How Reliable Is The 2019 Volkswagen Golf Alltrack?
Aside from perhaps Volvo, no car company has championed station wagons in the United States as consistently and as ardently as Volkswagen. While other automakers abandoned the body style as SUVs and crossovers rose to dominance, VW has persisted in selling wagons in America for more than 50 years now. Ardent champions of the station wagon that we are, we鈥檝e just welcomed a Golf Alltrack into our long-term stable. It follows a 2015 Golf GTI and a 2015 Golf SEL as the third version of the 10Best Cars-winning Mark 7 Golf to go through our 40,000-mile test regimen. Our Alltrack, like almost all 2018 Golfs, is the beneficiary of a mild visual refresh and an updated infotainment system, and it now also sees wider availability of some active-safety features. For our long-term car, we decided to take advantage of the 2018 Alltrack鈥檚 new paint-color option, the attractive Great Falls Green Metallic, which looks natty with our Marrakesh Brown leatherette interior.
Every Alltrack comes standard with 4Motion all-wheel drive and a turbocharged 1.8-liter inline-four making 170 horsepower. We chose the mid-level SE trim so that we could row our own gears courtesy of the six-speed manual transmission (the top-trim Alltrack SEL comes only with a six-speed dual-clutch automatic). Compared with the base S model, the SE adds a panoramic sunroof, proximity-key entry, forward-collision warning and automated emergency braking, and an 8.0-inch touchscreen with SiriusXM satellite radio. 546 for a roof-mounted bicycle-attachment kit. 6000 less than the better-equipped SEL. This was the first time we鈥檝e strapped our test equipment to a stick-shift Alltrack, and we were surprised to find that it鈥檚 significantly quicker than the automatic version. Zero to 60 mph happened in just 6.7 seconds, which is 0.8 second ahead of a 2017 Alltrack SEL automatic we tested. After a quarter-mile, the manual has a 0.6 second lead. This despite the 15 lb-ft of additional torque in the automatic cars. That tire size is a little odd, or at least not very popular, because the only winter-tire option available at our usual source, Tire Rack, was a Pirelli run-flat. Instead, we looked at Nokian鈥檚 line of Hakkapeliitta winter rubber and found that the R2, a tire that won our last winter-tire test, was available in that size. Spoiler alert: We鈥檙e loving the Alltrack already. As with any long-term test, the topic of reliability will be on our minds throughout our time with the Alltrack, even though neither of the most recent Golfs presented any major mechanical issues during their long-term tests. But notably, our car, along with almost all other 2018-model-year VWs, now comes with vastly superior warranty coverage as part of the company鈥檚 new People First Warranty, which increases both bumper-to-bumper and powertrain coverage to six years or 72,000 miles.
Car theft victims are getting a payout from insurers every eight minutes, according to new data. Around 拢108 million - or 拢1.2 million a day - was paid out in claims in the first three months of the year, according to the Association of British Insurers. This was up 22% on the same period in 2018 and comes as campaigners and politicians call on car companies to improve security, especially for keyless cars. There was also a big jump in payouts for car damage, with insurers blaming the expensive technology used in newer cars. The Home Office recently revealed that vehicle thefts over the last five years have jumped 50%, with keyless cars being targeted by tech-savvy criminals who can gain access in as little as 20 seconds. In total, 16,000 claims were settled by insurers during the period, compared with 14,000 a year earlier, making it the highest quarterly figure in seven years.
Laurenz Gerger, ABI鈥檚 motor insurance policy adviser, said: 鈥淭he continued growth in car crime must be reversed. The cost of repairs to both the vehicles of policyholders and third parties during the quarter was 拢1.2 billion. The ABI put this down to higher costs for parts and technology. For example, the cost of a headlight for one of the most popular cars - a Volkswagen Golf GTI - has jumped 400% from 拢163 on older models to 拢840 on newer ones. The cost of a Ford Focus windscreen has also risen from 拢147 between 2008-09 to 拢468 for post-2015 models. Despite the cost pressures from increased theft and more expensive vehicle repairs, the average price paid for motor insurance is at a two-year low of 拢466. The ABI said this is likely to be due to insurers passing on cost benefits from new legislation and new car purchases typically made by older, lower-risk drivers.
