After the first one, the second one, the worst one, and the star-crossed one, we've finally arrived at the Mk7 GTI.
Good news: it's worth the wait.
After the mild update that turned the Mk5 into the lowered-expectations Mk6, this MQB Golf feels the entirely different car that it is. Longer, lower, wider, lighter, more spacious, better-equipped, but still recognizably a Golf both inside and out. A focus on Mexican production is at least partially responsible for Volkswagen's ability to offer a $25.215 "S" model that offers slightly more equipment than the Mk6 it replaces. Those of us who remember the Rabbit S as the tape-and-stripe pre-GTI from 1981 will no doubt be slightly confused that there is now a Golf GTI S.
Let's go over the equipment right quick, straight from the press release:
The Golf GTI S features the following standard equipment: 210-hp 2.0-liter TSI engine; 18-inch aluminum-alloy wheels; Bluetooth® connectivity; a touchscreen radio; Sirius XM® Satellite radio; a Media Device Interface (MDI) with iPod® integration; a leather-wrapped multifunction steering wheel, handbrake, and shifter knob; VW Car-Net® connected services; ambient and footwell lighting with LED reading lights; cloth sport seats with heritage GTI design; LED foglights; heatable front seats; and a new driving mode selection feature.
The SE starts at $27,395 for the two-door manual transmission model. It adds the following standard equipment: a power tilt and slide sunroof; Keyless access with push-button start; a rearview camera; automatic headlights; rain-sensing windshield wipers; the Fender® Premium Audio System; and leather seating surfaces.
The Autobahn is only available as a four-door model, priced from $29,595 with the manual transmission. This adds navigation, a 12-way power driver's seat, and automatic air conditioning to the list of standard equipment on the SE.
The GTI S I drove had the Performance Pack, which adds big brakes, an electronically-controlled limited-slip (which I believe to have a mechanical component, not just brake programming) and 10 extra horsepower over the standard 210. It will be available later in the year. Car and Driver's Tony Swan could be reliably counted on to write "Know what? We'd wait for it" in regards to this sort of thing, so consider that written. You want a Performance Pack. Even if you don't care about it, when you go to sell the car in five or ten years from now, each and every email and phone call you get about it will start with "Does it have PP?" As the song says, make it easy on yourself.
All the first impressions are good: this is a car that follows the same dark-materials-and-shiny-trim playbook as everybody else from Mazda from BMW but the execution is exceptionally good. While the standard Golf perhaps offers a bit more Ikea-chic with its full brushed-metal dashboard and center console (and we'll cover that car later in the week), the GTI interior does not disappoint and it looks and feels more than a bit above the $25k sticker.
The control efforts are light but predictable and there's more than a bit of Audi A4 to the GTI as I pull out for the "Long/Aggressive" drive loop. Time to boot the throttle. Directly prior to getting on the plane, I'd let the leash out on my 2014 Accord V-6 stick-shift for calibration purposes. I'm more than surprised at the way the new turbo engine out-torques the Accord from low revs; with 258 lb-ft across a very broad electronically-managed plateau, it has the torque of an '83 Mustang five-point-oh delivered at pretty much the same place on the tach.
What a surprise to find that torque steer is mostly absent; the GTI simply runs hard until the small turbo runs out of puff in typical small-turbo style. Now, as the revs approach 6k, is when you'd really prefer to have a big Japanese six under the hood, but instead you get a lot of sound and fury, mostly artificial, signifying that it's time to shift and ride the torque curve yet again. The net effect is bizarrely like the VR6 MkIII GTI, only played at fast-forward pace.
The Performance Pack suspension, brakes, and rubber all conspire to make the Volkswagen far too capable for our test loop. Letting the engine spin only results in running up more quickly against the next group of tourists or cyclists. What this needs is a track, but surely it would prove to be just as hapless as most Golf-pattern cars in that environment. Suffice it to say that you won't easily reach the GTI's limits anywhere that you wouldn't reach the limits of something like a BMW 328i with the Sport package. This GTI probably runs semi-close to the Scirocco R for raw pace, assuming you select the DSG. As ever with these cars, no matter how many letters you use to describe the platform, the manual shift action is slow and steady at best, so you'll have to take in satisfaction what you lose in over-the-road speed.
On the move, the GTI starts to feel distinctly mid-sized, particularly with regards to that nearly seventy-one-inch width. Still, visibility is decent enough given the considerable beltline draft. The same kind of dimensional gaps that made the Mk2 feel so much bigger than the Mk1 are at work here as well vis-a-vis the Mk6. Thank goodness the BMW 3er keeps getting bigger, or this Golf would catch it. As wide as an E90 and taller, slathered liberally with cold-to-the-touch metal trim, it's light-years from the old GTIs. The proportions just keep drifting from the original, and at some point it starts to really matter that the perched-on-the-seat, elbows-on-the-doorsills feeling of the early cars is completely gone. VW did itself no favors bringing the "heritage" cars along, because they remind us of when the Golf was a compact car, not an Accord sans trunk. Why would you get an A3, other than for the rings on the grille and the guarantee that assembly took place without the involvement, direct or indirect, of a drug cartel?
It's at this point that I want to suggest that you read Jason Cammisa's review of the same GTI I drove. I want you to do this, not just because I want to prop up Jason's career in the interest of receiving free drinks from him in the future, but because he's such an unabashed fan of this car and I want you to hear all the good things about the car from a fan before I talk about it in a less than positive way.
Okay. You're back? Let's continue. This new GTI is, by any measure you can objectively apply, the best GTI in history. From the three-dimensional court and spark of the complex and gorgeous steering wheel to the video-game power delivery, from the considered retro chic of the upholstery to the absolutely vice-free way the nose turns even under braking, it is damned near flawless. If you envision the GTI customer base as people who cannot afford an M3 but demand a large subset of that car's virtues at well under half the price, well… mission accomplished.
You can't fluster it, not with idiotic midcorner braking, not with lazy shifting choices, not with pitch-and-catch attempts at adjusting its attitude around a turn. It's effortlessly fast and frankly it would work just fine with a four-speed manual box, or possibly even a three-speed automatic, such is the flexibility and might of the engine.
The only problem with this car is that I'd rather have a Fiesta ST. Imagine that the GTI was slow-roasted until all the joy dripped out of it. Then imagine that all the joy that dripped out was caught in a drip pan. Then imagine that the drip pan was emptied into the Fiesta ST. The Fiesta is everything the Golf isn't: deliberately unstable at speed, hugely involving, capable of returning vast differentials of pace depending on driver commitment and talent.
"But wait a minute," you say, "the proper competition for the GTI is the Focus ST." Well, I'm not totally sure I wouldn't take the Focus. It's not nearly as good of a car on the road but it has some racetrack desirability to it and I prefer the Rude Ford look to the A3 Lite one. This GTI feels awfully grownup. There have always been two groups of buyers for this car: literature professors slumming it with a campus-friendly rocket and kids looking to start trouble with Daddy's money or the entire proceeds of their McJob. With the Mk7, Volkswagen has tilted the balance drastically towards the former.
What we really need here is the Renault Megane, which is everything you really want in a front-wheel-drive enthusiast car. The GTI could have been a Megane competitor. Instead, it's an Audi competitor, which seems odd, because VW owns Audi.
Unto the seventh generation, the sins of the original Golf has been long expiated. The problem is that the virtues, and the character, were dispensed with as well. What's left is a fast, competent, useful car from which to sit back and watch the Bimmer drivers paying too much for the same experience — and the Fiesta drivers having unadulterated fun.
from The Truth About Cars http://ift.tt/Jh8LjA
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