Road Test: Volkswagen Golf 1.6 TDi 105 BlueMotion 5dr

Britain isn't big enough. If a motorway fetishist drove from one end of the UK to the other, this Golf would get them there without stopping. Not even once. Then it'd do 100 miles more. That's a range of 899 miles from a single tank of diesel. A similar train journey costs £210 and takes 26 hours.

This is what happens when Germans make something more efficient. It's like asking Italians to make something ‘more chaotic'. With this new Bluemotion, the super-economical flavour of Golf, VW has ditched the old 1.9-litre diesel and gone with a new 1.6-litre TDI. The big stats are 74.3mpg and 99g/km CO2.

Sneaking under the 100-gramme threshold is big news right now.It means the government charges you no road tax whatsoever and, since CO2 output is directly proportional to fuel consumption, you use less diesel. The trick for car makers is to hit those figures without turning the car into a ponderous heap.

By which measure, the Golf is a success. The new diesel sounds quiet and distant, the steering is assured and so is everything else. The only annoyance is the light that advises early upshifts, which dumps you into a torqueless dead-zone before the next gear gets going. That's supposed to improve mpg but just results in chugging as the engine begs for revs. If you ignore it and change gear like normal, it drives just like a regular Golf, with an acceptable 0-62mph time of 11.3 seconds. In other words, it's not a ponderous heap. Which we like.

You can still buy a 1.6 TDI without Bluemotion. Don't bother. For an extra £785, the BM is much more sensible, and makes you wonder why more cars don't get the eco treatment as standard. If - like this Golf - every car had slightly longer gearing, some extra aero kit and regenerative braking, our global fuel bill would tumble. Obviously, Ferrari and Lamborghini would be exempt from this, but you get the idea.

Curiously, the Bluemotion gets sports suspension. Lowering the car, in combination with some spoilers and splitters, helps air flow more efficiently around it, as well as making it look cooler and handle more sharply. It's hard to see where the sacrifice lies with this thing - you even get 15-inch alloys rather than smooth-but-dull hubcaps.

It's that smart look, along with the big efficiency figures, that helps elevate this Golf above its obvious eco-rivals. It also achieves better mpg than a Prius. So the next time anyone preaches about a hybrid future, show them this car. It'll make them shut up.