IN THIS FEATURE A car to fit a small niche All very Golf-ish Who's going to buy it?

If you're after a four-wheel-drive car, there are quite a few options these days. Most of them are SUVs, an ever-growing market segment, but the size, girth, blatancy and thirst of many off-roaders is not for everybody. Then there are Subarus of course, but cooking Imprezas suffer a poor ride and sub-par interior; and while the Legacy is better, it's also bigger and more expensive. Audi's A3 quattro models don't come cheap either, while falling short in the space race. Volkswagen offers the 4Motion all-wheel-drive system on its Passat. There's also the option on Volvo's V70, Audi's A4 and Jaguar's X-Type, but all are larger cars. So, if you're one of the small contingent who want a small family hatch with four-wheel-drive versatility, your choices really are limited.

VW only expects to sell 600 4Motions in the UK a year

Step forward, then, Volkswagen's Golf 4Motion, a car to fit that small niche. And make no mistake, it is a small niche: VW expects to sell only around 600 Golf 4Motions in Britain per year, with sales fairly evenly split between the two models it's going to offer, a 148bhp 2.0-litre FSI petrol model, and a 2.0-litre 138bhp turbodiesel, both in GT trim.