Buyers wanting a Volkswagen Golf with a small petrol engine had better get in quick because VW has halted production on some of the most popular engine variants in the range.
The 120bhp 1.4 litre TSI and the 113bhp 1.6 litre FSI petrol engines are no longer available from factory order, which means you can't tailor them to your own specifications. However, if you're a bit more flexible on the paint colour and the options fitted, Volkswagen says you can still buy these engines from stock reserves, cars that have already been built, but not yet bought.
That leaves the Golf range with a choice of just three petrol engines that you can order from scratch. There's the underpowered 79bhp, more powerful 138bhp or 168bhp 1.4 litre TSI petrol engine, and although they are much, much better, they make the Golf way too expensive.
To compensate for the huge gap left in the range, Volkswagen has dropped the price of the 105bhp 1.9 diesel version. Prices now start at £14,305. The rest of the diesel range remains the same. There's a non-turbo 2.0 litre 74bhp, and two 2.0 litre turbo-diesels that give either 138bhp or 168bhp. There's more bad news for fans of sporty Golfs – production has also been halted on the excellent GTI and R32 hot hatch versions. Again, you can buy them from Volkswagen's stock, but no more factory orders are being taken.
The Golf's engine range shouldn't suffer these gaps for too long, however, because the new Mk VI Golf is due to arrive at the end of the year.