Rarely does anything memorable ever occur in the drive-thru of a McDonald's. It's a process that's meant to underline the peek of human laziness and complacency — buying unhealthy meals, without heaving one's self out of the driver's seat, and dealing with a jaded voice at the other end of the line asking if you want to upgrade to a large for no reason other than to squeeze a few more bucks from the confines of your wallet.
Needless to say, I'm a Maccas drive-thru regular.
But Volkswagen has evidently decided that the popular fast-food joint's drive-thru section would function as the perfect place to launch their next-gen Volkswagen Golf. Or rather, a keen nearby photographer (Instagram user johannes.vag) decided that for them, by taking the attached spy images of the previously unseen compact hatchback.
The new Golf will undoubtedly be formally revealed later in 2019. Production is scheduled for July, so expect to see more of it before then in the form of a formal reveal or two.
It is built on the same MQB platform as the current car, and is expected to share a lot of the same engine and gearbox options — three and four-cylinder units paired with manuals and dual-clutch transmissions.
Perhaps most interestingly for the Golf is that from the Mk8 onwards it will exist alongside the similarly sized Volkswagen I.D. hatchback — an electric hatchback set to also be revealed in 2019.
Read more: Volkswagen e-Golf road test
Back to the spy images. It looks like the car has some kind of camouflage on its lights front and rear. But that's not enough to highlight some of the key visual changes — namely what Volkswagen have altered at the front. The nose looks more sloping and streamlined than the current car, with slimmer, more leering headlights that look a little more in line with vehicles like the VW Arteon luxury sedan. Plenty of manufacturers are doing this; packing visual cues from range-topping models into their entry-level products.
Hopefully more details (and more high-res images) are in the short-term future for the new Golf. It should be a 'Whopper' of a car.
Wait ... that's Burger King isn't it.