See VW Golf 8 Try To Keep Up With Porsche Panamera On The Autobahn

With more and more electrified models arriving literally every day, sales of diesel cars are progressively going down. You are probably going to say diesels have never been a major factor on the market but that's not really accurate in Europe. While declining, sales of diesel cars on the Old continent are still a thing.

That's why nearly every manufacturer has a diesel engine or engines in Europe. Volkswagen - despite the Dieselgate mess - is still producing the TDI powertrain and it remains one of its most popular engine options in some countries. Even the new Golf has a 2.0-liter TDI that's selling in good numbers in Germany.

The video at the top of this page takes us to the country's Autobahn where you take the driver's seat in a new Golf 2.0 TDI. It's obviously not the fastest hot hatch out there but, as you'll see, it offers pretty decent performance for what it is. At some point, the driver even tries to catch a Porsche Panamera.

On paper, the four-cylinder oil-burner produces 150 horsepower which is roughly half the power this particular Panamera has, according to the video. Even with two fewer cylinders, the Golf easily hits speeds of above 124 miles per hour (200 kilometers per hour). And surprisingly, it reaches a top speed of 147 mph (238 kph), which is about 9 mph (15 kph) more than the factory numbers.

For comparison, last month we witnessed what the Golf GTI Clubsport is capable of on the Autobahn. You can check out its full performance here but if you want the short version, it's that the hot hatch is much quicker but doesn't have a significantly higher top speed.