If the seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf GTI isn’t the best everyday hot hatch in recent memory, it can only be because the faster, fitter, four-wheel-drive Golf R is even better still.
For track days and B-road thrills, you’ll want a Honda Civic Type R, but no other hot hatch gets close to the union of performance, athleticism, comfort and refinement that characterises both the GTI and the R. As they near their sixth and fifth birthdays respectively, VW dealers are overflowing with approved used stock at half the price of a new one.
The GTI emerged in early 2013, only a handful of months after the sixth-generation Golf was superseded by the much-improved and substantially lighter Mk7. With 217bhp from a turbocharged four-pot, the GTI was brisk without being rampantly accelerative. For those buyers who wanted quicker acceleration and had more than £25,845 to spend, the GTI was also available to order in Performance specification.
Click here to buy your next used Golf GTI from Autocar
With 227bhp, the GTI Performance was only a little faster but, fitted as well with bigger front brakes and a limited-slip differential, it was also appreciably sharper to drive. Costing only £980 more than the regular GTI, it was a no-brainer for the keenest drivers.
The earliest Mk7 GTIs start now at £13,000, although £15,000 will stretch to a newer car with fewer than 20,000 miles beneath it. Included in VW’s approved used scheme, called Das WeltAuto, is a 12-month unlimited-mileage warranty and roadside assistance over the same term. Every approved used VW undergoes a 142-point check by trained technicians, too.
Both versions of the GTI could be specified with a manual or DSG dual-clutch transmission – both very good in their own way – and with three or five doors. The GTI Performance isn’t quite so common so you’ll have to be less picky when it comes to paint colour and spec options, and their prices start at £16,000.
Join the debate
Add your comment
There's an interesting review of the Mark 8 GTI by a journalist and GTI owner on Youtube who says that the Mark 8 is infuriating/dangerous to drive with all its touchscreen controls and slow responses/default settings and it feels cheaper/tackier than the Mark 7, so owning a 7 rather than an 8 might actually be the better short and long term option.
Are they that desirable?
Unless you have high-grade
Unless you have high-grade door locks, a good burglar alarm and a baseball bat under your bed don't buy a Golf R. If you do buy one, park it on the street where it's not clear which house the car belongs to.
bomb wrote:
no, put it in a garage that is as secure as a nuclear bunker. if you put it on the street it will be picked up and put on the back of a truck and wisked away before anyone notices.
bomb wrote:
Which isn't so nice for the little old lady whose house it might end up being parked outside :(