The answer should be obvious. Like so many of the cheapest cars these days the Golf is front wheel drive. This means that the handling has been severely compromised for the sake of cheaper manufacturing. It will behave dangerously and unpredictably when driving hard round corners, particularly in slippery conditiions. Most importantly, it will be the front wheels which are most likely to loose grip first and that is what is so dangerous. The BMW, like all other cars by BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, Aston-Martin, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Porsche - in fact all cars which are built 'up to a standard' rather than 'down to a price' is rear wheel drive. Just about every BMW advert, for any of their models, makes a big point of the fact that rear wheel drive handle correctly. Unless you are a complete idiot, a RWD car will loose grip on the rear wheels first in limited grip - this is quite easy to correct without actually loosing control of the car, and pretty good fun too (on a track, of course). Avoid anything from the land of the rising yen as they are all invariably front-wheel-drive budget-boxes. The BMW is a REAL car.