This year’s Frankfurt Motor Show sees the debut of a new Golf variant called the Sportsvan. Except it is not all-new. The Volkswagen Golf Sportsvan is the successor to the Golf Plus, based on the Mk 7 model. The recipe is the same. Only the name is changed.

At first glance you ay not notice the difference between this and the normal Golf, but the Sportsvan version is slightly taller and lengthier. Total cargo capacity, after fiddling with the rear bench seats and folding them flat, is 1,500 litres.

Apart from the extra luggage room, the rest of the Volkswagen Golf Sportsvan is the same as the normal Golf. Standard features on this model includes XDS+, Automatic Post-Collision Braking System, air conditioning, seven airbags, the new electronic parking brake, a 5-inch touchscreen, variable cargo floor and a cargo cover.

The engine lineup is familiar too, consisting of six powrtrains with a power range from 63 kW / 85 PS to 110 kW / 150 PS, including the 1.6 TDI BlueMotion with 110 PS and average fuel consumption of 3.7 l/100 km and 95 g/km CO2 rating.

This car is only going to be bought by families, so Volkswagen has stuffed it with all kinds of safety gear. In addition to the usual dose of airbags and crumple zones, it gets Blind Spot Monitor incorporating Rear Traffic Alert, Blind Spot Monitor, emergency braking function, DCC dynamic chassis control, the Front Assist with City Emergency Braking surroundings monitoring system, Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and a lane-keeping assistant.