Used Car Buying Guide: The VW Golf family

The first car to make use of the current Golf's underpinnings was not the Golf itself but the Touran, VW's five- and seven-seat compact MPV, in 2003, followed by the three-door Audi A3. In 2004 we got the Golf, the five-door A3 (which Audi calls the Sportback), the Seat Altea and the Skoda Octavia hatchback. Then in 2005 came the Seat Toledo and the Octavia estate. Meanwhile, we've also been presented with the Golf Plus, Golf GTi, Golf 4Motion and Golf R32, plus the vRS and 4x4 versions of the Octavia.

That's a lot of cars. So why think of them as being variations on the Golf? Because they use the same engines and gearboxes and the same basic underpinnings, giving all of them the same wheelbase of 2578mm, with the exception of the Touran; and it's no coincidence that the Touran is the one that feels least Golf-like.

The others, from the four-wheel-drive Golf R32 blunderbuss to the frumpy, dawdling Octavia 1.6, all share a sturdy, well balanced feel that comes from using many of the same components under the skin - even though those components, especially the suspension, are set up differently for different models.

If all this leaves you feeling a little bewildered, our aim here is to guide you through the tangled branches of the Golf family tree. We've highlighted six key areas that might influence your buying choice - economy, performance, etc - and in each area we've selected two winners: one that's about a year old and one that's as close to four figures as we'd happily go.

Some cars are too new to qualify, such as the VW Jetta, Golf R32 and the hot Leon FR; the Altea XL doesn't reach the UK until 2007. (The VW Eos and new Audi TT, as well as both being too new, don't actually share much with the Golf.)

We've also included a few tentative recommendations of non-VW products, for the benefit of those oddballs who don't think mainstream motoring begins and ends with the Golf.

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