The history of Volkswagen’s powerful estate cars

Top performance in six generations. The first Golf Estate was launched as early as 1993 – as an estate version of the Golf III. As with all five subsequent generations, the first Estate was based on the platform of the Golf saloon and quickly became the top car in the compact class. The basic version started with 55 PS, provided by a 1.4-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. Right from the start, various engine versions could be ordered with an all-wheel drive. From the end of 1994, the first very sporty Golf Estate came onto the market with a VR6 engine, 190 PS, a maximum of 245 Newton metres of torque and all-wheel drive as standard. While the second generation of the Estate had a peak output of only 115 PS, the third generation came with a lot of power: The Golf Estate, which was then known as the Volkswagen Bora Estate, had a peak engine output of 204 PS thanks to the VR6 engine. With an all-wheel drive, it accelerated up to 235 km/h and sprinted from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.6 seconds. From the beginning of 2007, the Estate of the fifth Golf generation offered a 2.0 TSI delivering 147 kW (200 PS) and 280 Nm acting on the front wheels. In its last version, the vehicle reached a top speed of 235 km/h with a manual gearbox. In 2009, the next generation followed with the 1.4 TSI as the top model, which meant 118 kW (160 PS). The Estate came with a six-speed manual gearbox as standard, with a dual clutch gearbox available as an option. In 2015, a Golf R Estate based on the Golf VII came onto the stage for the first time. The 2.0 TSI R with two-litre turbocharged four-cylinder had a surprising 221 kW (300 PS) and 380 Nm at the beginning of 2015. 4MOTION all-wheel drive and a six-speed DSG were on-board as standard. The sprint was achieved in 5.1 seconds with the top speed being electronically limited to 250 km/h. A facelift at the beginning of 2017 gave the top Estate another ten PS more, which reduced the sprint to 100 km/h to 4.9 seconds, the top speed remained at 250 km/h as standard with 270 km/h as an option in the Performance package. At the end of 2018, the engine output was limited to 300 PS with only minimal losses in sprinting performance and 250 km/h still as standard (270 km/h optional). With the new R Performance torque vectoring, 20 PS and 20 Nm more engine output as well as standard and optional R Performance items, the new Golf R Estate is now entering unprecedented spheres as a powerful sports Estate car from Volkswagen.