Gone are the distinctive burps as you work through the seven-speed, dual-clutch gearbox. The aural character that gave the seventh-generation vehicle some of its credibility has been well and truly muzzled. From the exterior things are less inspiring. It sounds decent, if you are sitting inside, savouring the simulated acoustics being piped into the cabin. Its EA888-series motor now delivers 180kW and 370Nm, still displacing 2.0-litres, with four cylinders and a turbocharger. Offsetting this additional mass is a marginally greater power and torque figure (up by 11kW and 20Nm). The new GTI gains a substantial 165kg and it certainly feels like a heftier animal than before. So maybe the company was intentional with its modesty. To be fair, it proved faster in reality, though, registering an impressive 6.1 seconds when we tested it using our VBOX earlier this year. Which is exactly the same as the previous model. Volkswagen claims a 0-100km/h sprint time of 6.4 seconds.
On paper, it does not exactly rouse excitement in the performance metric either. The system in the Golf is the opposite of intuitive and needs serious revision.
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They could have borrowed notes from sister division Audi on how to do this kind of thing, but that appears not to have been the case. Whereas the old car had a handsomeness about it, the new one has a disinterested face.Īnd then there is the user-unfriendliness of its new interior, which places virtually all functions within the confines of a frustrating digital interface. From my perspective, there are many aspects that make the eighth-generation car considerably less endearing than the one it replaces.įor starters, the look - but this is a criticism of how number eight has evolved overall - rather than of the GTI trim particularly. Comparisons between the incumbent and predecessor are inevitable when you are dealing with a performance brand like the Golf GTI.