As good as new
50% off a still-gleaming fast Golf
If the seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf GTI isn’t the best everyday hot hatch in recent memory, it can only be because the faster, fitter, four-wheel-drive Golf R is even better still. For track days and B-road thrills, you’ll want a Honda Civic Type R, but no other hot hatch gets close to the union of performance, athleticism, comfort and refinement that characterises both the GTI and the R. As they near their sixth and fifth birthdays respectively, VW dealers are overflowing with approved used stock at half the price of a new one.
The GTI emerged in early 2013, only a handful of months after the sixth-generation Golf was superseded by the much-improved and substantially lighter Mk7. With 217bhp from a turbocharged four-pot, the GTI was brisk without being rampantly accelerative. For those buyers who wanted quicker acceleration and had more than £25,845 to spend, the GTI was also available to order in Performance specification. With 227bhp, the GTI Performance was only a little faster but, fitted as well with bigger front brakes and a limited-slip differential, it was also appreciably sharper to drive. Costing only £980 more than the regular GTI, it was a no-brainer for the keenest drivers.
The earliest Mk7 GTIS start now at £13,000, although £15,000 will stretch to a newer car with fewer than 20,000 miles beneath it. Included in VW’S approved used scheme, called Das Weltauto, is a 12-month unlimited-mileage warranty and roadside assistance over the same term. Every approved used VW undergoes a 142-point check by trained technicians, too.
Both versions of the GTI could be specified with a manual or DSG dualclutch transmission – both very good in their own way – and with three or five doors. The GTI Performance isn’t quite so common so you’ll have to be less picky when it comes to paint colour and spec options, and their prices start at £16,000.
Perhaps the best argument for not spending that sum on a GTI Performance is the Golf R, which can be found for much the same money (albeit with higher mileage). When the Golf R arrived in 2014, prices started at a whisker under £30,000. With two extra driven wheels, 296bhp and superbly tuned suspension, the R was worth the extra outlay over the GTI back then, and with the price differential much slimmer now, the R looks even more attractive. Like the GTI, the R comes in both three and five-door configurations and you can choose between manual and DSG transmissions although, in this case, the DSG is preferable.
If you put down £2000 and sign up to a 36-month finance agreement, a £16,000, four-year-old Golf R will cost you £296 each month (with a £7470 optional final payment). However you pay for your Golf hot hatch, though, bagging a warrantied car at half the price of a brand-new one would be a winning move by anybody’s judgement.