Press Release
Active and passive safety at highest level for its class
- Passive safety: High-strength body, up to eight airbags
- Active safety: ESP and Trailer Stabilization are standard equipment
The new Golf Variant is the epitome of the classic family and business car. Besides offering a high level of functional utility, sporty aesthetics and excellent quality at a competitive price/performance ratio, its buyers also expect the strictest, most comprehensive safety requirements to be satisfied. The new Variant would not be a Volkswagen, if it did not set standards in this area too. From the factory, its safety features include six airbags and optional rear side airbags. In addition, the incredible torsional stiffness of its body results in crash properties that reflect the high level of safety of the entire model series.
Passive safety: Six airbags as standard equipment
Essentially, the new station wagon is provided with a total of six airbags (front airbags, side airbags and head airbags extending along both sides of the vehicle) as standard equipment in all versions. Two additional side airbags are offered in the rear as an option. Moreover, the front seats have crash-optimized head restraints and pyrotechnic belt tensioners with integrated seatbelt force limiters (the latter in rear seating too). Five three-point seatbelts and five head restraints ??????????????????????????????????????? including for the center rear seating position ??????????????????????????????????????? are a matter of fact. Also standard on-board: Isofix child seat anchorage points at the two outer seating positions in the rear (optionally at the front passenger seat) and the capability of deactivating the front passenger airbag.
Front airbags: The front restraint system of the Golf Variant consists of a driver airbag with a volume of 60 liters and a front passenger airbag with a volume of 120 liters. The steering column also contributes to optimized passive safety. It has a special clamping device for the length and height adjustment mechanism. Together with the steering rod, this clamping device prevents the steering wheel from lifting in case of a crash.
Side airbags: The side airbags of the Golf Variant are located in the seatbacks of the front seats. They protect the chest, abdomen and pelvis and are optimally tuned to the more rigid side structure of the car. An innovative sensor concept ensures very short triggering times. Integrating the side airbags in the seatbacks guarantees optimal positioning of the driver and front passenger relative to the airbag.
Head airbags: Furthermore, Volkswagen is offering standard side head airbags. Specifically, these airbags cover the window area from the A pillar to the C pillar and from the headliner to over the door shoulder. The result: Maximum protection at all outer seating positions, regardless of body height.
Active safety: State-of-the-art ESP + Trailer stabilization
As standard equipment the Golf Variant also features ABS and ESP with integrated braking assistance (Dual Brake Assist).
ESP is characterized by a whole series of special features that have direct positive effects on active safety. If the new Golf Variant is ordered with a trailer hitch (rated trailer load with trailer brakes: between 1,200 and 1,500 kilograms, depending on engine type), it will also have integrated trailer stabilization.
This prevents what are often very serious trailer accidents by intervening at the first indication of a problem. Trailer stabilization is a software extension of the ESP control module that takes much of its information from the so-called yaw rate sensor. A trailer that is beginning to sway transmits mechanical pulses through the trailer tongue and to the towing vehicle at a frequency of less than one Hertz. The ESP controller ???????????????????????????????????asks???????????????????????????????? once again whether a trailer is actually being towed ??????????????????????????????????????? and this is confirmed by the electrical connector at the trailer hitch. For a brief time period the system continues to observe pulses, and if they exceed a predefined critical threshold a specific braking intervention is initiated by the Golf Variant to stabilize the trailer.
As in conventional ESP control, at the curve limit the control module stops engine acceleration and initiates braking; this is performed in a highly complex process. All four wheels are decelerated in a relatively restrained manner: Starting at 0.15 g, and later, if necessary, at 0.3 g. That is still just 30 percent of what is feasible, but it is clearly adequate. The developers wanted to avoid having a hard braking trailer endanger traffic behind the trailer.
To reinforce stability, braking begins precisely when the trailer is located in the ???????????????????????????????????neutral???????????????????????????????? or zero position of its swaying oscillation. The lateral forces that it transmits to the Golf Variant are compensated by the ESP control module with alternating and variable high brake forces at the front wheels. In case of an intervention from an initial speed of 100 km/h, the brakes and accelerator are generally re-enabled at 70 to 75 km/h ??????????????????????????????????????? at this point the car is traveling below the so-called ???????????????????????????????????critical speed???????????????????????????????? and the trailer is stable again.
