America is a strong market for the GTI, but even we couldn’t save the manual.
Minor but welcome upgrades for the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf GTI push it to the top of our list.
Credit:
Jonathan Gitlin
Minor but welcome upgrades for the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf GTI push it to the top of our list.
Credit:
Jonathan Gitlin
Even in an alternate timeline in which the average new car didn’t cost more than $50,000 and weigh well more than two tons, Volkswagen’s Golf GTI would stand above the norm. Here on Earth Prime, nine years after a weasel met a particle accelerator and everything started to get weird, the GTI shines as almost the perfect blend of performance and everyday practicality while keeping the footprint small and the sticker price affordable.
The GTI has just had its midlife facelift, making this generation the Mk8.5 if you speak Golfnerd. Even if you don’t, you’re probably familiar with the idea. But to recap, in 1976, someone at VW had the bright idea of giving the Golf hatchback a more powerful engine and better handling. The original GTI wasn’t the first hot hatch, but it was the most influential, giving VW’s humble Golf a halo that shone brightly when seized upon by that most 1980s of species, the yuppie.
The GTI has been a constant in the Golf range ever since. Here in America, it is the Golf range, along with the all-wheel drive Golf R, but more on that car another day. Americans used to buy regular Golfs—I have not one but two neighbors with Golf Alltrack station wagons, in case anecdote will suffice in place of sales data—but no longer in numbers that make importing the other cars economical. On the other hand, the US is now one of the largest markets for the GTI, VW told me, and last year, it saw sales grow by almost 50 percent.
That wasn’t enough to save the manual, however. Surprising as it may seem, virtually no European GTI buyer wants a car with three pedals anymore. Dual-clutch transmissions are better for fuel efficiency and emissions and are more accessible than a car with a clutch pedal, and the cost of homologating a manual gearbox for the Mk8.5 was deemed prohibitive. So the 2024 model we tested last summer is the one to seek out if you need some heel-toe in your life.
What’s new?
The improvements for model year 2025 amount to new bumpers—shades of Mk2, anybody?—and an illuminated VW badge that would have made you the coolest Beastie Boy in 1986. There are also adaptive front fog lights that turn with the wheels, and VW’s improved 12.9-inch infotainment system has replaced the old 10.25-inch unit. The wireless charging pad for mobile devices is now capable of 15 W, and the much-disliked capacitive multifunction steering wheel has been replaced by a wheel with plastic buttons. Hooray!
The base GTI starts at $32,445, but you’ll want to at least splash out for the $37,420 SE if only for the fantastic ArtVelours seats that previously were only found in the Europe-only Clubsport. The best wheels are found on the $40,880 Autobahn—19-inch telephone dials that evoke the Mk5. The Autobahn also benefits from adaptive dampers, a head-up display, a parking assistant, leather seats (with 12-way power adjustment for the driver), ventilated front seats, and three-zone climate control.
Golf interiors have always been spartan.
Volkswagen
A word of warning about the infotainment. The Wi-Fi stopped working on our test car, which prevented CarPlay from operating. While there is a pair of USB-C ports up front, CarPlay over USB does not appear to be an option. VW PR was not particularly surprised to hear of this malfunction; we had been issued navigation road books for the drive to Summit Point in West Virginia for just this eventuality, but no other journalists reported problems, so it seems to be a random if annoying bug that may well afflict any VW with this 12.9-inch system, at least until VW patches it.
Automakers are making a lot of heavy crossovers and SUVs now, so I mostly have to drive heavy crossovers and SUVs these days. Consequently, any time in something that doesn’t sit a foot off the ground is a refreshing change. Even more refreshing is the 3,188 lb (1,446 kg) curb weight. Sure, a few hundred pounds of the metastasizing weight of modern cars comes with better crash protection, and mod-cons like ventilated seats add a bit of mass, but the Golf has all that stuff and still tips the scales at less than a ton and a half. More of this, please.
Still more fun than most cars
The engine’s output is unchanged from last year’s model at 241 hp (180 kW) and 273 lb-ft (370 Nm), and it continues to get a combined 27 mpg (8.7 L/100 km). The GTI remains resolutely front-wheel drive, and it will still torque-steer up to fourth gear. We drove an Autobahn-spec car to Summit Point and appreciated the ventilated seats and adaptive dampers, although even in Comfort setting, it was a little bouncy over expansion gaps on the highway.
The old GTI manual transmission wasn’t the best example in the business and didn’t often spawn “rifle-bolt” cliches, but it did provide an extra level of engagement, particularly when driving for fun. The seven-speed dual-clutch ‘box here is a good one, though, with fast shifts that don’t leave you waiting and a well-programmed automatic mode for when you aren’t in the mood.
On track, paddle shifters are faster anyway and let you focus on left-foot braking. The GTI coped well with being lapped around Summit Point’s Jefferson Circuit, but even here, the steering remained a bit too numb and uncommunicative. As with the Chevy Blazer we wrote about earlier this week, you hear the tires giving up their grip rather than feel it through the wheel. On the road, there’s enough grip that in normal conditions, you’d have to be going a little too fast to find out what happens when the tires let go.
I would definitely prefer a mechanical limited-slip differential were one available for that extra punch out of a corner, but on track, I found no vices despite what at times was surely rather inept driving. And I now realize I failed to spectate the other drivers to see whether the GTI will still cock an inside rear wheel under cornering, but given the adaptive dampers, I suspect not.
The hardware buttons have returned to the GTI steering wheel.
Volkswagen
As I’ve written plenty of times on these pages, I have a soft spot for VW Golfs. My first car was a hand-me-down Mk2, and I later raced a Mk2 GTI. But like Star Trek movies, not every Golf is great, and the Mk8 interior felt like a real step back from the Mk7 when we first saw it, then later drove one. It’s still not perfect: The sliders for the climate and volume might be backlit now, but they’re still capacitive. Too many other controls are capacitive, too. The seats are actually a little too wide for someone of medium size like me. There’s too much piano black in the interior. And I don’t really like any of the available themes for the main instrument display.
But those are minor problems, to the point where the GTI is in a three-way tie for “what car would I buy if I had to buy a car,” and it’s probably a more perfect mix of compact, efficient, practical, and sporty than either of the other two, Mazda’s MX-5 and CX-30.
Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica’s automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC.
