HAVE you bought a Volkswagen Golf only to discover that your expanding waistline means it no longer fits?

Help is at hand in the more voluptuous shape of the Golf Plus - a sort of elasticated waistband version of the Golf.

When you've overindulged at the supermarket checkout, the Golf Plus will expand to fit without ruining your Golf-owning credibility. It's a little bit bigger, but not as big as an estate or a people carrier.

Volkswagen's reason for creating this middle-age spread version is that current or former Golf owners who want something bigger, but not the social death of MPV ownership, can upgrade to a Golf Plus without anyone really noticing.

The designers have done a fine job of hiding the extra mass. It's taller by 9.5cm and the seats are higher by 7.5cm, but the overall footprint remains the same.

At a glance, most people would fail to spot the differences compared with the regular Golf, particularly as there is no separate badging.

Though the underpinnings are identical to the Golf, most of the body panels have been created afresh, but in such a way that you don't really notice them.

Inside, the cabin is slightly more spacious than the regular Golf, most notably in the rear seats. But anyone who has driven in sister company SEAT's Altea or Toledo will have a distinct sense of dj vu as the resemblance is striking, even though Volkswagen insists the vehicles are significantly different.

VW's helpful engineers told me there are 43 different storage areas inside. Having complete faith in their honesty and lacking the time and the inclination to double-check this, we'll take it as read that unless you habitually lug 44 different bags and pouches of varying sizes around with you, there should be enough space.

One key difference to the normal Golf - perhaps the Golf Minus? - is a multi-functional rear storage bay.

Grandiloquently designated a "newly-developed kinematics system" by VW, that means it's got clever ways of flicking and flapping but many of the configurations are so complicated you'd need to be a mosaic layer - or the boffin who invented the system in the first place - to have a chance of mastering them.

Depending on whether you slide rear seats backwards or forwards, boot space ranges from 395 to 505 litres. That means it lacks the load-lugging ability of even a small estate such as the Skoda Fabia, but it does up the Golf's figures by around 50 litres - the equivalent of a medium-sized rucksack.

As a derivative member of the Golf family, all-new features are pretty thin on the ground. An optional three-pin plug and standard LED tail lights are the most notable examples.

As one might expect, the Golf Plus exhibits a little more roll and a little more noise than its svelte sibling, but otherwise the driving experience is almost indistinguishable with the same fine combination of sharp steering, rapid throttle response and a pliant ride with surprisingly good levels of feedback to the driver.

The usual comprehensive spread of VW petrol and diesel engines is on offer, each with its own particular areas of excellence.

There will be no GTI version of the Golf Plus. Sadly, nor will there be an all-wheel-drive version with VW's 4matic system, which is a crying shame as it would enable us to become acquainted with the Golf Plus Four. Now there's a car that would definitely require some extra badging.

For further details, call Martins Volkswagen on 01256 867010.