In all honesty, the VW Golf was never a car that turned me on particularly.

Which actually puts me in the minority end of a driver bank of more than 22 million people who have bought Golfs since they were launched in 1974, and for the most of whom the nameplate is almost their religion.

And that last thought is what the people in Wolfsburg, German home of VW, have to keep in mind every time they sit down to decide what they will do with the next Golf.

Because first off, 'it has to be a Golf'.

It must have the essential packaging that is VW's bread-and-butter model and which represents around a third of all Volkswagen cars sold at this time.

It has to have the style cues which have evolved through the previous four generations of the car that has become more cult in numeric terms than ever was the iconic Beetle.

And I suppose it is a measure of the success of the marketing people in VW 30 years ago that they were able to change icons.

So now we have Golf V.

Hmm. That looks well. They should even think of using that nomenclature.

Anyway, it IS a Golf. So the first item on the brief has been complied with.

And it does look like a Golf should do, primarily in the rear pillar, which can never be anything other than the wide stamp of Golf or it will not be a Golf.

They know that too, in Wolfsburg. And they make a point of it in their presentation on Golf V.

And while we all have this feeling that the front end of Golf hasn't changed much over the decades either, they subtly showed us in a much-used graphic how much it has since the first round-headlighted car was born. Indeed, the round headlights lasted through three of the generations before going pear-shaped, in the nicest way.

And now, in the latest incarnation, the headlights are a new central feature without taking in any way from the overall iconography of Golf.

Like the car, and indeed as a stamp of the car, they have evolved very carefully.

Enough of the VW philosophy. What else makes the new Golf new?

More room all round, up, longways, sideways.

A higher quality of trim materials, but you can still have black on black at entry level, which must fit with some Germanic obsession with sombre. There are two-tone trims available, with beige underparts, that make a real expensive look if you want it. One of the upper specifications, such as Comfortline, will probably get you this.

Seats that are well-bolstered and comfortable and with enough shiftability to provide anyone with a good driving position. More room in the boot, though this still doesn't make it the best hold-all in the class.

And there's a whole new platform, which has already been given an outing in the Touran MPV and the latest Audi A3. Significant in this is a brand new rear suspension that tidies up the handling, arguably to the levels of the segment benchmarker in this matter, Ford's Focus. It will take more time with the car to see if VW's convictions are correct.

In Irish terms - the car is due here in early February - there is a significant upgrading of the entry-level car against the outgoing version. There will be six airbags as standard, and also remote central locking and a CD player. Five head restraints are also across the range, the least expensive version will also have electric front windows and electrically-operated mirrors, which latter are also heated.

The engines for the Irish market will initially be 1.4-litre petrol with multi-point fuel injection, a 1.6-litre MPI and a 1.6-litre direct injections (FSI) petrol, and then a pair of diesels, our much-lived 1.9-litre TDI with 110bhp and a 2-litre TDI with 140bhp output.

As it happened, in Wolfsburg I first drove a version which won't be available here, the 1.4-litre FSI 95bhp, and I was quite frankly very disappointed with what seemed a distinct lack of acceleration, even though the paper figures suggest it is faster than its 78bhp 1.4 MPI entry-level sibling. Indeed, with the new car being naturally heavier than the old, and an old feeling that the 1.4-litre Golf was traditionally underpowered anyway, I figured the entry car might turn out to be a real dog.

Cutting a story short, this turned out NOT to be the case, and for some strange reason, at least on motorway experience, the lower-range engine seemed very much adequate to the job. I await time with the car when it arrives for a proper appraisal.

However, the 1.9-litre diesel is the dream ticket when paired with the new Golf, and if I was buying it would be my choice. As it will be the choice of some 40 per cent of buyers of the new car.

On these first view trips, with their relatively short driving opportunity and in a land where they have real roads, it is not good to make final judgements on any car. Our home ground is the real test.

But so far, the impressions are very good. Very good indeed.

No prices until nearer launch, but in Germany is goes on sale at the same price as the outgoing car, €15,220. We can expect the price here to be about 4 per cent higher than for the outgoing car, but penal VRT will continue to make Golfing in Ireland much more expensive than in Germany.