VW's Bora has the wind in its tail

If you wanted a Passat but couldn't justify the price or the size, there's a decent option in the Bora - a car that is so much more than the Vento it replaces that it has likely already won significant new customers to the marque.

The first important thing is that the car is a VW, of course. But after that, it's also a good-looker, something the Vento never was. Decent sheetmetal styling also differentiates the Bora strongly from the Golf on which it is based, and the interior can be attractive if you order something other than the total blackness of the review car.

In exterior detail, the 'jewel' treatment of the front lights set, and the neat back end, are particularly notable, though I'd have preferred if the 'VW' badge on the front was a little smaller. Otherwise, the overall aspect is sleekness, and of course with everything built to the tightest of tolerances.

The review car was a 1.6-litre petrol model without much in the way of frills. But everything that was there worked properly and looked quality. The dashboard is neat, functional, and at night that trademark blue ligting of the instruments is most restful and also much clearer to read than are the red dials used in VW Group stablemate Audis, for instance.

(Something to do with the wavelength shift between red and blue ... I must ask my optician about it.)

The steering wheel is a most pleasant handsful, the gearshift neat to feel and move. Staying with the controls, I found the pedalwork firm but not heavy, and I particularly like how the electronic throttle linkage allows the car to 'creep' in slow traffic just by using the clutch pedal alone.

However, room to the left of the said clutch is a little tight for a bigfoot, and I found myself forsaking the footrest for a position on the floor.

Accommodation is pretty good all over, and a back-seat passenger pronounced things aft as comfortable. The seats in the (basic) review car, though, were not as supportive as some in the class from this driver's perception.

The 100bhp 1.6-litre proved to be adequate rather than punchy, as indicated by an 11.7sec 0-62mph performance. A 75bhp entry-level 1.4-litre is kind of snail-like on paper, and I don't think would be my cup of whatever wakes you up. (The 2-litre option doesn't really give much more oomph than the 1.6, and, strangely, VW in this market doesn't provide what would be the performance car of choice, the 110bhp TD.)

Anyway, for most purposes, the review vehicle was perfectly good in the moving department. The suspension setup was also OK, if a little wallowy in the very unforgiving territory of negotiating sharp bends in housing estates at slow speeds (seriously!). Under power in real driving, though, the handling was fine.

The boot in the Bora is quite massive, and well-finished with things like side nets to keep small things under control. And access to it is large opening, with the excellent 'touch-lift' opener great for saving fingernails (even fingertips ... when viewed against competitors like Rover's sharp 400-series boot lifts, for instance).

All in all, Bora proved to be pretty good to live with for the review period, and a fairly hefty mileage during that time allowed ample opportunity to experience the car's better points.

But VW still seems to think it should charge a premium for its name, in that lots of things we now take as standard come only at significant extra cost. The base price of the 1.6 Bora as driven is £16,585. If you want electric windows and mirrors, you're driving a car costing more than £17,000. Aircon will set you back a further £1,169-£1,488, or the option of an electric sunroof is a lesser £764.

That said, the car does have all the safety bits, including ABS, dual full-sized airbags, discs all round, and a probably very tough impact performance. Thing is, so do most others.

Bora is in a tough segment, with Ford's super Focus 1.6 saloon an extremely well-specced and excellent-to-drive a very hard act to beat. Opel's Astra saloon is equally good, depending on personal preferences. The VW's cousin Toledo from SEAT offers a wider range of engine options in Ireland, too.

I suppose, it WILL all boil down to personal preferences here, with VW hoping its legendary reliability will tip the balance. And its high residual value, which figuratively gives the car the wind it is named after in its tail. Maybe enough to win.