For this week’s Showroom and Tell blog post, we look at a car that has freshly arrived at Leith Volkswagen of Raleigh. The 2015 Golf GTI is a beloved car in the U.S. It is seen as a true driver’s car, not quite a rally vehicle, but neither a nitrogen-huffing, spoiler-laden miscreant with a compensatingly large muffler. As a German automobile and member of the same family that produces Audi and Porsche, the GTI is nothing if not fantastically engineere
When we went to Leith VW of Raleigh a few months ago to test drive vehicles for review, we had to forego the GTI because the new model had not arrived yet. The sales representative explained that it was getting a significant redesign and that we would do well to wait. Thankfully for us, the wait is over.
It’s a hatchback, sure, but this is no Geo Prism. It’s light. It’s powerful (210 turbocharged horses). It’s sporty. It’s tech-savvy. It’s made for the Autobahn. And if you get one by the end of the month, it comes with a GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition camera.
The 2015 Golf GTI is one of the rare breeds that has an option for a manual transmission. Six-speeds ensures that you can have a more connected experience with the road and save fuel when cruising on the highway. Not that the double-clutch DSG automatic transmission is a slouch. Those two clutches will have the next gear always lined up in the queue. By making gear changes faster than a human being ever could, fuel use is optimized and the ride as smooth as anodized aluminum.
The GTI is at once practical, utilitarian, unspoilt, barely laden, rewarding and challenging. It carries the populist appeal that the Beetle once provided for Volkswagen, way back when it was the true people’s car. We’re glad to see that spirit live on in a new body for our times, and we’re sure that you’ll enjoy your time in a GTI.