Volkswagen Golf estate news - New Golf estate: most sensible - 2009

Surely as damp autumn follows damp summer, surely as controversy follows Fernando Alonso, so the new MkVI Golf estate has followed the MkVI Golf hatch.

Here it is, looking uncannily like a Golf hatch with a bigger, squarer boot. It's set to hit showrooms in early November with the choice of three engines: a 120bhp 1.4-litre petrol and two diesels developing 104bhp and 138bhp.

Next spring, they'll be joined by an entry-level 89bhp 1.6-litre diesel and a 103bhp 1.2-litre petrol engine.

You can also order your 104bhp diesel in eco-happy ‘BlueMotion' guise, which adds low rolling resistance tyres, battery regeneration and start-stop technology to improve fuel economy by seven per cent and lower CO2 emissions by eight per cent, to 67.3mpg and 109g/km respectively.

All thoroughly sensible stuff, but what else did you expect from a Golf estate? No word, sadly, on a super-hot ‘R' version of the estate - 266bhp turbo engine and all - but how cool would that be? The campaign starts here.