Wading into a marketplace that's fast becoming a bit crowded, here's news of yet another fast C-segment estate car that's powered by diesel - it's the Volkswagen Golf GTD. Estate, of course.
Exterior
Following on from the Golf R Estate announcement, this was a logical next step for the Golf range. It comes in the wake of similar cars from Ford and Peugeot (namely the Focus ST TDCi and 308 GT HDI), not to mention its own 'in-house' rivals like the SEAT Leon ST FR TDI and the Skoda Octavia RS TDI (both of which use the same engine as the Golf GTD, which we'll come to shortly).
The GTD Estate gets bespoke bumpers and a honeycomb radiator grille, smoked rear light clusters, flared sills, black roof rails, dual chrome tailpipes and a tasty set of 17-inch Curitiba alloys. Bi-Xenon headlights are included as standard too. Options run to 18-inch Nogaro alloy wheels, which are also part of the Sports and Design package featuring driving mode selection, red brake callipers and tinted windows as well.
Interior
Volkswagen says 'the dynamic theme continues inside', where sports seats are trimmed in Clark tartan. There are 'numerous' decorative inserts and chequered black panels, illuminated door sills, black headlining for the roof and black pillar trims too. The Golf GTD also benefits from a multifunction steering wheel with aluminium trim, a golf ball gear knob and stainless steel pedal covers. You can optionally choose to have the seats finished in Alcantara or Vienna leather.
Mechanicals
It's the 2.0-litre, 184hp/380Nm TDI engine here, used in the Golf GTD hatch and those other aforementioned Volkswagen Group products. In the GTD Estate, it can power the car from 0-100km/h in 7.9 seconds yet return a quoted combined fuel economy figure of 64.2mpg (4.4 litres/100km). We'll believe that when we see it...
Otherwise, there are some tasty nuggets on which to feast. These include sports suspension that also lowers the car by 15mm and progressive steering, designed to be sharp when you're pressing on and smooth when you're just cruising.
Anything else?
All sounds marvellous, doesn't it? Except... there are no plans to bring this to Ireland at the moment. Ah. Bugger. However, it could potentially make its way here, so fingers cross we get our Golf Gran Turismo Diesel wagon soon. It'll make its debut at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show in March.
Further reading:
Irish road test of the Volkswagen Golf GTD