If you follow the world of cars (and we have to assume you do if you’re reading this website), you can’t have missed the fact that the Volkswagen Golf has turned 50 this year. For 48 of those 50 years, the VW Golf GTI has been a mainstay of the hot hatch genre, and during that time, there have been some brilliant examples, like the game-changing Mk1 and the return-to-form Mk5, and some stinkers (the non-turbo Mk4 springs to mind).
We’re now on the eighth generation and quite possibly the last with a combustion engine. While it’s definitely one of the better ones, all is not totally rosy in GTI Land. The car’s just had a facelift, but some of VW’s recent much-grumbled-about interior foibles remain, and worse, the GTI’s just lost an important part of its identity: a manual gearbox.
Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk7.5 – side
Then there’s the cost: in Europe, the latest GTI starts at €44,505. While it likely won’t be a direct conversion to pounds for the UK, that’s almost £38,000. The GTI is no longer the affordable people’s hero.
In fairness, neither the spiralling cost nor the lack of a manual are strictly VW’s fault, and we should be glad the GTI still exists at all when hot hatches in general are dying off at an alarming rate, but you don’t have to go very far back at all to experience the GTI at arguably its very best.
Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk7.5 – interior
The Mk7 GTI did basically everything brilliantly: it was dynamically superb, well equipped, refined, built to exacting standards, fairly economical, and from the last era of VW interiors that were class-leading in quality and layout. You could have it with three or five doors, a manual or DSG auto, and however you specced it, it never looked out of place anywhere.
With our most rose-tinted of specs on, then, we’ve headed back to our favourite place – the classifieds – to see what sort of money this unmatched all-rounder can be had for, and the news is good.
Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk7.5 – interior detail
Here’s a 31,000-mile example of the facelifted ‘Mk7.5’, from 2019. It has everything the hot hatch cognoscenti clamour for; three doors, a manual gearbox and that all-important throwback tartan interior. On the outside, though, it’s a subtle, restrained grey. That might not be what everyone wants in a performance car, but if you just want to slip about unnoticed, secure in the knowledge that there’s a brilliant platform beneath you, it’s ideal.
This car also has the Performance Pack, which gave the 2.0-litre turbo four a modest power uplift from 227 to 242bhp. Performance cars also got beefier brakes and, crucially, a front limited-slip diff that made it an even more effective, entertaining handler.
Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk7.5 – rear
The asking price for all this excellence? £19,000, or almost exactly half what a basic new GTI will run you in Europe. It’s only five years old, too, so will have most of the new one’s creature comforts. Okay, its most recent MOT test threw up advisories relating to tread depth and brake wear, suggesting it might have been driven… enthusiastically, but it’s nothing too scary. Certainly, it shouldn’t put anyone off one of the best value-for-money performance cars around.
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