‘I love my Golf GTI but I want more excitement’
It’s hard to beat a Golf GTI – unless your budget now stretches to a nearlynew M2, a Golf R or a new Megane RS. Reader Nathan Horn drives the options
Replacing one of the most versatile and easy-to-enjoy hot hatches ever made won’t be easy. Reader Nathan Horn’s VW Golf Mk7 GTI is posh enough to park outside a stately home, practical enough to haul hedge-trimmings to the tip and potent enough to knock your socks off on a good road.
How do you follow that? CAR is here to help. Nathan’s after a car for £33k or less, well-rounded enough to use as a daily driver and practical enough to have space for occasional passengers, but – crucially – a step up the excitement scale from the GTI. We’ve assembled a trio of CAR favourites we believe fit the bill perfectly. Horn and I will take back-to-back turns in their driving seats before swapping notes over a cuppa and picking a winner.
Can we help replace the ultimate all-rounder? Let’s find out.
The new option: Renault Megane RS Cup THE HARDCORE HOT HATCH
Let’s start with one of the Golf’s toughest new competitors, the reborn Megane Renault Sport. Prices start under £28k, although the optionedup Volcanic Orange car tested here tops £34k. That paint turns heads at 20 paces, as do those wheelarches, bulging like a comic-book hero’s biceps. ‘I bet if you measure the width of the Megane and the M2, there’s not much difference between them,’ Nathan reckons. (As it turns out, the Megane’s actually a smidge wider than the hot-rod BMW.)
Nathan’s sold on the styling, as is everybody else who spots the car. The Caffeine and Machine café car park we’ve met at is overflowing with special machinery but the RS still attracts plenty of attention. Horn can’t help noticing the way the paint changes shade between the plastic front arches and their adjacent metal panels, though. ‘That would drive me insane – once you’ve seen it you can’t un-see it. The fake vents in the front bumper take some getting used to as well; they’re the first thing your eyes are drawn to when you see it from the front.’
This car’s fitted with the Cup Chassis pack, which adds a mechanical limited-slip differential and stiffer springs, dampers and anti-roll bar. That makes it a lively contrast to the planted-at-all-times GTI. Nathan’s car isn’t fitted with a locking diff, and the Megane’s leather and alcantara steering wheel is tugged by torque steer under acceleration, and flickers over cambers where the softer, less aggressively set-up Golf remains relatively unrued. But the RS is without a doubt the pointier, more agile car. Following behind, I can see how keenly its nose tucks into corners, and how unyielding its suspension is.
‘I can imagine it being great fun on a track. It’s far more positive in its responses than the Golf,’ Nathan says. ‘That said, I can imagine it getting a bit wearing to drive every day.’ The ultra-firm Cup suspension set-up is hard work; the regular Sport suspension is easier-going. Horn also notes the steering is far quicker than most cars, emphasised by the standard-fit four-wheel-steer system, although he doesn’t find it intrusive. He’s impressed by how strongly the aluminium .8-litre turbocharged engine pulls; it musters an extra 30lb ft over his GTI, despite a 86cc smaller capacity, and that diff helps it claw its way out of corners more urgently. It sounds the part, too, its deep central exhaust emitting a guttural growl at idle, although it fades away on the move.
All cars in this test are available with a choice of manual and dual-clutch auto gearboxes but the Renault’s the only one here today with a manual ’box. Nathan enjoys its extra involvement – he originally searched for a manual GTI before winding up with a DSG – but finds the shift clunky in action. Like other manual RSs we’ve previously tested, there are occasional faint whining noises audible from the transmission, although we haven’t experienced any issues with its operation beyond the sound.
What about practicality? The Megane’s boot has a slightly higher floor and wider load lip to manage than the Golf, but still offers plenty of luggage space. Decent room in the back, too, although Nathan feels that its smaller rear window makes it feel a touch more claustrophobic – ‘it reminds me slightly of a Scirocco we tested before the Golf – great car but the high shoulder line made it feel constricted inside.’ He’s a fan of the optional alcantara upholstery pack, if not its £1200 price (which includes heated seats). Also optional is the £300 upsized portrait touchscreen – ‘looks nice and clean, a little Volvo-like, although the buttons beneath feel like an afterthought.’ Horn’s amused Renault’s cruise control system needs five separate switches and buttons scattered throughout the interior to his Golf’s one stalk, but considers overall interior quality close to the Golf’s standard.
‘I used to own a Megane 225 and the new car’s a lot less plasticky. But I can’t believe Renault are still making those card-shaped keys.’ ⊲
The lively Megane’s wheel tugs with torque steer and flickers over cambered roads
Even though the M2 is also
based on a mainstream hatch, it’s a di erent animal
to the other cars here
The used option: BMW M2 M3 IN THE BODY OF A 2 SERIES
‘It does look naughty, doesn’t it?’ grins Nathan. That sums up the M2 pretty aptly. The most powerful car here with the most cylinders, and the only one with rear-wheel drive, doesn’t mind shouting about it. Its wheels (uprated in this case to spangly gold M Performance rims) are barely contained within its arches, and its turbocharged straight-six booms from stubby sawn-off-shotgun tailpipes (also uprated to carbon M Performance cans).
The M2’s recently been retired from production, save for the run-out Competition model. New prices started from £44k, and secondhand values are holding steady in the mid to high thirties. Tidy cars can still be found in the low to mid thirties with a little searching.
This is a post-2017-facelift car, with LED headlights, digital dials and a touchscreen on top of a reprofiled dashboard. That dash is plastered in fake carbonfibre, which Nathan finds ‘a little bit disappointing’ – he’d expect more from a £40,000 car.
He immediately notices the driving position, which is much lower-slung than the other two. Even though the M2 is also based on a mainstream hatchback, it’s a different animal to the other cars here. And ‘animal’ is the first word Nathan uses to describe it after his first drive. I can hear him approaching before I can see him, the baritone engine note borne on the breeze, an ascending scale of snapfast downshifts from the DCT ’box.
‘Wow, that’s really responsive for a turbocharged engine, it picks up so quickly at almost any revs,’ he effuses. ‘It would definitely take some getting used to this car. It’s got nearly 150bhp more than my GTI…’
I swap with Nathan for a go myself, and all the M2’s abundant qualities immediately shine through: great front-end grip (although the Megane’s rear-steer helps it feel keener to change direction), reasonably feelsome steering and power oversteer never far away if you ask for it. Touch a white line under power and the rear Michelins quickly smear wide, but it’s never intimidating. In isolation the M2 rides well enough on British roads but compared to the GTI it feels a tad brittle.
There’s no adaptive damper option, but the drive mode switch changes steering weight and shift mapping in auto cars, and gives the optional sport exhaust (a scary £2580) a more resonant bark. ‘It makes people look at you, whether you want them to or not,’ says Horn.
The M2 came with a manual gearbox as standard, but it’s not the slickest of shifts. In many ways the paddleshift DCT is actually preferable, and almost as involving as a good manual; Nathan finds it similarly quick and ⊲
smooth-shifting to the Golf’s DSG, if a little ponderous when selecting reverse.
The M2 is, like the -series, notorious for being short on rear legroom. It is indeed nowhere near as practical as the other two but it has a deep, if shallow, boot, and you can fit flexible adults in the back seats as long as they’re not too tall. But given the way it drives, you’re unlikely to be short of willing passengers.
The curveball: VW Golf R
A FASTER, NIMBLER, BEEFIER GTI
Wait a minute – isn’t this just like the GTI Nathan’s got already? Not quite – the Golf R is a level up. It’s a lot more powerful: compared to the Mk7 GTI’s 217bhp, the R has an extra 79bhp – or, in the case of this post-2017 facelift R, a further 10bhp on top of that. And, crucially, the rear wheels come into play, as the R is all-wheel drive.
Nathan’s intrigued to try it to find out how it compares – and, in particular, whether it’s different enough to be worth making the change. On the kerb-appeal test it’s not a clear victory for the R. The GTI’s red pinstriping, broader-spoked wheels (optional Santiago 19-inch wheels in the case of Horn’s car) and trademark tartan seats give it a bigger character than the R. And it says everything about how mild the Golf’s Mk7.5 facelift was that the younger R doesn’t necessarily look a whole lot more modern than the older car. In demure black paintwork, this particular car could – from a distance – almost be a regular Golf TSI on some shiny aftermarket wheels. It’s only when you get closer you spot the extra pair of exhausts and subtle R badging. Which, of course, is also a strength. If you want something capable of going extremely quickly without shouting about it, the R is a perfect Q car.
‘That’s gorgeous to drive,’ says Nathan on his return from his first run. ‘The power delivery is so linear, and I can definitely feel the extra grunt and traction compared with my car. The steering feels very light, though, especially in Comfort mode. Going from the BMW to that feels like you’re driving a cloud…’
The R is as undemanding a performance car as you’ll find, but its ease doesn’t make it dull. It can be surprisingly adjustable on- and off-throttle, and its (part synthesised) engine note sounds as burly as its plentiful torque output. With uprated cylinder head, valves, turbo and cooling compared with the GTI, the R’s engine is as flexible as it is muscular, and can pull strongly and smoothly from a low-rev crawl all the way to the redline. When an inviting straight beckons and the R’s throttle pedal finds the carpet, it instantly pulls a couple of car lengths on the chasing GTI, despite the 125kg weight difference.
All the cars tested are on 19-inch wheels and passive dampers (adaptive dampers are an option on both Golfs but not fitted to either car here). The R feels the smoothest-riding of the bunch, with similar composure on uneven roads to the GTI. Certainly it’s less taxing than the skateboard-like Megane Cup – or, looked at the other way around, the R isn’t as alert and nimble as the Renault.
Like the GTI, the R’s boot is huge (Nathan and his fiancée recently packed their Golf for a Scottish camping trip with space to spare), there’s plenty of room for tall passengers front and back, and decent visibility from all seats. This car’s optional leather seats don’t do it for Horn, preferring the tartan cloth in his GTI, and his Mk7’s traditional analogue instruments to the digital dials in the Mk7.5.
Used Golf Rs hang onto their value strongly but early cars can be found in the high teens and nearly-new ones in the low 30s. As a rough rule of thumb, market data suggests a two-year-old Golf R carries around a £2500 premium over an equivalent GTI variant.
The R is a lot more powerful than a GTI and, crucially, it’s all-wheel drive