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"The VW Golf is pretty much the benchmark hatchback that every other car is measured against.  What we didn&amp;#039;t expect however when pulling one in for a test was that it might just have the best in-car tech we have seen so far, even compared to vehicles at twice the price. The main reason for this is that the VW system adopts a touch screen, rather than a click wheel. While the latter has its merits, nothing will beat being able to tap a screen and get straight to the menu you want while driving.  This alone however wouldn&amp;#039;t be enough to have us convinced, as plenty of other manufacturers have opted for a touch screen setup. It&amp;#039;s the logic that VW has applied to the setup that we really like. Starting with the navigation screen, the map is left clear of any icons or POI until you hover your hand near it. Do that and a sensor below the display will wake the screen up, bringing more information for you to tap and find out about. The nav screen can be left completely alone, but if you prefer, you can open small windows on the screen that relate to other infotainment functionality. For example, it&amp;#039;s possible to open a small media player so you can skip forward and back tracks without needing to leave the navigation screen. By adopting a touch screen, VW has instantly made things easier Doing this means that for the most part, you don&amp;#039;t need to swap the VW setup away from the nav screen. It means you can focus on getting to where you need, while still enjoying things like music and radio. As for the rest of the setup, you have a very simple address entry as well as things like an easy to understand radio and music navigation.  More complex menus see the nav screen go through a flip animation where you can do things like pair Bluetooth. This is where the VW system lets itself down a little as things aren&amp;#039;t hugely clear or streamlined. The responsiveness of the unit also starts to make itself clear. For the nav and music player, it&amp;#039;s very quick, but start to ask more and the system can get a little slow. In this sense, Audi and BMW&amp;#039;s setup do a little better. The screen also isn&amp;#039;t as premium as the more expensive upper-tier German brands. Although bright, it isn&amp;#039;t as high resolution and doesn&amp;#039;t have as much colour depth. Really though, it&amp;#039;s all relative, as this is a system that can be installed in much cheaper cars. Its logic and the touch screen and sensor combination are also much better. The GTi I we tested also came with Dynaudio&amp;#039;s optional sound system. This is a properly meaty setup, with plenty of bass and oomph but nice detail in the mid range and high end. It can also be tweaked with an included set of EQs that are well set up for different tastes.  All of the functionality is mirrored in a small LCD display that sits in the centre of the Golf&amp;#039;s instrument gauge. You can see directions, music selection and more without having to take your eyes far from off the road. Controls are simple enough that the steering wheel isn&amp;#039;t littered with buttons and that you don&amp;#039;t even need to use the touch screen unless you want to. As for the GTi itself, it&amp;#039;s an absolutely fantastic car. But it&amp;#039;s important to remember that the majority of the tech here can be optioned throughout the VW Golf range.  For the entry level models, it&amp;#039;s possible to get some seriously high end tech that rivals much more expensive German manufacturers. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/cars/feature/a570722/hands-on-with-the-technology-in-the-latest-vw-golf-gti/>