FROM the outside – and indeed the inside – this five-door hatchback looks every inch a conventional Volkswagen Golf. It is not.

Yes, the doors shut with that reassuringly weighty clunk, the fit and finish are Germanic in their precision and the interior exudes that familiar blend of sensible styling and logical layout.

But underneath the bonnet lurks Volkswagen’s answer to the green challenges facing modern car makers.

While hydrogen and electric power hold out the possibility of revolutionising the future of driving, VW has pitched in with a real-world solution for the here and now of motoring.

Some car makers have gone down the route of hybrid power, mating huge banks of expensive batteries to petrol engines, to reduce emissions and cut fuel consumption and filling dashboards with dazzling Star Wars-style instrumentation.

VW on the other hand has calmly focused on re-engineering an already excellent diesel engine and slotting that into the Golf to make the BlueMotion the most fuel-efficient production Golf ever built.

Volkswagen says the four-cylinder, 1.6-litre, 105 horsepower diesel engine is able to achieve 74.3 mpg on the combined cycle and emits just 99g/km of carbon dioxide. That sort of economy means, in theory, the car is capable of almost 900 miles on one tankful of fuel – enough, says VW, to drive from London to Barcelona without refuelling.

With a mix of stop-start, rush-hour commuting, country road driving and a couple of extended motorway runs, on the best run I managed 62mpg.

Visible changes to the car’s bodywork are subtle, with sports bumpers, side skirts and a gently enlarged rear roof spoiler, and extensive modifications to the underside of the vehicle to smooth off the airflow. Lowering the ride height by 15mm to reduce drag further improves aerodynamics, and blanked-off sections of the front grille help reduce cooling system drag as less heat is rejected by the engine.

The five-speed manual gearbox has been revised to include longer ratios in third, fourth and fifth gears to decrease engine speed and to help cut fuel consumption. The BlueMotion is also fitted with a Formula 1-style regenerative braking system, which captures the energy generated through braking to charge the battery, helping to reduce the workload of the engine and cut fuel consumption.

An automatic start/stop system is also fitted, along with ‘auto hold’ that operates when the car stops for short periods and automatically applies the parking brake, which comes into its own when crawling along in heavy traffic on long inclines.

The BlueMotion adds to the Golf range, that is Volkswagen’s best-seller in the UK, and Europe’s best-selling car. And most importantly, while the BlueMotion will match or beat hybrids, both in price and and fuel economy, it remains conventional to drive, service and repair.

  • VW Golf BlueMotion Price: £18,685 Insurance group: 18E Fuel consumption (Combined): 74.3mpg Top speed: 118mph Length: 419.9cm/165.3in Width: 178.6cm/70.3in Luggage capacity: 12.3 cu ft Fuel tank capacity: 12.1 gallons/55 litres CO2 emissions: 99g/km Warranty: 3 years/60,000 miles
  • Dealer: Ridgeway Oxford, Oxford Motor Park, Langford Lane, Kidlington, 0844 244 7340