Autocar - First for car news and reviews

One thing's for sure, the company isn't in the mood for downsizing or replacing the 253mph supercar with a pale imitation of its predecessor.

In many ways, the company that Ferrari founded has changed enormously in the last two decades, but in others it’s stayed pretty much exactly the same – not least the continuation of the mystique that he created around the brand.

Taking Audi’s engineering as an inspiration (front and four-wheel drive, five-cylinder engines in 10v and 20v form), Volvo planned to modernise its image and engineering, and head upmarket. But two decades on, its global sales are stuck at around 420,000. And even board members lament that its customer base still wants simple, unflashy, reliable cars.

Your thinking might change, though, when you discover that it hauls itself to 40mph as quickly as a powerful V6 saloon, and that the production car this engineering mule will sire may be good for 60mph in around five seconds.

I’m sure times have been tougher before, but I’m not sure the market has ever turned quite so squarely on its heels and started marching quite so swiftly in the other direction.

From time to time, I’ve even written those words myself, though these days - and this time - I’ve decided VW gets it about right, given that they have so much to lose if they don’t.

Inside the company there’s a deep knowledge that a fine balance must be struck between the new and the traditional, and the company’s designers and management fret and fidget with dozens of iterations until they get it right.

Not that every Golf is as good as the last.