Volkswagen is renowned for playing it really safe with the design of most of its cars, and there’s no better example for that than its lineage of Golf models. It may have grown in size quite a bit over the years, but if you line all generations of the model side by side, you will undoubtedly be struck by just how little it has evolved from one generation to the other. You can certainly see progress if you skip a couple of generations or more, but not as much as you see from other long-running nameplates out there.

2020 Volkswagen Golf Rendering

So what can we expect the 2020 Volkswagen Gold to look like? Well, that’s what I tried to answer with this rendering. I will confess right away that it is based on a current generation Golf photo. I obviously did this to save time and still get a fairly accurate result. This was possible because I used some shots of the fully uncovered new Golf from the video taken in South Africa (link please)

Next are the side view mirrors that are now mounted on the doors. The greenhouse appears to be different too, but having used low-quality photos as reference, it’s kind of hard to guess the correct shape of it, so I didn’t really change it that much from the current Golf.

Up front, you can expect a Polo-like face, although by the looks of things it won't be as ugly. I admit that I think the current Polo city car that VW sells has one of the most uninspired and from some angles downright ugly front fascias I’ve seen on a new car. The next Golf just seems to be a bit better proportioned than the Polo, with a more flattened nose and slimmer light clusters.

It also appears as if the small upper grille (the one that links the headlight clusters and houses the VW badge) will be complemented by what appears to be a larger opening lower on the bumper. This is clearly larger than of the current Golf. It’s also somehow a bit more prominent and visible and will make the front end a little more aggressive.

For the rear, I didn’t have enough reference material to go by, but it’s safe to say that Volkswagen's execution here is very predictable. You can kind of make out what it looks like in that South Africa video and the photos.There will also be an updated version of the current style light clusters.

So, in case you were hoping this new, 2020 Volkswagen Golf would be a dramatic, revolutionary looking car, like you may have seen in some German magazine renderings, you will probably be disappointed. It’s still going to be a Golf, look like a Golf, and drive like we’ve come to expect from a Golf. It will, therefore, be snapped up by the same public that just loves the current generation and will undoubtedly prove to be a success story with all its body styles, flavors, and, last but not least, its great blend of qualities that makes the model so revered even among car enthusiasts.

There is something different about this Golf that I wasn’t really able to perfectly capture in my quick rendering, though.VW plans to bring this new Golf upmarket and try to sell it as an alternative to premium cars (not that it hasn’t been trying this tactic already) but this time it’s apparently going all out with this tactic, and it, therefore, needs to exude premium car qualities from the very first time you lay eyes on it.

This new lower-to-the-ground stance and more stretched out appearance will certainly help it achieve this and also mark the progress made by the eighth-gen model compared to the mark seven model. The stance is also evident in the only official teaser VW released for the upcoming Golf, and it does certainly look longer, lower, and more stretched -- essentially confirming the impression one gets from the photos.

Further reading

Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Volkswagen Golf Mk8 GTI.

Read our full review on the 2018 Volkswagen Golf GTI.

Read our full review on the 2018 Volkswagen Golf

Read our full review on the 2018 Volkswagen Golf Variant