A slick-looking new Golf enters the bottom end of the prestige market and rewrites the rules on exactly what to expect in a classy small Euro car that opens with a pricetag in the mid-$20,000 area. The Golf is bigger, and better, and looks a lot smoother than we’ve come to expect from Volkswagen’s biggest-selling model. It also introduces interesting new technology, including a brutally powerful 2.0-litre direct-injection, multi-valve turbo-diesel engine and the intriguing six-speed DSG transmission which is a new take on automatic gear shifting. Its safety credentials aren’t to be sneezed at either.