CHRIS HARRIS: The new Golf GTI doesn't have a beard, but it
is lighter, faster, and more efficient
than the car it replaces.
Now, many enthusiasts have always thought that this car
is just too boring to wear the GTI badge, but I've always
disagreed with that.
Does this Mark 7 version change anything?
The Golf GTI is quite a simple car, but it's one with a
complicated history and a complicated set of
responsibilities.
On the one hand, it's the car that should be everything to
all people.
It's the classless performance car that does everything all
the time for all people.
But on the other hand, it's a car that was once an
enthusiast's object, a car that people
like me lusted after.
And then it became a car that people like me slightly
laughed at.
And then more recently again, it became
a car that we respected.
So within that, there's the full range of emotions.
So when I come to test a car like the Golf GTI, it's quite
difficult, really.
Who am I speaking to?
Am I speaking to the full hardcore enthusiast?
I'm not sure that person buys a Golf GTI.
Am I speaking to the casual driver, the person who doesn't
really care?
Well, they wouldn't be watching one of my videos.
I don't really know.
Actually, do you know what?
I think a lot of people that know a lot about cars quietly
respect the Golf GTI.
And if they were given the chance to own one car year
round, I think they'd look long and hard at one of these.
So let's have a look at the Golf GTI.
First of all, some numbers.
This car has 220 horsepower, because it's the base GTI.
It doesn't have the performance pack, which costs
another about 1,000 pounds and gives you another 10
horsepower.
So we have 220.
We have 250 foot-pounds of torque, a maximum speed
claimed at 152 miles an hour, 0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds.
It all seems entirely reasonable and
acceptable to me.
Basic setup of the Golf?
Well, the Golf body, independent suspension all the
way around, electric power steering, and a turbocharged
four-cylinder engine.
It's becoming a kind of normal recipe, isn't it?
But Volkswagen reckons they've added some
abnormal stuff to this.
They've brought in people from other projects, let's say,
within the Volkswagen group, a man who was involved with the
GT3 RS, 3.8-liter version, the Gen 2 one that we all loved.
Carsten Schebstat, he has worked on this car.
And to me, initially, it feels like a clever car on the road.
It feels nice and supple.
They haven't gone down the crazy, hardcore, overdamped,
oversprung route.
And that has to be a great start.
Now, even though we have an open differential, you can
turn off the traction control in this.
And it scrabbles its way out of second gear
turns pretty well.
I wouldn't really miss the diff on the road.
It's got a really nice front end.
It's accurate.
Steering, as ever in the electric way, doesn't have any
great sense of connection to it.
But they're getting good at this stuff.
I think we're going to be at a point fairly soon where they
can start to replicate the feel of hydraulic steering.
I think the actual weighting is good, even though it does
shunt around a bit according to speed.
It's an enjoyable car to drive fast, but it's not a kind of
car that you decide to grow horns and drive too hard.
However, if you do, its competence comes through and
through and through.
This has been developed to the nth degree in this car.
You can just tell they've spent time getting all the
performance from it that they possibly can.
There are three driving modes in this new GTI.
Normally, this stuff doesn't interest me because I think
you should just have a suspension setup
and deal with it.
But this car's quite interesting.
We start out in Comfort.
And I like cars in Comfort, even cars with badges like
GTI, because they tend to work better on the road.
So we've got this quite long travel feel.
It's supple.
It feels really, really nicely damped over these roads--
and comfortable.
It's not sort of irritating me, but it doesn't feel too
sloppy and lazy.
It wants to change direction.
It's an agile car like this.
But it's rolling enough to give me an idea of
what's going on.
If I go to Normal, I don't have a
profoundly different car.
In fact, I still seem to retain 90% of that comfort,
maybe more, and I just lose a bit of roll.
The steering remains sharp.
It's a variable ratio rack, so I've got 2.1 turns, much more
resistance at low speed than I have at high speed.
So in Normal, I think it's rather nicely balanced.
In fact, I might leave it in Normal.
This is the interesting one for me, though.
If I go into Sport, normally when I press the Sport button
in car, it's a button that says, I'll tell you what.
Let's totally [BLEEP]
the dynamics of the car and make it horrible to drive
unless you're on a really flat racing track.
But no one drives a Golf GTI on a really flat
racing track, do they?
But I'm now in Sport mode, and this car has not been shafted.
I've got flatter cornering, but I've retained a sort of
supple edge to the suspension.
It feels like that initial spring rate, that initial
amount of spring, isn't too harsh, almost like there's a
variable rate spring on the car.
And so I'm cushioned.
And it's not unpleasant.
Yes, it's firmer.
Yes, I've got more control.
But it hasn't wrecked it for the road.
I think that's a very important distinction, because
all too often, Sport mode wrecks things.
And in the Golf GTI on the road, it doesn't.
The motor itself, well, you can look at it two ways.
It's either a bit bland and not that much fun.
Or it's ruthlessly efficient and impressively smooth.
Four cylinders, to me, used to mean quite harsh, but this is
smooth as you like.
And as for the turbocharging and the throttle response, I
cannot fault it--
fourth gear, 80 clicks.
You put your foot down, and it just goes.
I mean, really goes.
And it gives you the impression of far more
performance than a car with a claim of 0 to 62, time of 6
and 1/2 seconds.
And your gearbox, the gearshift is lovely.
It makes me ask a few more questions of
Renault, this does.
If Volkswagen can make a manual gearbox for the Golf
GTI, a car which I think is more often not specified with
a DSG gearbox, then why can't they do a manual gearbox for
their Clio RS?
This is a lovely shift.
Short shift, but not too short, very, very accurate.
The clutch pedal's nice.
In fact, the relationship between the three pedals is
quite good.
And when you're pushing on the heel and toe, it's quite
natural as well.
I've haven't driven the DSG yet, but we might get a skid
in one of those tomorrow.
But we know all about that gearbox and just how
efficient it is.
This five-door car with a manual gearbox is a very, very
nicely balanced package.
But it has got a couple of problems.
The first problem is its price, and the second problem
is related to that.
It's not a cheap car.
If you were to buy this car and specify it with five
doors, a DSG gearbox, and the performance pack, you'd end up
with a car that cost over 28,000 pounds.
And that drags it right into BMW M135i territory.
Now, I know people think I'm boring about that car.
But it has 300 horsepower and probably weighs
a little bit less.
And it's performance is on a completely different level to
the Golf GTI.
So I'm worried that the Golf GTI's marketplace has been
taken away from it.
I can't really give you any answer to that until I drive
the two of them back to back.
But it is interesting to note, isn't it, that a near
30,000-pound Golf GTI is upon us, and yet BMW has a
turbocharged six-cylinder rival to that car in the
market already.
[CAR ENGINE ROARING]
CHRIS HARRIS: --the basic layout of the car.
Well, this is--
[BLEEP].
What are those?
Bald sheep!
They look like Gollum.
Did you see those?
Scared me.
Start again.
MALE SPEAKER: It's Gollum!
CHRIS HARRIS: Wrong.
[INAUDIBLE]
Middle Earth.