VW Golf GTI getting better
It’s not easy staying top dog.
The Volkswagen Golf GTI (then badged Rabbit GTI for the U.S. market) won America’s hearts as the first affordable pocket rocket in 1983. By turning a standard compact Golf into a steroid-infused, apex-carving, cargo-hauling fun box, VW inspired a segment that has born imitators like the Ford Focus ST, Honda Civic Si, Subaru WRX, Hyundai Veloster, Hyundai Elantra N and Mazda 3 Turbo.
Golf GTI has responded to challengers to the throne with constant improvement complementing its innate German-engineered talent. The third-Gen Mark III introduced a sensational V-6 engine. Mark V showed off phone dial wheels, one of V-dub’s most distinctive designs.
Of late, GTI has lagged in interior panache. The mesmerizing Mazda 3, for example, upped the ante with its stylish, driver-centric design. But Wolfsburg has been burning the midnight oil on dashboard upgrades.
The result is the best GTI ever, a landmark model that — like Gen I — sets a new bar for pocket rockets. It is a vehicle so good that Audi S3 consumers will be left wondering
why they paid 16 grand more. My GTI tester was painted bright Pomelo Yellow to call attention to the feat.
The VW’s huge twinned, all-digital displays are state-of-the-art. You want an Audi? The 10.5-inch instrument display offers five configurations just like its luxe cousin. GTI telegraphs this interior transformation with its sexiest exterior in years.
Menacing narrow headlights set the tone. Sharply creased hood and shoulders once again remind of Audi. Get the 19-inch wheels. Love it.
Love the handling, too. Over the roller-coaster State Route 209 west of Asheville, North Carolina, the GTI stormed about as if on rails. GTI comes standard with a limited-slip front differential, suspension upgrades and an aluminum subframe that actually reduces curb weight from last gen.
A driver’s car like this deserves to have its neck wrung with a manual shifter, and the 6-speed tranny is VW’s best yet. Past boxes could ruin momentum with mushy 2-to-3 shifts. My tester was as crisp as the fall air. GTI typically sells 40% manuals; this gen should sell more.
Not that the 7-speed dual-clutch automatic is any slouch. With a flick of the wrist, I slotted it into DRIVE, firing off lightning-quick up-and-downshifts with steering-mounted paddles.
But analog manual better fits GTI’s personality. If it’s automatic you want, let me introduce you to GTI’s big brother Golf R — R as in Rocket.
Get it if you can afford it, but your grin will be no wider than in the GTI. That’s because both share an electronics architecture that includes (standard on the GTI) goodies like adaptive cruise control that is as good a highway semi-autonomous system as I have found this side of Tesla’s Autopilot and GM’s SuperCruise.
Throttle wide-open over a high-speed crest on Route 209, the eighth-Gen Golf GTI felt as fresh as my first Mark I 40 years ago. Bar reset.