volkswagen.co.uk

I've been looking at the Volkswagen web-site as I'm quite interested in the new golf. The web-site has a wealth of information on this car and others in the vw family plus a fantastic section on the new Golf GTi.

The home page is nicely designed and the main categories are separated into vertical tabs.

These are as follows:

Retailers

You can find details of your local retailer and what services they provide on the entry of your postcode. It gives distances from your address too but this is as the crow flies. Canvey Island (Essex) to Maidstone (Kent) is listed as 17 miles. However they seem to have overlooked the fact that there is a 3 mile wide stretch of the Thames estuary between Essex and Kent and the nearest bridge is 15 miles up-stream.

Company Information

Details about VW UK but not on the company as a whole which was a bit disappointing. There is a section on here about the Environment, but it is really only to do with how they carefully label parts on their cars so that they can be recycled efficiently at the end of their life. Interesting though nonetheless. Details of their employment schemes like graduate recruitment are available here as well as a list of FAQs.

Volkswagen Services

Gives good details of the different finance options available plus information about insurance and warranty. There are also a couple of pages on how to service you car and what accessories they recommend you use. The unsurprising conclusion is that you should service your car at VW and buy VW parts to prolong the life of your vehicle.

New Developments

This is exactly what it says in the title. Lists all new car editions like the new Golf GTi plus the new concepts like the VW coupe cabriolet and the Microbus. Quite interesting but not an awful lot of info on the concept cars but then I guess they don’t want to give too much away to their competitors.

Fleet Services

Details of how to go about acquiring a company car fleet and the services provided. Possibly a bit dull and boring for use mere mortals but their are some interesting news articles in here.

Commercial vehicles

The main vehicle reviewed in this section is the VW Caravelle. This is a luxury people carrying van which name simply means small ship in French. Unusual to say the least but I suppose the VW Boat wouldn’t have worked. Anyway there are lots of images of the van from different angles and details of engine sizes, performance etc...

Also in this section are the links to VW's other websites for white van man to look at the latest commercial vehicles and another link to VW's motorhome web-site.

Used Cars

Excellent section with a brilliant search facility with pictures of the cars available and where they are located. There is also a great section on the details of every VW model since the early 90's. So if you fancy buying a Golf Mark 3 you can view the awards it won and the standard spec you should expect if you bought one.

New Cars

Another excellent section and the main reason why the site exists. You can select the model of car you want and you will be directed to a page where you can obtain all sorts of info on your desired car.

On a selected cars page you can look at the standard spec to expect and the extras you will get if you go for a higher class of model. There is also a link where you can see the prices for optional extras not included on your chosen model.

Other links from this page give engine details, plus images of the interior and exterior colours available.

Finally on the New Cars page you can now order a brochure online which I gather hasn’t been an option available in the past.

Summary

This is a very tidy web-site with good use of colour. Pages load quickly and there is lots of information available from engine details to prices. The only downsides of this website were that I couldn’t find out much about the company's history and there were a couple of dead links but apart from that a very good web-site indeed.