entry level Volkswagen Golfs offer European cache for the price of an upmarket Toyota Corolla, but the performance Golfs, the GTi, GTD, and Golf R, are potential WRX beaters without having to wear your cap backwards. Joining me in the studio, without his cap on backwards, Car Advice road tester Anthony Crawford.
Mate, I've read your Volkswagen Golf performance reviews, and my take on that is you're just about prepared to get engaged. Almost, John. Let me start with a Golf GTI. Now I was invited to this incredible launch down in victoria, with Nurburgring legend Hans Stuck. I didn't know, but for forty k's of twisting roads, he was behind me, on my tail and I'm hammering this Golf GTi, quicker than I've ever driven a car, in and out of corners, and it was faultless.
Faultless is a big word. How do you rate the GTD versus the GTI? I think the GTD offers performance in the diesel and it's never been done before. They never struck a performance diesel engine in a small hatch before. Golf have done it for the first time. And while it doesn't quite offer the performance of the Golf GTI or certainly the Golf R, it is great for someone traveling from, say, Gosford to Sydney each day, wanting a bit out of the ordinary car, in this case, the GTD.
And of course, the highlight of the car in this range is the Golf R. How does that fit in to the other two?
This is two or three steps ahead of the GTI. GTI being a fantastic value for money car in terms of performance. Golf R steps it up about three to four all levels. This is a serious WRX STI Beta. It corners better than probably the WRX STI. with a lot more comfort. This is a luxury car. This is a performance car.
This is a seriously quick car.
Now The GTI comes with two different gear boxes, and everyone raves about the DSG, the seven-speed gearbox. Do you need a degree in rocket science to drive it?
No, it's absolutely simple. It operates like an automatic gear box, but when you're going along changing gears with the pedals on the steering wheel, it's simply blip, blip, blip, blip. That 's all you hear.
Say you pay two and half thousand dollars extra for a DSG, is that the money well spent or is the manual still, you know, pretty good.
I'd take it, I'd take the DSG all day long 'cause I've driven enough cars with it, and I rave about it to anyone. However, the six speed manual gearbox is a work of art as well. It's easy to shift. It's simple, you can heel and toe in the Golf GTI perfectly.
The GTI and the other performance Golfs don't really have direct competitors, but I guess if you looked at performance cars at around forty something thousand bucks, you'd be looking at Rally R, Lancer, WRX, and maybe the Renault Sport Megane, how do you rate them?
Great cars, but I think it's a differentYou don't get anywhere near the refinement that you get in the Golf, in those cars. I think the Golf TDI is an easier car to live with seven days a week.
Volkswagen sources its cars from all over the world. Where do we get our Golfs from?
They're all made in Wolfsburg, Germany, close to Volkswagen's headquarters, so you can expect superb quality.
Anthony Crawford, thank you. And there's a bloke who needs at least another three spaces in his garage at home. For you though, to read the full review, download specifications, add your comments, or get a quote from a Volkswagen dealer, just follow the links on this page.
