I just watched the old
Top Gear clip again.
"The Peugeot 306 GTi becomes the best friend you ever had."
And it has every single one of the goodies Clarkson praised the Golf for (aircon, trip meter and so on). And its back folds down just as well as the Golf's, and the boot is even bigger. I know, I measured it.
So he put the Golf ahead because it had 5 doors. Five doors is a dealbreaker on a hot hatch, when speed and manoeuverability and fun factor are poorer? Yo, maybe VW
are paying him at that, and have been all along!
And did you see him driving? He had the headrest about level with the middle of his neck. If he's crashed that, he'd have been geography.
Ah, but I'll treasure that little clip.
Rolfe.
ETA: Are you sure that would have been the Mk IV Golf in the test? I would have thought it would have been done in 1997 when the Peugeot was new. I remember choosing the car in December 1997, and buying it at the beginning of 1998, and I'm pretty sure it was the Mk III that lost in the shortlist battle then. But if the Mk IV came out later in 1998, perhaps it was indeed the Mk IV on the test.