Thursday 21st February 2013

Golf GTD announced

'A useful turn of speed for sensible shoes Monday to Friday transport' we say, before ducking for cover

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Now, we’ll tread carefully here because the last time talked about diesel Volkswagens it seemed like the whole of PH was going to explode in a gigantic fit of righteous indignation.

Sensible shoes, GTI-esque looks

Bear with us, though, these things do exist and, ahead of the new Mk7 Golf GTI, Volkswagen has announced that the first of the hot ‘new’ Golfs out of the blocks (that Mk6-based Golf R cabrio doesn’t count) will be the GTD. Indeed, VW is claiming a decent headstart overall in the warm-to-hot diesel hatch, having “introduced European car drivers to an intoxicating blend of practicality, high performance and abstemiousness” 30 years ago now.

The new GTI promises much, a trick active locking differential included, but it seems the GTD is more a spec option than a true GTI-TDI. True, it gets a significant power boost to 184hp and 280lb ft over the current range-topping 2.0 TDI GT with its 150hp and 236lb ft. It’s also usefully more potent than the Mk6 GTD, which had 170hp and 258lb ft. It’s not slow either, 0-62 taking just 7.5 seconds (8.1 in the previous GTD) and topping out at 142mph. As you’d expect, the figures that’ll really interest many are the CO2- and mpg-related ones, which come in at a very impressive 109g/km and 67.3 for a manual three-door as opposed to 139g/km and 53.3mpg on the Mk6.

34hp hike over the 2.0 GT TDI is useful

This being from the posher >120hp end of the new Golf range, the GTD also gets the fancier multi-link rear suspension set-up and a smattering of GTIesque fixtures and fittings including the traditional plaid cloth upholstery, 18-inch Nogaro wheels, smoked rear lights and ‘sports suspension’ among other things.

VW has confirmed a European starting price of 29,350 euros, a 2,500-euro hike over the next most expensive diesel in the range. In the UK that equates to a GT 2.0 TDI, which starts at £22,810 for a three-door manual. Call it £25K by the time you’re done then; a 218hp BMW 125d M Sport that’ll do 0-62 in 6.5 seconds, by comparison, is yours from £27,500. Slower, then, but potentially more attractively priced, the GTD brings a useful turn of speed for sensible shoes Monday to Friday transport. Which you can, with luck, exorcise at the weekend with something noisy and more fun.

[CraigyMc]

It might be the wrong shape, but a 320d is a better comparison for this in terms of CO2, power, speed etc.

[CraigyMc]

Glade said:

Just need 5 doors, <~£30K and a better fun to CO2 ratio than my A4!

Order a 320d EfficientDynamics like all the rest of us...

[CraigyMc]

Limpet said:

CraigyMc said:

Order a 320d EfficientDynamics like all the rest of us...

I did that. Great company car choice, although mine has had more go wrong with it in the year (next week) that I've had it, than our mk4 Golf diesel (now on 130k) has since we bought it in 2008...

Mine's got basically every option available and everything works - the car has had one routine service in 27K miles- zero anything else.
The only fluids it's used are 1l of oil, approximately 50 bazillionty litres of screenwash, and a couple of thousand litres of diesel.

Is yours an E90 or an F30? Mine's the older car, which would have been towards the end of the E90 production run, by which time introduction niggles would have been worked out of the process.

C

[CraigyMc]

Limpet said:

It's an F30. FEM body control module went, intermittent fault with nsf indicator and front suspension issues. Nowhere near as well put together as the E90 I had before. Or as good to drive without the expensive adaptive suspension.
First service coming up due now. 800 miles to go (coming up 19k). Hasn't used a drop of oil, even after an Autobahn dash where it managed a GPS recorded 139 mph, 4 up and fully laden.
Great performance and economy compromise, but it doesn't feel like £28k worth of car. But it costs sod all in BIK so was kind of a default choice from the list available.

I take on board what you're saying about the faults, but I don't agree that it's worse to drive than the E90, having run an E90 for about a year and a half and having test driven an F30.

I just hope the F30 I've ordered doesn't have any faults.

C

[CraigyMc]

Limpet said:

Did the F30 you drove have Adaptive?

No, it was a boggo-spec ED.

C