Volkswagen Golf GTI 40 Years Review

I’m in love with the Volkswagen Golf GTI 40 Years. If you like driving, need something relatively practical and have $50,000, you should immediately buy one of the few remaining new examples.

That’s right – I’m not bothering with a subtle build-up in this review. The GTI 40 Years is what it is – certainly the best Golf GTI ever built, and more than likely the best hot hatch ever, too. Just four hundred came to Australia at the end of 2016 – a hundred manuals which are all sold, and three hundred DSG autos, of which just a handful remain.

You can have one in the Tornado Red of our car, or white, or grey. You can have it with a sunroof, or without. Those are the choices – everything else is as Volkswagen intended: an homage to the Golf GTI, the world’s original hot hatch, on its fortieth birthday. And what an homage this car is.

I just wanted to drive it, and drive it, and drive it. In this business – where I drive a new vehicle most weeks – it’s hard for any individual car to rise above the pack and keep me well and truly excited. Yet, that’s what the Golf GTI 40 Years does – it just does everything right. While I write about all the details below, here are the four reasons that combine to make the Golf GTI 40 Years something very special.

• It’s really fast: the upgraded two-litre turbo engine makes 195kW normally but will give you 213kW for ten-second, full throttle bursts. The turbo is throaty and boosty, with decent zest off the line but the serious punch arrives around 3,500rpm and really throws you into the seat.
• It handles incredibly well: you will take every back-road home that you can find because the steering is that communicative, the electronic front diff lock is so successful and the P-Zero grip levels are that high.
• It’s very comfortable: the new seats were perfect for my body shape – tall and skinny – with great lumbar for your back, enough lateral support and a pleasant mix of fabric, alcantara, and leather. Plus, this car rides well enough, sounds good without being noisy, and has none of the usual fast-car ergonomic niggles. It’s a Golf.
• It has all the practicality of a Golf: possibly the best feature of the car is that it can pull your face off in the corners and make serious progress in a straight line, but is incredibly easy to park, easy to see out of, and can fit passengers and cargo like a garden-variety Volkswagen.

But most importantly, the GTI 40 Years has what many Golfs lack – character. From the noise, to the out-there aesthetic treatment, to the sheer way this thing goes around a corner and then sucks you out with its boosty, old-school turbo, the Golf just makes you want more and more. I love this thing.