Volkswagen Golf GTI long-term test review

It was one of the original hot hatches, but is the Volkswagen Golf GTI still one of the best? We're living with one to find out...

Volkswagen Golf GTI long-term test review
  • The car Volkswagen Golf GTI
  • Run by Mark Tisshaw, special contributor
  • Why it’s here In the face of newer, better-value and often more powerful competition, let's see if the case can still be made for the original hot hatch
  • Needs to Be the consummate all-rounder, living up to both the ‘hot’ and ‘hatch’ part of its job description

Price £28,320 Price as tested £32,520 Miles covered 12,111 Official fuel economy 44.1mpg Test economy 39.8mpg CO2 148g/km Options Discover Navigation Pro (£1325), climate windscreen (£295), Dynamic Chassis Control (£830), rear-view camera (£265), Seville Dark Graphite alloy wheels (£495), Onyx White Premium Signature paint (£990)


29 June 2018 – a question of practicality

Recently, I’ve spent a fair amount of time driving a VW T-Roc – a Golf SUV by another name. It’s got all the usual SUV traits you’d expect – raised driving position and more commanding view of the road chief among them – but, unlike most other SUVs, it makes a decent fist of keeping the tidy hatchback-style handling intact.

And yet… getting back into the VW Golf GTI was a real joy afterwards. It provides a more rewarding and involving drive, better real-world fuel economy and little compromise on space.

 

Volkswagen Golf GTI long-term test review

To me, the SUV still seems something of a fad – a seemingly unstoppable one, perhaps, that shows no sign of slowing down, but a fad nonetheless that will be replaced by another flavour of the month a generation or two of cars further down the line.

When that day comes, the VW Golf will endure. As we continue this long-term test, it's providing emphatic proof of why the family hatchback has held so much appeal to so many for so long: as an all-round package, it gives with both hands and never takes back.

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