Ford Tourneo Custom
Glitchy infotainment causes sighs all round on a trip to Oxford
PHEV stars in low-fuel drama
WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if the Mk8 Golf remains the world’s most rounded family hatch
A SHORT CITY break in Oxford recently highlighted the Golf ’s many strengths and handful of weaknesses.
The relatively short trip from Somerset to Oxfordshire mixed motorway miles and agreeable A-roads, again highlighting the all-round excellence of the Golf ’s ride and handling and the decent fuel economy from the mildest-of-hybrid ETSI engine. And having shone on Oxfordshire’s f lowing country roads, it was just as good for navigating the outskirts of Oxford – a city not exactly known for being car-friendly.
The weaknesses, as you might have guessed, stemmed from the Golf ’s infotainment. After dinner one evening, we decided to return to our hotel via a wide loop of Oxford’s one-way system to take in a few more sights. Except I had forgotten to bring my USB cable and the Golf ’s wireless connection with my iphone remains resolutely rubbish. So I switched to the car’s own sat-nav – or I would have, had it not decided to take an inordinate time to load and then refused to make sense of the destinations I was searching for. It eventually sorted itself out, but by that point I had already set off using my own sense of direction, which inevitably led to us getting caught in a set of narrow one-way roads.
Once it was working, the Golf’s own sat-nav is actually very good, in cities showing a 3D landscape with notable landmark buildings marked out. Quite impressive – if only it had started working when needed.