VOLKSWAGEN is refusing to confirm the on-sale date of the new Golf to avoid a repeat of the chronic supply problems still being experienced with the Passat. The UK importer will not give its dealers the green light to open their order books until it is 100% certain of getting the new car in numbers.

Production of right-hand-drive versions is due to start at the company's Wolfsburg factory within the next month, but it could be March before Volkswagen UK has any indication of the volumes available for the British market.

The company is still quoting an April launch date, when limited numbers of right-hand-drive Golfs will have arrived in the UK, but there is no indication of when the factory will reach full right-hand-drive capacity. Although dealers have been forbidden to accept orders, Volkswagen knows that some of its network has taken them unofficially. The car was revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show and has received massive press attention since, which has in turn generated advance demand.

Part of the reason for the long delays facing Passat customers is that dealers have been sitting on orders until they get new allocations of vehicles and then flooding the system with the backlog. A spokesman said it would be impossible to give a definitive on-sale date before March, but insisted there would not be a repeat of the Passat situation.