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Autocar has learned that Volkswagen is planning to launch three all-new performance VW Golf variants within the next three years.
A performance diesel Golf – dubbed the GTD - is scheduled for launch in the spring of 2009. It will use the VW Group’s latest twin-turbocharged 2.0-litre TDI engine, offering in excess of 200bhp and 260lb ft torque.
Find out all the details of the new Mk6 Golf GTiRead the full article

I hope this "learning experience" of Autocar is more reliable than the summer scoop which predicted a Golf MK VI GTI with the new valve lift engine which has disappeared into the ether. I like the idea of a 200hp diesel but with diesel prices 10% more than unleaded and servicing more as well, would not a 45mpg valve lift petrol engine make more sense than a 50mpg diesel......  

This article reads like VW have never done it before, but what are all the Golf 'GT TDI's I see on the roads if not diesel GTI's?

There is no way Audi would let them put the 2.5 Turbo engine into the Golf. The TT-RS will cost at least £36,00 so the Golf would have to be at least £30,000! Absolute madness. It will not happen.

The Golf GTD sounds more likely, but even then the price may be too prohibitive. The car would require standard 4WD and would be priced above the Golf 2.0Tdi DSG 170 (£21,500) making it at least £23,500. For a Diesel Golf!?!

They should just put the 300bhp Passat R36 engine in the Golf and create a proper range topper. It wouldn’t affect their overall CO2 much as the R32 was only of minority interest anyway.

Bottie:

I hope this "learning experience" of Autocar is more reliable than the summer scoop which predicted a Golf MK VI GTI with the new valve lift engine which has disappeared into the ether. I like the idea of a 200hp diesel but with diesel prices 10% more than unleaded and servicing more as well, would not a 45mpg valve lift petrol engine make more sense than a 50mpg diesel......  

I cannot comment on the veracity of the news item in Autocar, but I do expect the rumoured GTD to materialize.  

If VW (or anyone else) can genuinely create a petrol engine of 200 plus hp (as per Golf MK VI GTI) that can manage anywhere near 40mpg, I would perhaps agree with your argument. 

As it is I have owned both a Mk IV GTI (150hp) and a (current model) Audi TTR2 with 197hp and neither could get anyowhere near their claimed 35.8 mpg average consumption, let alone the 55 mpg regularly returned by my wife's Golf GT TDi - although the latter is a 140, but it also has DSG). 

I noticed that the recent tests of the Audi TT TDI gave 55mpg overall...

 

 

To me the 50mpg on a diesel

wallabytoo:

If VW (or anyone else) can genuinely create a petrol engine of 200 plus hp (as per Golf MK VI GTI) that can manage anywhere near 40mpg, I would perhaps agree with your argument. 

Audi have already launched this engine in the A4 and A5.  In the A4 saloon this engine is claimed to acheive 0-60 in 6.9s, with combined economy of 43 mpg and 154 g/km CO2.  If this was put in a Golf, it would surely be 45+ mpg and slightly faster again.

Obviously it remains to be seen how real life consumption compares to these figures, however I have driven the Seat Leon FR (same engine as your TT) and managed to get average consumption very close to the claimed figures.  On rural driving routes it would do high 30s mpg.  Same with my own MX-5, where I regularly get close to 40 mpg commuting to work.

I think more people could achieve the claimed mpg if they drove a bit more sensibly.  By this I don't mean you can't have fun and put the foot down, but you don't have to accelerate all the way to an obvious obstacle (like lights or a tight bend) then slam on the brakes and repeat this process the whole journey.  That wastes a huge amount of fuel and really doesn't get you there much quicker, if at all.

Was more interesting when there was one hot Golf, the GTI, (though a GTI 16v MKII was special) now there are Leon Cupras, S3s and Octavia VRS and probably something else too, it is just so boring.

230SL:

now there are Leon Cupras, S3s and Octavia VRS and probably something else too, it is just so boring

Mate, I find this comment absolutely amazing.  Whatever you might think of the cars themselves, how could the introduction of so many choices of model be boring?!

dgs:

I think more people could achieve the claimed mpg if they drove a bit more sensibly.  By this I don't mean you can't have fun and put the foot down, but you don't have to accelerate all the way to an obvious obstacle (like lights or a tight bend) then slam on the brakes and repeat this process the whole journey.  That wastes a huge amount of fuel and really doesn't get you there much quicker, if at all.

Great advice dgs, I couldn't agree more.  My father taught me to drive 'sympathetically' to the car and to anticipate obstacles, and I believe there are benefits in wear-and-tear, comfort and consideration for other road users as well as economy.  Trouble is, even driving like this I still don't attain the claimed mpg figures for anything I drive!

It's funny how everyone wanted V8 performance only a few years ago and now what matters is 4-pot performance with maximum economy. I have to agree that a Golf with a petrol engine that offers 200+ bhp that does more than 40 mpg would be a beautiful thing. My days of driving hot BMWs and Mercs that do 17 mpg are over. What i find very interesting about the many observations made her is that Volkswagen can only deliver hot Golfs at the expense of Audi. I suspect that soon after the Golf GTI arrives, and makes the Scirocco 2.0 litre TFSI model look a bit slow, a Scirocco GTI will appear offering at least 230 bhp. Then that will be superseded by the Golf R20 (R32 replacement) offering 270 bhp. Then we'll get a Scirocco R20 and so on. i can't make up my mind whether such a product strategy is daft or clever. Not so bright if it kills Audi.