There's plenty of storage space, with a large glove box, deep door pockets and a center tray that's useful for stowing cellular telephones. Golf's cup holders are well placed and adequate for most container sizes. Driver and passenger doors use different inside handles that make them easy to close.

Seats in our GTI 1.8 T were firm and supportive. More side bolstering would help brace driver and passenger in tight corners, however. Seating adjustments are trademark Volkswagen, with its unique jack to adjust seat height; they are a bit difficult to use at first with an awkward knob for adjusting rake, but familiarity improves this.

The optional Monsoon Sound System with eight speakers is among the best factory stereos we've heard, with crisp highs and snappy bass response.

Rear seats, with height-adjustable headrests, seem surprisingly roomy with plenty of headroom for all but the tallest passengers. There isn't much stretch-out legroom, but the seats are unusually high off the floor, which makes the available space more comfortable than in many other compacts. For the taller person, sliding your feet under the front seats makes the back seat of the Golf a quite comfortable place for short trips. Three-point seat belts are used in all three positions in the rear, an excellent safety feature normally found on more expensive luxury cars.

Cargo space is generous, 18 cubic feet with the rear seats in place. Flip the articulated rear seat bottom, remove the rear headrests and fold one or both rear seat backs down to create a cavernous space capable of carrying even more cargo, 41.8 cu. ft. The split rear seat allows carrying one rear passenger along with luggage and long items like skis or fly rods. A cargo cover shields possessions from prying eyes when the rear seats are flipped into place.