HOT HATCH GROUP TEST · 911 TURBO · OCTAVIA vRS
BMW’s made its very own Golf GTI – right as VW’s fluffed one of its easiest lines. Has the do-it-all hot hatch hierarchy finally changed?
The new BMW 128tiis up against the Golf GTIand Focus ST, plus the new 911 Turbo, HyundaiTucson and Dacia Sandero
For all BMW’s garish grilles and kamikaze social media ads for some this will be its biggest crime a front wheel drive performance car The company’s smaller hatches and crossovers have rocked FWD for a few years now but this is the first dedicated performance car to come out of Munich without a semblance of a rear driveshaft The BMW ti is actually something special though it’s BMW’s engineers driving the more complex WD M i hot hatch and finding a way to make it notably more fun
The simpler drivetrain helps shave o kg compared with the other quick Series despite a handful of new devices to reduce wheelspin and torque steer up front It’s German engineers minimising their spreadsheets and having a laugh
Yet a spreadsheet has clearly been involved somewhere because never before has a car outside of the Volkswagen empire so closely aligned with a Golf GTI The ti feels like it had one target only taking down the now eight generations strong hot hatch OG There’s never been a better time to do it either the MkVIII GTI hamstrung for some of us by its tech laden interior VW seemingly breaking out of its usual design conservatism with uncharacteristic calamity
The Ford Focus ST feels like the safe reliable constant in comparison looking largely like it has for years and with a good old manual gearstick something VW o ers and most owners shun but BMW doesn’t
But when the eight speed paddleshifter BMW has used is this good you won’t find us mourning
“THE BMW MAKES A VERY GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION WITHOUT CLOBBERING YOU OVER THE HEAD”
an absent stick shift Especially given how well the litre cyl turbo up front tends to pair with this transmission It’s an engine familiar not just from BMWs and Minis but the Morgan Plus Four in the TG Garage Here it produces similar power bhp and lb ft for slightly tardier acceleration owing to its additional kg In the real world though it’s quicker It may carry more timber but that timber takes the form of ‘doors’ ‘airbags’ and ‘clever electronics’ so you trust the ti more and work it significantly harder Especially with the excitingly short ratios of that gearbox Take manual control and you’ll have a whale of a time though the car’s brain smartly shifts through its eight speeds when left in Drive too At which point you’ll have a very good chance of achieving BMW’s claimed mpg Or perhaps even surpassing it
It’s more about assertion than aggression hence it not being labelled an M product This is a car that makes a very good first impression without clobbering you over the head with it
There’s little in the way of instant magic instead it feels nice with very well judged passive damping no endless fiddling with suspension here neat light steering and abundant grip
There’s a chirrup from the front wheels if you go looking for it but with the help of its polite front di power is broadly put down extremely well It’s as if BMW has been sending ish horsepower forwards for generations well via quick Minis it has The ti is a smoothie so you won’t go barrelling into every roundabout like you’re on a rally stage but the rear follows the front neatly and you’ve loads of faith in what’s going on beneath It always behaves with utmost composure You could be blindfolded into it badges covered and know immediately this car had been benchmarked on the Golf GTI
The interior is suitably up to the task too with lovely materials everywhere you look and some welcome colour from all the red detailing You can delete some of it by choosing leather
seats over fabric but I’d implore you not to I think BMW is nailing this sort of stu at the moment balancing buttons and touchscreens well The cabin is basically shoehorned in from a Z or upper spec Series which no doubt satisfies the ‘BMW bits in a cheaper car’ aesthetic that most people flock to the Series for in the first place
Time to switch into the Golf GTI a car with familiar proportions natty tartan fabric and the sense it’s about to deliver its usual understated charm while its two rivals fight and fuss either side of it then it goes and knocks it out the park by driving deftly and being the same old clean fun it’s always been It’s the ready salted crisp of the hot hatch world predictable and unadventurous but sometimes just hits the spot in a way a bag of pickled onion doesn’t As the pictures allude to our day with these hot hatches was sodden wet and for simply jumping into and driving with nary a care in the world the Golf delivers as it has since that magical MkV kicked o the GTI’s second coming It’s got little more power than the MkVII it replaces but this litre engine is as exciting to use as it’s ever been and I’m even prepared to concede the Golf is now better with paddles
There’s just as you might be aware a few hurdles to jump before you can enjoy it all properly Getting it started isn’t an issue nor is snicking its little USB stick shaped gear selector into D It’s hurdles such as how to loosen the stability control into Sport a simple button press in the other cars here but a PlayStation cheat code of screen presses in the almost entirely touchscreen Golf Specify the DCC adaptive suspension fitted here and you have levels of suspension sti ness to choose from Fifteen! Choice is great but you know what ended up being best on crappy British roads? The one slap bang in the middle giving plenty of credence to BMW’s single set up
Even if you’re not doing such dorky things as fiddling with the dampers you’ll likely feel your arms tensing up as it takes half a dozen button presses to cool down the heated seats when your cheeks start getting toasty Though you can bark ‘my bum’s too warm’ and the Alexa lite hiding behind the dashboard will do it for you I suspect a month or two into your lease you’ll get your head around it all find how the tech works best for you and adjust the aircon temperature with less delay and distraction Other members of the TG team vehemently disagree
“TIME TO SWITCH TO THE GOLF GTI... THE READY SALTED CRISP OF THE HOT HATCH WORLD”
Then there’s the fast Ford Where it felt soft edged when we put it up beside the Megane RS and Hyundai i N on previous occasions it’s undoubtedly the rambunctious one in this group Perhaps it’s the placebo e ect of its swift shifting manual gearstick or maybe the relative rawness of its revvy litre turbo but it’s the athlete here make no mistake While it’s the easiest ST to live with yet and the one resplendent in the nicest interior trim it’ll still drag you into misbehaving and with greater frequency than its studious German rivals Though given its burlier torque figure and slightly smaller suite of electronic assists it puts its power down nearly as well as the obedient BMW while still feeling the most muscular of the group No replacement for displacement and all that
The chassis isn’t as erratically playful as Ford’s littler ST hatch which is about right given this is surely made for the Fiesta buyer suddenly in possession of a kid and/or mortgage It even rides with genuine decorum though you can ramp things up through its Sport and Track modes There’s more than a mite of shared DNA though and if we’re judging on raw driving thrills alone it walks this test But if that were our only criteria we’d have invited a Civic Type R to tear everything else asunder While the Focus ST won’t be a huge burden on your life there’s no escaping that the wonderfully grappling Recaros aside it is the least cocooning the thirstiest and comfortably the most expensive to lease of our trio It’s around a month on a typical three year deal as I write compared with the BMW and VW’s which feels like a very tough sell
So it’s pegged back in third but so long as you can make the sums work without disgrace It’ll be a doddle to live with and a joy to drive It occupies a curious space between the clean cut everyday hot hatch and the hardcore tearaway unable to shine brightest in either company but o ering a fine compromise if your heart and head have reached a stalemate
Then there’s the Golf At moments I thought it would win the test being so crisp to drive so elegantly styled when its blinding array of DRLs aren’t lit and feeling just as rational as it ever has But its ergonomics stir debate where they normally slip into the background unnoticed Will VW pare back the MkVIII’s screen time at its facelift or will its teething troubles all be yesterday’s chip paper? Either way it’s the kind of controversy a Golf rarely brings to a group test And you thought the big plot twists emanated entirely from the BMW’s front axle
The ti doesn’t knock your socks o but impresses more subtly It sits between the Focus’s fun and Golf’s class while o ering a bit of new badge intrigue all allied to the cheapest costs of our trio With just one gearbox and suspension set up the BMW could have felt awfully headstrong in this company but both are brilliantly tuned and negate the need for any alternative The engineers kept things simple and so shall I The sweetly judged ti wins this test
“THE FORD FOCUS IS UNDOUBTEDLY THE RAMBUNCTIOUS ONE IN THIS GROUP”