I never succumbed to the hype.

I never became part of the myth.

I never had to 'plead the fifth'. I said what I believed.

I was always very clear that I wasn't a part of the glorification of the VW Golf. Which, to my mind, was to a large extent a compensatory syndrome for those who hankered back to the demising Beetle.

Of course, I wasn't being fair. But since I wasn't a motoring journalist in those years, it didn't matter much to VW. Anyway, stylistically the early Golf was to me a nonentity, mechanically it was no much better than the Fords and Vauxhalls I liked (and bought), and the only interesting aspect to it was when it was introduced with a then ground-breaking small diesel engine (I think it was a 1.6-litre?).

Your true aficionados, going on the scuttlebutt, aren't overly impressed with the latest Golf. They figure that Golf reached its zenith around Mk II (it is now on Mk V). But their opinions didn't stop very many people from buying the later versions.

I wouldn't have bought them, though.

They may have been mechanically superb (probably were). They might have been built to a Teutonic expectation of perfection (arguable). They perhaps even looked brilliant (nawww!!).

Golfsville was Dullsville.

So ...?

Well, Golf V is a car I would recommend even to friends. Golf V is a car I expect to - despite a sluggish start in even its home country market - keep the VW flag flying for the common motorist even as the brand tries to become a luxury car maker with its Phaeton and its Cayenne SUV.

See the pictures, see the style. An evolution, yes, from Golf as we know it for the last few years. But a revolution in Golf terms if you are looking back further.

Golf V is a car for today, even if its designers insist on retaining cues from the early days, like that really dull C-pillar wideness.

Look closer and see the almost-sexy front end, the smooth sculpture of the fender, that elegant top quarter of the front and rear doors, and the very neat upflip from the bottom of those doors to rise over the back wheels that effectively mark the back part of the car.

It's a car that says 'push'. Or 'make my way'. Or even 'see me coming, sunshine'. With some of the alloys available, it challenges Ben Hur's chariots to a wheels duel.

But it is, as I said, a car for its time.

The inside bits are strong and solid (I did NOT say 'stolid'). The switchgear and other dashboard stuff is simple and practical. The illumination of the instruments is my favourite blue end of the spectrum (and the most readable for the coming bulk of the motoring population).

And, in the 1.9-litre TDi version, an awful lot of practical fun to drive.

Whoopeee!!!!!!

(Oops, sorry, Volkswagen. Must restrain oneself.)

Ah, what the Hell .... Whoopeee!!!!!!

This TDi is not the most powerful in the VW engine armoury. A modest 105bhp in output. But, as a colleague wrote a while back, 'torque is the new black'. And the torque here is tasty indeed. Feel like moving in brisk fashion, and brisk is what you get. The 0-100 k/mh is better than for the 1.6-litre petrol, but the sense for the early part of that performance is even better than anything else of a smaller cubic capacity.

Doing it from the inside is no hardship. The interior of the current Golf is not avant-garde, but it works. Which is what counts more than revolutionary. The centre stack is the kind of generic look that we find in all VW Group dashboards. Simple, VW modular, and ... oh, so boring!

But, like I said, it works. Who decided that dashboards should be entertaining?

(Yeah. Everybody else.)

Don' matter. Get that TDi to pull you out on a family trip to a faraway garden centre. The engine is - if louder than my other half's car at start - a smooth and powerful puller.

The gearshift has a strong-springed matrix, but always goes where you push or pull it. And the clutch, for a diesel mill, is nicely light. And I particularly like the way the engine will pull from zero without any need to input on the accelerator. Great in traffic.

For the anoraks ... look up for yourselves the mathematics of the extra space over Mk IV and its predecessors. I don't even care about the boot space, personally.

For those like myself who have long been unconvinced, feel the (leathered) steering action that is a true joy to twirl through unfamiliar back roads.

And, I confess, I am convinced.

I would recommend my wife to buy this one, if she was in the market just now.

And I still have not succumbed to the hype.

Sure.

Last point, though. The very basic Golf V 5-door is €20,310. The 5-door TDi 1.9 is €25,370, serious extra moolah. And with the DSG gearbox which I would require it is €26,930.

If I want to become part of the myth on my own terms, I'm going to have to make hard decisions.

For many more than me, they may really be worth it.