

I have been driving VWs since 1972, mostly GTIs and my Corrado. But I bought a new 2015 Golf Sportwagen S with manual transmission post dieselgate. VW twisted my arm with a discount that brought the price to $20K, an 11yr/160k mile warranty, and 0% interest. My conclusion is VW did a brilliant job engineering this vehicle and its all downhill from here. I got the S model, forgoing many desired options, to avoid the panoramic sunroof. The pano sunroof in our Jetta Sportwagen let in way too much road noise, leaked, and broke. I much prefer to hear the stereo rather than have to turn it up to cover up the road noise the pano roof lets in. I prefer cloth interiors but we had the vinyl interior in our Jetta Sportwagen and it was still like new when we turned it in with 140k miles. Its more comfortable than leather and I highly recommend it. The S model doesn't have all the junk tech with sensors in the bumper that add thousands of $ to the cost of repairs and can total your car over a fender bender. I drive manuals so I don't need warnings about my automatic transmission trying to kill me. I also don't want my car to unexpectedly slam on the brakes in the middle of the highway because of a rock (common where I live) I would have driven around. This is the ultimate two person traveling vehicle. You can carry loads of stuff and if needed easily add roof racks and a box. On the highway at 75mpg the car averages 55mpg! It has a 13.5 gallon tank so can get over 700 miles on a tank when traveling, 600 around town. We took a 4000 mile summer vacation and spent less than $200 in diesel. The cost of fuel has become trivial. The mk7 chassis makes it really comfortable on the highway. The shifting is very gratifying due to the diesel having good torque at low rpms. The trunk can hold a full size spare so I replaced the wimpy spare and don't have to worry about getting a flat when traveling. Many of today's vehicles no longer even have wimpy spares (Golf R) and shouldn't be used for traveling. When I was young I used to play 90 minute cassettes. Now I keep a 256 gig sdcard in the glove box slot so the stereo basically has every album in history that I would want to listen to (probably 30,000 songs). If you can pick up one of these with the extended warranty for a reasonable price, I would go for it.

Just in the middle of purchasing a 2015 re-certified TDI Sportwagen and am very pleased to report that yes you can get leather seating both with plain or perforated seating surfaces. I have no issues with "pleather" but given a choice I'll take leather every time. Performance and efficiency changes are nominal and in fact the 0-60 times are marginally better (surprise!). Love these cars.

A little information on how the "automatic" DSG works. Although it is shifted automatically, the power from the diesel still passes through not one but two clutches and is selected by numerous inputs that help the computer to decide to shift up and down. There are two clutches that are hydraulically actuated. 1 clutch shifts the even gears and the other shifts the odd-numbered gear as well as reverse. there is a slight lag at the start as the clutches engage, as well as when the driver chooses a sudden de-acceleration followed by equally sudden acceleration. It usually takes less than 1/2 second to shift or compensate for the unusual motions mentioned in the preceding sentence. Had ours for 4 years now and love it.

Thanks for a great and honest review... This helped me make up my mind for a future purchase.... Thanks for posting.... Gordon in Maryland

you wont need the leather tbh. i have the pleather 2006 passat b6 and in 2016 the seats dont even look used. the texture held up. one small penny sized crack in a corner that doesnt come in contact with me at all towards the back of the knees out of sight i found while cleaning the car (not sure how it occurred). guess what im trying to say is their pleather holds up than actual leather seats with much less maintenance and you will have a hard time telling the difference.

No, the rear seats do NOT fold flat for that "full flat cargo area".

Nice

Looks like AZ Bartlet lake? Or

Wait a second is this filmed in Arizona near Canyon Lake?

How reliable has the 2015 Golf Sportwagen TDI proven to be? I owned a 2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDI for 1 1/2 years and had 10 major issues arise. I'm tempted to buy a 2015 Golf Sportwagen TDI if it's more reliable than the 2010-2014 Jetta Sportwagen TDI? Thanks

We get behind the wheel of the all-new 2015 Volkswagen Golf SportWagen TDI for a test in the mountains to see if it can really achieve its promise of 40 plus mpg.

To busy checking out the reviewer.....what car is it again?

downgrade to torsion beam rear axle :-(

Him saying "Not my bag" is lame.

I bet I could get 60mpg out of that thing.

why should i trust car review by a person who doesnt properly hold the steering wheel?

We get behind the wheel of the all-new 2015 Volkswagen Golf SportWagon TDI for a test in the mountains to see if it can really achieve its promise of 40 plus mpg.