We have the new generation, turmeric yellow, 2022 Volkswagen Golf Life hatch to test with our family! This is a fantastic five-seat hatchback for families so let's see how this vibrant new Golf Life model stacks up in our BabyDrive testing…
BabyDrive Verdict
The Volkswagen Golf is a great five-seat hatch as a BabyDrive! For a family of up to five, this would be a very comfortable and practical family car.
In the rear seats, there are ISOFix points in the two outer seats and top tether anchorages on the back of all three rear seats.
With just the two outer Infasecure child seats installed in the back seats, I could just sit between them and I'm 162cm tall.
We found legroom to be quite good in the VW Golf Life and with rear-facing child seats installed in the back a 180cm driver could fit or a 186cm front passenger.
A 186cm driver could fit in front of a forward-facing Infasecure child seat.
The interior of the VW Golf is neat and tidy, although I thought some of the plastic surfaces felt a bit cheap to the touch compared with previous Golfs I have driven. There are air-conditioning vents across the front dash as well as in the back of the central console so the rear passengers are comfortable too.
Storage is great in the VW Golf, especially in the back where there are map pockets on the back of both front seats and smaller pockets too great for kids' toys, phones and books!
In the front storage is good too with practical size cup holders for coffee cups, a phone charging tray and net and generous size glove box.
Door bins in the front and back are lined so anything in there will not rattle around while you are driving.
When it comes to the boot storage, the boot floor drops down about 10cm which makes it a really practical size boot for fitting prams or your family dog.
A twin pram will fit nicely in the boot of the VW Golf Life or 10 shopping bags when it's empty. That is comparable to the Hyundai i30, Mazda3 and Honda Civic that also hold 10 shopping bags. The Toyota Corolla holds nine bags and the Kia Cerato, Subaru Impreza and Ford Focus all hold 11 shopping bags.
The VW Golf life is a super sporty, agile and fun car to drive with and without your family on board! It has a good turning circle too and it's nice and easy to manoeuvre and park in school and supermarket car parks as well as being fun out on the open roads.
The dash of the new VW Golf is really clean and minimal, all the buttons you are used to finding littering the dashboard are now neatly within the media system, which is easy to use and navigate with some nice features within it too, like being able to easily customise your sound settings…
…or your driver assist settings.
The 2022 VW Golf Life has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto too.
The reversing camera image is nice and clear and fills the screen giving you great visibility when parking and manoeuvring.
I love driving the 2022 VW Golf Life with my family of four; it carries everything we need, there is good legroom for all on board and it fits our Infasecure child seats and pram nicely, with a comfortable and practical amount of space for everything else daily family life requires. Importantly for us, the Golf is a fantastic car to drive, so we both found it enjoyable and fun when the kids weren't on board!!
The Volkswagen Golf Life was given a five-star ANCAP safety rating and has six airbags as standard. (You can read more details about the safety in the VW Golf in the expandable Safety section below).
BabyDrive Indepth
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
How big is the boot of the 2022 Volkswagen Golf Life?
Boot storage is good in the new VW Golf; the boot floor drops down about 10cm which makes it a really practical size boot for fitting modular prams or your family dog.
A twin pram will fit nicely in the boot of the VW Golf Life and you can fit a couple of bags on top of it.
A tandem pram in the boot of the 2022 VW Golf with a shopping bag.
A single pram fits in the boot of the 2022 VW Golf with two shopping bags.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Bub’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
A compact stroller fits in the boot of the 2022 VW Golf with seven shopping bags.
Or your small or medium-size family dog will fit in the boot of the VW Golf.
How good is the storage in the 2022 Volkswagen Golf Life?
Storage is good in the VW Golf Life. There are two cup holders in the front of the central console that holds a reusable or disposable coffee cup.
Behind them is a small central console box, with a 12V socket inside.
In front of the gear lever is a phone charging area with USB-C sockets…
… and on the side of the central console is a net, which is good for the front passenger's phone.
The glove box will hold my phone or wallet with the manual but an iPad won't fit.
The door pockets are all lined with thick carpeting so nothing you put in them will rattle around while driving. The front door bins will hold a large refillable water bottle and an iPad will fit in them too.
Storage in the back is great. There is a fold-down armrest in the central seat back with two cup holders that will hold a refillable water bottle, and reusable and disposable coffee cups fit too.
The map pockets on the back of both front seats are fantastic in the VW Golf. They will hold and conceal an iPad and there are two extra small pockets at the top, which are great for phones, snacks and toys.
The rear door bins are also lined and a refillable water bottle fits in them easily.
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
How noisy is the 2022 Volkswagen Golf Life? How good is the media system in the VW Golf?
The 2022 VW Golf is not a particularly noisy car in terms of beeps and alarms but I did enjoy hearing the engine.
The media system is great in the new Golf too, it's visually really clean and easy to navigate and use.
There are some great features within the media system that I love, like being able to customise the driver assist settings easily…
…and being able to customise the sound settings easily too…
…and focusing where the sound comes from with an easy drag and drop screen when you've just had too much of the kids' music or audiobooks.
The Golf Life has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so you can safely access your phone's communication, navigation and listening apps while driving.
The reversing camera image fills the whole screen and is very clear and it is easy to turn the parking sensors on and off too.
The doors and windows of the VW Golf are not noisy to open and close and would not disturb little sleeping passengers.
The doors and windows can be locked by buttons in the driver's door and control panel.
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
How many child seats fit in the 2022 Volkswagen Golf Life?
There are ISOFix points in the two outer rear seats in the 2022 VW Golf, they are within plastic guides that are easy to connect to.
There are top tether anchorages on the back of all three seatbacks in the 2022 VW Golf that are clearly labelled and easily accessible through the boot.
I didn't test it but I think you would get three Infasecure Attain More child seats across in the back of the VW Golf. With only two child seats installed I could just sit between them and I am 162cm. Legroom in the VW Golf is practical for families, we found that with a rear-facing child seat we could fit a 180cm driver in front, or with a forward-facing child seat installed we could fit a 186cm driver in front. So if you have taller adults in the front then put your rear-facing child seat on the passenger side of the car.
When posting Bub into their rear-facing child seat from outside, the VW Golf is really good, the doorways are really big and wide. From inside the ceiling height is good, allowing lots of space to post from inside the car too.
Australia being a country of weather extremes blazing sun and torrential rain means you may find it easier to put bub into their seat from inside the car. If it’s hot you can get the aircon going, cool the car down and not stand out in the heat with the door open while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether bub can be easily installed from either direction.
With just one child seat installed there is plenty of room in the back to feed Bub.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
How comfortable is the 2022 Volkswagen Golf Life?
The front seats in the VW Golf Life are very comfortable.
In the back, the seats are very comfortable too. The central seat is not too bad even though it has a fold-down armrest in the seatback. With a child seat installed in both outer seats, there is just room for me to travel in the central seat quite comfortably between them and I am 162cm.
The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down in the Golf.
The cruise control is very accurate in the VW Golf on both motorways and undulating roads at 60km/h. The controls are on the left-hand side of the steering wheel and are nice and simple to use.
It looks like one long air vent across the dash of the VW Golf, but there are four air vents, two in the centre below the media screen and one at either end of the dashboard.
The climate is controlled through the media screen and there are manual controls positioned underneath the media screen, both are very easy to reach and use whilst driving.
There are two air vents in the back of the central console storage box for the rear passengers' comfort. There are temperature and airflow controls positioned below the rear vents and USB-C ports too.
Visibility is good in the 2022 Volkswagen Golf, with three child seats installed in the back visibility is limited out of the rear window but you still get good visibility out of the sides.
One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Bub has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread when we get the big cars or utes as they take longer to park, in our tight apartment block carpark, the VW Golf has been really easy and enjoyable to drive and to park!
The VW Golf is easy to park, the turning circle is good and the reversing camera has a large, clear image, those combined with the visibility makes it nice and simple.
The drive is great in the VW Golf, it's small, sporty and fun so it's easy to park and perfect for around town, suburbs and school and supermarket car parks. It's really practical for families and a lot of fun on the open road!
BabyDrive Indepth - Safety
How safe is the 2022 Volkswagen Golf Life for families?
The Volkswagen Golf has a five-star ANCAP safety rating. In testing it scored 89% for child occupancy protection, 95% for adult occupancy protection and 80% for safety assist technology and 76% for pedestrian protection.
For the child occupancy testing ANCAP wrote:
In the frontal offset test, protection of the neck of the 10 year dummy was ADEQUATE, while the protection offered to all other critical body regions of both the 6 and 10 year dummies was GOOD.
In the side impact test, protection of all critical body areas was GOOD for both child dummies.
The Volkswagen Golf is fitted with lower ISOFix anchorages for the rear outboard seats and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions. Installation of typical child restraints available in Australia and New Zealand showed most child restraints could be accommodated in most rear seating positions, though one of the selected booster seats could not be correctly installed in the centre rear seating position.
The Golf comes with six airbags as standard. Both front passengers get front and side chest and side curtain airbags, the side head airbags extend to the rear passengers as well.
Adaptive headlights, and automatic high beam are not available on base variant but still standard or optional on higher variants.
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About Tace Clifford
Tace Clifford founded BabyDrive in 2017 after discovering a huge information gap in mainstream car reviews that left new parents and expanding families in the dark when it came to one of the biggest purchasing decisions of their lives.
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2 Comments
You have 3 seats across the back in this, but in other Golf GTi/All Track reviews you only get 2 in, is that because the new gen is wider in the back seats or is it that you’ve found a combo that works and would also work in the older Golf variants?
Currently looking at a 7.5 Golf Wagon, but I do need the 3 across the back (1 rear facing and 2 boosters).
You have 3 seats across the back in this, but in other Golf GTi/All Track reviews you only get 2 in, is that because the new gen is wider in the back seats or is it that you’ve found a combo that works and would also work in the older Golf variants?
Currently looking at a 7.5 Golf Wagon, but I do need the 3 across the back (1 rear facing and 2 boosters).
cheers!
It could be the change to Infasecure seats, which we have found will do 3 across in cars that wouldn’t with other brands.
Try these resources:
https://babydrive.com.au/articles/will-my-child-seats-fit-in-my-car/
https://babydrive.com.au/articles/which-infasecure-child-seats-will-fit-in-my-car/