Volkswagen Golf GTI
2.0 TSI Three-Door review
by David Finlay (18 August 2009)
Most of the conversations the GTI inspired during this test concerned the design of its wheels. Their design, I'm sure you'll agree, tends towards the eccentric (in a philosophical if not geometric sense), and opinions on the subject were many and varied, ranging from "stupid" to something considerably more complimentary. The interesting thing about this was that the people who were more likely to be interested in buying a hot hatch, the more they appreciated the wheels, so Volkswagen has obviously got it right here.
In nearly every other respect, however, Volkswagen does not seem to have paid any attention whatever to the party line. For example, although this GTI develops more power than the last one, its maximum output of 207bhp is nowhere near what manufacturers of rival cars are offering, and is also 20bhp less than VW itself made available in the now-discontinued Edition 30 model.
Instead, attention has been paid to performance at much lower engine speeds, and with considerable success. Although it runs on petrol, the GTI can be driven quite effectively if you treat it like a turbo diesel and change up a gear every time the revcounter needle reaches 2500rpm (a dramatic contrast to the behaviour of the first 16-valve GTI, four generations ago, which did nothing worth speaking of below 4000rpm).
Of course, you get more impressive results by revving a lot higher, but if you do you will never find yourself enjoying a stirring sound track. There is no sense that Volkswagen made any attempt to make the GTI sound interesting even when you're pushing the engine as hard as it will go.
Similarly, the ride quality is a lot tamer than that of the previous GTI, but you won't find me complaining about that. While there is no doubt that this is a car whose suspension was designed more for handling than for luxury, the sharp edges have been taken off the ride, and minor road bumps are no longer to be feared as they were in the past. The driver now has some input here, since the damping is adjustable with Comfort and Sport modes on either side of the normal setting, but even in Sport it's not as kidney-thrashing as the last-generation car was.
This has not affected the GTI's prowess on corners. Occasionally there's a hint that the suspension was developed on super-smooth German roads; in the UK the front end feels slightly underdamped, regardless of which setting you choose, and you can imagine that under real stress the front tyres will let go before the rears, which seem to be nailed into the tarmac (well, not really, but you get the point).
Personally I'd prefer the balance of grip to be further forward, but there's no doubt that the GTI generally hangs on to the road incredibly well, and that it could easily cope with more power if Volkswagen ever decided to supply it.
Overall, the GTI is an amazing piece of work, but unlike some of its predecessors it's not going to appeal to the more hardcore factions of the hot hatch fan club. It is a thing of delicacy and accuracy which does its job brilliantly but which completely failed (if this was ever the intention) to excite me no matter what I did with it. It is absolutely a car to be admired, but not one that is easy to love.
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