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.

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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