Category: Hot Hatchbacks 
Price Range: £23,015 to £23,600
They ooze quality and Golf iconography.
Unexciting to drive.
Good cars, but Volkswagen lost the GTI plot.
Today's Golf GTI might not have the same driver appeal as the original Mk1 and Mk2 models, with their sharp handling and lightweight chuckability, but they're still extremely desirable - in a grown-up, sensible sort of way.
The GTI badge now adorns 2.0-litre (115bhp) and 1.8T (150bhp and 180bhp) petrol models, or the torquey, powerful 130 bhp and 150bhp GTI TD PDI diesels, the most mature of them all. Alternatively, there's the 2.3 V5 versions, which are more like mini luxury cruisers than hot hatches. If a proper hot hatch is what you want, these days it doesn't wear a GTI badge: check out the Golf V6 4MOTION or R32.
There are also limited-edition GTI Anniversary models, with the 1.8T 180 bhp and TDI PD 150 bhp engines. But the range-topping versions are the 2.3 V5 (170bhp) and the four-wheel drive 2.8 V6 4MOTION, both sophisticated and smooth, very subtle in their power delivery and just as subtle to look at.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Golf GTI
wrote on 04 02 2008
wrote on 19 09 2007