Car park battle! Volkswagen Golf vs Volkswagen ID.3

Your car may have a Sport mode. Perhaps it was fine-tuned at the Nürburgring. But the most intense high stakes piece of precision driving it’s likely to ever face is this: Operation Supermarket Gauntlet. For a family hatchback, this is a hellscape. Threats lurk on all sides: the runaway trolley, the distracted childminder. Barry, 43, desperately trying to make it to the flower aisle before closing time on his wedding anniversary.

A high-vis Volkswagen Golf is an ideal tool in this theatre of war. Relatively compact, with useful visibility. Practical. Wieldy. So far in 2021 it’s Britain’s third bestselling car, and the country’s favourite family hatchback. But being a young and impressionable fellow, TG’s Greg Potts insists there is a new bestseller-in-waiting even better suited to the gnarly white-lined battlefield. Don’t you, Gregory?

Words: Ollie Kew and Greg Potts
Photography: Mark Riccioni

GP: Crikey, 44 hours spent parking the car each year? I reckon we could halve that by driving EVs with their short overhangs and lightning quick 0–10mph sprints. All the more time to spend doomscrolling through memes or on the toilet – that’s what those surveys are usually about, isn’t it? The ID.3 is the natural heir to the Golf’s hatchback throne. Sales of fully electric vehicles have already overtaken diesels in the UK this year, and that 2030 ICE ban is edging ever closer.

VW really needs the ID.3 to sell in huge numbers. And to boost the margin, it appears to have raided Dacia’s trim offcuts skip for the interior. Your Golf’s cabin feels more solid, but I like my chances.

OK: I’m a firm believer in competition breeding quality, so I’ve devised a cunning stunt to settle this people’s car death match. Our inspiration is the noble work of one Gareth Wild from Bromley, who revealed earlier this year the completion of a six-year quest to park in every single one of the 211 spaces outside his local branch of Sainsburys on his weekly shop.

A fine effort, but in the time it took you to read that, 17 more Brits have suffered parking calamities. We shall set the clock at 60 minutes. Electric vs petrol. Manual vs automatic. Youth vs slightly less youth. Who can achieve the most successful parks in one hour? Penalty points for trolley dings, a bonus for an end space. Bags for life at the ready. Go!

GP: I’m off the line in a flash. This particular ID.3 is the relatively basic Life Pro with the 58kWh battery and only 143bhp, but it’s rear-wheel drive and still claims 0–62mph in less than 10 seconds. I’ve got you on toast from 0–5mph, which is what matters in car parks. It’s also tall – much taller than the Golf – with plenty of glass and split A-pillars that help spot me past this pushchair into the parent and child spaces.

OK: I demand the referee discounts that park as you’re closer to being a child than having one, mate. The Golf isn’t as instantaneous as the ID.3, but its bestselling engine, a 1.5-litre turbo, is an absolute peach. I did 60mpg on my way here. Though as a committed manual gearshift disciple I have to concede finding reverse in a hurry is a bit of a graunch-fest.

GP: I’ve got my own problems, analogue boy. Why are car parks always plagued by student drivers tentatively learning how not to roast a clutch? An L-plater has stalled in front of me and wasted precious time. Doesn’t he know this is the crucible of motorsport? Didn’t you pick the car park? That’s what I’d call a home advantage.

OK: I may have taken actual driving lessons on this very spot back in the mists of 2009. Any other excuses?

GP: I can’t believe you’ve specced a reversing camera. Real pros switch off their dim-witted parking sensors and look over their left shoulder...

OK: Ah yes, a £300 option on the Golf, but one that’s terrifyingly easy to become dependent on. At least neither of these humbly spec’d examples have self-parking aids. Who, honestly, has the time for those pessimistic systems to tack their way into a bay?

GP: No idea. Have you noticed how your Golf whines like a Stuka bomber in reverse, whereas my ID.3 glides in either direction without doing an impression of a wounded animal?

OK: I’d call that a safety feature. The weird pulsing ‘I’m moving over here’ bong that emanates from the ID.3 is like a badly dubbed Hollywood special effect. I wouldn’t mind your turning circle, though.

GP: I knew you’d be jealous of that. My futuristic powertrain packaging means I can whip round in a 10.2-metre gap. Great feet for a big man and all of that...

OK: Don’t think I haven’t noted you driving the wrong way down the one-way system arrows to cop a shortcut advantage, Potts. Technique straight out of the Michael Schumacher/Vauxhall Mokka school of unsporting supermarket parking challenge driving, there. Oh, and I’ve got enough petrol on board to last me 450 miles. How long before range anxiety means you’re popping inside to buy an extension lead and a value pack of own brand AAAs?

GP: The ID.3 is mightily efficient at these kinds of speeds – I’m sure I could easily beat my claimed 264 miles of WLTP range if we did this all day. Plus if I upgraded to Tour trim with its 77kWh battery I’d get 201bhp and 340 miles of range. When was the last time you drove 450 miles for a pint of milk and a tub of Horlicks? I know you’re old but you must know how to put your correct postcode in for click and collect?

OK: Impertinent. Anyway, age equals experience. Of previous Golfs, for one thing. I maintain the MkVIII’s interior button-ectomy has been a catastrophic mistake, but I have to give it to the Golf: even while budgeting for the ID onslaught, this still feels like a deeply well-engineered car. The controls are so slick and perfectly matched. The door shuts with heft and finality. I think if a sequin-jacketed man walked over now and told me I was customer number 10,000,000 and I’d won a Golf for the rest of my life, I’d still be quite chuffed. Thing is, this is as good as a Golf will ever get, whereas you’re driving what will one day be the most primitive, flawed ID Volkswagen ever stamped out...

GP: It’s really pretty good for a first attempt though. Beginner’s luck maybe. The steering is super light and while it’s not as involving to drive as your dino-hatch, that could be solved if VW sticks an extra motor in the hidden hole that’s been left up front. All-wheel-drive Golf R rival anyone?

OK: Right, I’ve got RSI in my left hand from going reverse-to-first half a million times and a nervous mirror-checking twitch. Scores time. How many parks you got?

GP: I make that 183 for the ID.3, although some of them might not have been ideally executed. Think ‘popping in for a packet of crisps’ rather than settling in for the weekly shop.

OK: I’m not saying that this has been a pointless exercise, but I managed 182. Normally I’d demand a rematch but 45 hours a year parking is enough for anyone.

VERDICT: The MkVIII Golf remains a highly sensible and acceptable answer to the “what car should I buy?” question, but make sure you test drive an ID.3 while you’re down at the dealer.