For the 2014 model year, Volkswagen is cancelling their perennial hot hatchback, the GTI. Don’t worry though, they’ll happily sell you a year-old one instead.
Actually, there’s a rare bit of honesty going on here. The next-generation Golf is already on sale in Europe, and we know it’ll be coming here in the next year as an all-new 2015 model.
The one we get won’t be exactly the same as the European model — likely, there’ll be a slightly softer suspension to deal with North America’s less-than-perfect roads — but it’s en route and slightly improved in almost every way.
In the U.S., you can still walk up to your local Vee-Dub dealership and plonk down the cash for a 2014 GTI. In Canada, VW’s local management has decided to just order a bigger batch of new models and sell down from inventory until the new car arrives.
There aren’t any changes for the 2014s the U.S. is selling, so why not simply just tell people what they’re getting?
It’s a strategy that seems to be working and at the same time looks like it might backfire as VW’s GTI inventories might not stretch until the new car arrives.
Why can’t people wait? Just how good is this thing?
Design
Now in its sixth generation, the GTI could give the Porsche 911 a run for its money in terms of least-changed styling since new.
Both cars have been on sale for decades, but park either one next to their first-generation ancestors and (while the modern equivalents are comparatively huge) the DNA is still there.
Still just a shoebox with a pointy end, the GTI’s hatchback shape has changed only slightly since the previous generation and the new model that will replace it moves the puck forward only a few feet or so.
Compared to competing compacts, the Golf platform on which the GTI is built is very conservative and is devoid of the famous swooping style lines.
Building on this staid shape, the GTI treatment includes bigger alloy wheels — 18-inches on my tester’s optional Wolfsburg package — a lowered sport suspension, a unique grille and red accents.
It’s very subtle, and subtlety is what a proper GTI is all about.
Flexibility, too, is apparent. If you want a showy pocket rocket, opt for of the GTI’s brighter paint schemes.
If you don’t want the boss raising his eyebrows at what you’ve got parked in the corporate lot, go for one of the neutral colours and blend right in with the Toyotas and Hondas.
The GTI remains one of the few sport compact cars that a grown-up can get away with driving without looking like some sort of hooligan.
Environment
Inside, the GTI will please purists and disappoint those looking for high-tech gadgets. The plaid seat inserts that come with the base cloth seats look great and pay proper homage to the sprightly Rabbit of the 1970s. They’re also well bolstered and very comfortable.
The rest of the cabin is a mix of spartan design and spacious — for a hatchback — layout. The small diameter, flat-bottomed steering wheel is a nice touch and looks similar to the helm you might find in an S-model Audi. The dash, on the other hand, is bleak and black, and the centre section between the seats looks a bit plastic.
But here again, the GTI sticks to its mission statement. It passes what I’d like to think of as the Potential Mother-in-Law Test — cram your fiancée’s mom into the butt-pinching Recaros of the Focus ST as a comparison and there’ll be hissed whispering behind doors. Tuck her into the optional leather-covered buckets of a GTI, and there’s little to find fault with.
Having said that, the Fender-branded stereo in the GTI remains a bit behind the times when compared with the advances Korean and Japanese manufacturers have made in onboard infotainment. It’s powerful and the functionality is there, but this is a car that’s been on sale for several years, and you can tell.
The trunk space qualifies as usable but not spacious. The four-door version is entirely workable as a family car - the way it’s used in Europe - but young families will likely find the GTI’s limited carrying capacity a bit difficult for a single car application.
Performance
Start paper racing the GTI against more powerful competitors like the Focus ST or Mazdaspeed3, and the car’s focus on reserved performance starts looking like an Achilles heel. With just 201 horsepower from an iron-block, aluminium head 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder, the GTI seems more pocket than rocket. What’s more, my tester for the week was the heavier four-door version, and it had been optioned with the six-speed DSG gearbox. This is a dual-clutch automatic transmission and it both adds weight and isn’t the snick-snick six-speed manual you sort of want in a hot hatchback.
Add in front-wheel drive, and you’ve got what would seem to be a watered-down machine that’s competing in a segment filled with full-strength rivals. However, depressing the somewhat silly square starter button revealed something surprising, and yet at the same time not-at-all surprising. There are cars that are about numbers, and there are cars that are about feel, and the GTI is one of the latter. It always has been, and it certainly is so here.
Despite the weight and the modest power, the GTI is happy to jackrabbit off the line with a generous dollop of turbocharged torque, and then keep things on the boil with the lightning-quick dual-clutch six-speed. Pleasing though VW’s golf-ball shifter manual might be, the DSG manages to impart the same directly connected feel of a manual with the everyday tractability of an automatic.
However, this car is happiest with the shifter cranked over to sport, and the actual shifting handled by the too-small, steeringwheel-mounted paddle shifters. It lets out a “parp” on the upshift and gives a little backfire on the downshift, and generally gives you the feel that you’re driving a car built to make driving fun.
The power might not be up to the levels of the Ford, or the Mazda, or all-wheel-drive rivals like the Subaru WRX, but none of those cars provide a dual purpose automatic like this, and the Mazdaspeed3 can feel overpowered in some situations. While more power for your GTI is just a software reflash and a voided warranty away, the driver often feels like more horsies might not actually be needed.
Hitting the corners, this nimble little car impresses by not wresting the steering wheel from your hand, and by having what seems to be just the right amount of go. The wrigglier the road gets, the bigger the smile on your face, as finding a rhythm with the GTI is all too easy. It’s great backroads fun.
Get the GTI back on the highway and tuck it in the slow lane and, surprisingly, it’s happy here too. The 2.0-litre turbo has excellent low-end response, and even though the DSG gearbox upshifts quickly to conserve fuel economy, it also drops gears quickly if passing is attempted.
In fact, the only flaw in the GTI’s do-everything mantra seems to come along when the rain falls. Off the line, even the stickier tires of the Wolfsburg package are momentarily overwhelmed and they scrabble briefly at the pavement. It’s easier to modulate this behaviour with the manual transmission, but in our wet, hilly city, something to be aware of.
Features
At a base price of less than $30,000 for the three-door model, the GTI isn’t a bad deal. That is, until you start adding options.
The DSG gearbox is an extra $1,600 and while it improves the flexibility of the car, it isn’t necessarily going to bump the resale up much. The Wolfsburg Edition options on my tester (18-inch alloys, sport seats, touchscreen navigation, push-button start) are all bundled together for a reasonable 10 per cent price increase, and qualify as fully loaded.
Pretty much the only option left on the table is a leather interior — spec the higher-end interior and you’ve got a bargain Audi.
Fuel economy is rated at a scarcely believable 8.7 litres/100 kilometres city and 6.3 l/100 km highway. So don’t believe it.
Mixed-use is much closer to the city mileage even if split down the middle in driving, but then that’s pretty much what you’d expect from a hot hatchback and a bit better than higher horsepower rivals.
