PH Fleet: VW Golf GTI Edition 35
A trip to Paris makes Riggers fall fully for the Golf's charms
That, although manifestly capable, and possessed of no notable flaws, it's somehow not daring or edgy enough to be appropriate for a true petrolhead.
The Golf GTI Edition 35, then, joins such luminaries as the Ford Mondeo and the BMW 330d as cars that are fashionable to poke fun at in some quarters, but are in actual fact bloody brilliant at doing what they have been designed to do.
And the GTI Edition 35 is bloody brilliant, if fitness for purpose is what defines brilliance. It's fast enough to be fun, but not too fast for its chassis; it's spacious enough for four without being so big as to be unwieldy; and it's classily appointed inside and out without being overly ostentatious (which is ideal for these straitened times, etc).
And I have fallen for it completely. In this job I am lucky enough to get the opportunity to drive all sorts of exotic machinery, and yet whenever I get into the Golf I am never disappointed. If I wish to treat it as a commuting tool it serves perfectly, but if I want to chuck it around then it does so with considerable aplomb.
Its versatility was proven last weekend when it was tasked with taking me, the other half and two friends to Paris for a flying visit to friends. It swallowed all our luggage, elicited no complaints from the back-seat passengers and was as at home barrelling along the autoroute as it was dodging around the traffic and demented scooter-riders of Paris.
This is thanks in large part to an effective DSG gearbox that makes traffic jams less of a pain on the left foot while being good enough (with judicious use of the paddles and 'S' mode) to amuse during more 'press-on' moments. The only irritating part of the trip, from the point of view of my passengers, was me, as I kept telling anyone who would listen that I'd decided the Golf was 'the best car in the world ever' (a rather big call but, for my personal circumstances and tastes at the moment at least, a valid one).
I also got over-excited by the fact that we sailed on the new-and-massive P&O Spirit of Britain ferry and tried repeatedly to force my fellow travellers to enjoy aniseed balls. The short of it is that if you wish to make a high-speed, four-up continental jaunt, you couldn't do much better than a Golf GTI. Just don't take me with you, as I am clearly a thoroughly irritating travelling companion.
But despite my over-enthusiasm for the car, it isn't quite perfect when I try hard and put a bit of an objective head on. It could do with sipping a wee bit less petrol, for a start.
I haven't tried 'proper' measurement of the car's fuel consumption, but even the trip computer (which you sense may be a touch Pro-VW) doesn't really ever tip into anything better than 30mpg. That's not too bad when, like me, your previous ride has been an Infiniti that manages 25mpg on a good day, but it's still short of the 35mpg that VW claims as a combined figure...
The other minor niggle concerns those darn winter tyres that, despite the recent cold snap, have spent most of their time outside of their optimum operating conditions (ie when the ambient temperature is above 7 degrees, which it has been for most of my time with the car so far). This is as much a surprisingly warm winter's fault as it is the Dunlop SP Winter Sport 4Ds' problem, but I am looking forward to getting the full-fat 18-inch wheels on the car for the first time.
Other than those two niggles, it's the best car in the world...
FACT SHEET
Car: 2011 VW Golf GTI Edition 35
Run by: Riggers
On fleet since: December 2011
Mileage: 7000 miles
List price new: £31,030 (inc. £1770 infotainment pack and £440 for parking sensors front and rear)
Last month at a glance: It's been too warm for winter tyres, but Paris trip was a triumph
Previous report:
Golf GTI Edition 35 arrives, complete with wintry rubber
But it is nearly THIRTY FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS !!!
That is an obscene, ridiculous amount of money for a mildly swift hatchback.
Company car users or business lease deals only IMO.
You would have to be a bit mental to put your own money into that..
In PH journalist land it is easy to think how nice a loan car given to them is. But what i would like to know, is that if the writer had £34,000 in his bank account right now, how differently would he feel about it ?
the mkVI also handles vastly better than the MKIV gti which is pretty well accepted as the worst golf platform
Interested in that economy figure - I get circa 32-34mpg out of mine in mixed use, and I thought the newer cars were meant to be more efficient? Heavy right foot on the autoroute perhaps?
the mkVI also handles vastly better than the MKIV gti which is pretty well accepted as the worst golf platform
So the general story is the car gets a great write up, is quote "brilliant" does absolutely everything that you need from a car well enough that you don't need to have cars for all occasions, it won't depreciate massively, offers more than enough real world performance with comparatively low service costs yet because it is a VW Golf it WILL get slated left right and centre.
Interested in that economy figure - I get circa 32-34mpg out of mine in mixed use, and I thought the newer cars were meant to be more efficient? Heavy right foot on the autoroute perhaps?
The price- a joke and not a funny one. In saner markets a GTi very similar to this would cost about 16 grand sterling
The DSG box-good in traffic yes, ultimately this car is meant to be a hot hatch and presumably part of it's remit is to deliver driver enjoyment. The DSG box mitigates against this, you're never fully in control.
Not sure about MKVIs over in the UK but when I owned the MKV it needed to be run on super unleaded fuel, expensive and not unversally available.
VED in the UK- I'm presuming this is costing well north of 200 quid these days.
Looking at it logically you'd be better off in a slightly more boring diesel Golf and spending the several thousands of pounds saved on hookers and cocaine.
Otherwise it must have saucer sized brake discs!
(Fixed now... )
The price- a joke and not a funny one. In saner markets a GTi very similar to this would cost about 16 grand sterling
The DSG box-good in traffic yes, ultimately this car is meant to be a hot hatch and presumably part of it's remit is to deliver driver enjoyment. The DSG box mitigates against this, you're never fully in control.
As for the price, someone asked if it was my £34k what I would do with it.
Well, firstly, that price includes the listed extras, so the basic price is actually £28,820, and that's only a grand-and-a-bit more than a Megane Renaultsport with Cup chassis and Recaro seat pack.
So yes, it's expensive, but It's kinda what brand new hot hatches cost nowadays that's the issue rather than the specific car, as far as I'm concerned.
Secondly, I would always go with secondhand were it my own money - If I had the budget for a £30k new car on finance (for eg) I would probably rather go for something considerably cheaper and secondhand (Mk1 Focus RSes are occupying a lot of my brain at the moment).
Given the market's perception of VW as a 'premium' brand (not just the enthusiast end of it), the price of hot hatches in general, and the general excellence of the VW, if I were in the market for a brand-new C-segment hot hatch, it would get my most serious attention...
Oh, and it'll cost you £27,560 if you want a three-pedal version...
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