Flexible, engaging and entertaining

FIRSTDRIVE VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI: The Golf GTI is a sure thing in a world of uncertainty, with a remarkably flexible engine, writes…

FIRSTDRIVE VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI:The Golf GTI is a sure thing in a world of uncertainty, with a remarkably flexible engine, writes KYLE FORTUNE

IN TODAY’S credit-crunched world it seems there are few once-held certainties you can rely on. Your pension is so devastated you might have to reconsider retiring, ever, your house is worth nothing and the banks – well, let’s not even go there.

It all makes those few certainties in life even more appealing. Volkswagen’s Golf GTI is one of them. The iconic flagship hatchback has been around since 1976 and this year sees the arrival of its sixth incarnation.

The hairstyles and clothes might have changed since the original was introduced (although somebody forgot to tell the German engineers at its launch) but the GTI has changed little. Sure, it’s heavier, safer and almost twice as powerful as the original, but it has had to move with the times to provide levels of safety, comfort and performance – both on the road and environmentally.

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You couldn’t sell the original car as it is today and that’s a good thing. Even so, Volkswagen has managed to keep the GTI relevant without diluting its core driving appeal – it’s just as entertaining as ever.

Like the Golf it’s based on, the sixth-generation GTI is a subtle evolution over its predecessor. The key visual identifiers that shout out GTI remain: the black egg-crate front grille framed by a red pinstripe; GTI badging, front and rear; and front fog lamps situated in a deeper, more aggressive bumper. The headlamps are single units but their design nods to the quad-lamp set-up that’s a GTI signature, the overall effect one of classy sporting restraint.

Much the same is true inside. No GTI would be complete without “tartan” cloth seats, with their subtle red highlighting. There’s a chunky steering wheel with its now de rigueur (and utterly pointless) cut-off bottom, a leather covered gearknob and piano-black trim inserts giving some GTI flourish to the otherwise stock Golf interior.

It’s a nice driving environment that’s spacious, comfortable and built of the sort of quality materials to which Volkswagen buyers are accustomed.

The styling, inside and out, is a given, but it’s initially disappointing to see the GTI’s 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine’s output is pegged at 207bhp. That’s a mere 10bhp over its MkV predecessor – which was also offered briefly in “anniversary specification” with 227bhp.

It all makes the standard output of the new car look a bit stingy in this age of 230-300bhp hot hatches. It’s easy to be slightly underwhelmed by the GTI’s numbers before driving it, though in reality the heavily revised 2.0-litre turbo feels so much healthier than the relatively paltry output might suggest.

The turbo-charged unit has a veritable mountain of torque, the peak of 280Nm delivered at 1,700rpm and then staying all the way to 5,200rpm. Just when the torque begins to tail off, the peak power kicks in, the full 207bhp on offer from 5,300rpm well into the redline at 6,200rpm.

The result is a remarkably flexible engine that’s got tremendous mid-range grunt, yet retains high-rev urgency. Use all of its output and the GTI will reach 100km/h in just 6.9 seconds; take it back to its homeland and you could see 240km/h on the speedometer on a derestricted autobahn.

It’d be quiet too, retaining the standard Golf’s luxury car levels of refinement. Grand Tourer indeed. In fact the GTI is so quiet, Volkswagen’s engineers have had to add an electronic sound generator that takes engine frequencies and amplifies them to create a sporting note inside.

The accompaniment might not be real but it does nothing to detract from the GTI’s driving appeal. With the engine offering all the pace you could realistically want, the chassis needs to offer engaging handling and excellent poise.

It does – the GTI includes XDS as part of the ESP and traction control system, which works like a virtual limited-slip differential in extreme cornering. Braking the inside wheel, the effect it creates is reduced understeer, so the GTI turns in with real conviction, almost regardless of entry speed.

The response from the well-weighted, chunky steering wheel isn’t quite in the ‘recalibration of your senses’ level that you’ll experience in Ford’s new Focus RS, but there is some feel and real precision. While it’s inevitable a fast Volkswagen and fast Ford will be compared, they’re conceptually different cars on the road. The Ford’s 90bhp advantage and more hardcore goal underline that.

Ultimately, the Golf wouldn’t see which way a Focus RS went down a challenging road, but then the GTI would hang on doggedly for a while and provide its driver with some serious entertainment in the process.

You’d also take the Golf more readily as an everyday prospect. Its manual six-speed gearshift is quicker and more accurate and, unlike the Ford, you can have your GTI with a twin-clutch, paddle-shift auto. Hugely impressive as that transmission is, we’d save the extra money it costs and enjoy the crisp manual and blipping the throttle on downshifts ourselves. That’s probably true of the Adaptive Chassis Control (ACC) too, the optional variable damper system not really necessary.

Sport mode firms it up a bit, but if the standard setting apes the default set-up of a regularly damped GTI – as VW’s engineers claim – then you can be assured of decent enough body control and ride comfort without adding unnecessarily to the sticker price.

The standard car is so polished in either three- or five-door form that you don’t really need to fork out for any of the extra options.

That’s just as well, as it’s not the cheapest hot hatch out there. But that’s always been the case with the GTI and it’s never stopped it being successful.

It’s good to see that some things can still be relied upon.

Factfile

Engine:2.0-litre turbo- charged four-cylinder petrol

Peak power:207bhp @ 5,300-6,200rpm (280Nm)

Transmission:six-speed manual, front-wheel-drive

0-100km/h:6.9 seconds

Top speed:240km/h

CO2 emissions:170g/km

Combined cycle fuel economy:7.3l/100km

Price:estimated €36,000-€38,500

Arriving here:June