Volkswagon Golf GTI MK VI

Here is a car that does it all, and does it all better than anything else does it all, or even just does bits of it. ‘It', or in this case ‘it all', is performance, practicality, tractability, affordability, credibility, reliability, safety, quality, subtlety. And there are bound to be loads more ‘ities' that it does better than everyone else. The Mark VI Golf GTI is what happens when, ideologically speaking, that Porsche and that Polo are subject to some sort of stem cell research to find a cure for the fact that nobody can afford fast cars any more. It's the hybrid love child of extravagance and conservatism. And in this respect it is, essentially, perfect.

In what is now the GTI's 33rd year, the changes made do make for a better car, but without taking away from what also made its immediate predecessor a great one. The engine is now more compact and 3kg lighter. But for that it is also greener, more fuel efficient, more powerful and able to deliver its peak torque 100 rpm faster. Small things, but all of which add to up a more impressive whole. So total power output is now 155kW, taking the GTI to 100km/h in 7.2 seconds, figures that are almost identical to the old car.

Perhaps the most significant changes to the new car are aesthetic ones. Where the Mk V was a very deliberate homage to the Mk 1, borrowing and embellishing upon various instantly familiar styling cues, the Mk 6 moves on from this, taking the nostalgia and morphing it into something more modern. The headlight lenses are more geometric, while the grille is a simpler, narrow parallel slit, albeit one still trimmed in that now trademark red. The front fogs have been pushed as far as possible into the corners of the bumper to give the car a greater sense of width, and with it more aggression and menace.

So this really is Porsche meets Polo, the performance car for our times. Every bit as quick and capable as you will ever need on a British, or European, road, and genuinely easy to live with. And, relatively speaking, to buy too.

Review from:
http://www.topgear.com/au/volkswagen/golf-gti/road-test/mk-6