2015 Volkswagen Golf GTI Performance - The Dream Lives (Part 2)

Compared to the standard Golf, the GTI’s ride and center of gravity are lowered 0.6 inch. It gets a variable ratio electrically assisted steering rack to increase steering rate as it moves off center, and it will finally be offered in North American with summer tires.

This GTI has more shoulder space for front passengers and a bit more legroom in back. Its seats are lower, and most drivers will see less hood. The interior is still richer than some competitors’, and the switch layout is less busy than many. Compared to today’s GTI, a fine car and solid seller, the new one seems a class above. The 2015 is smoother, quieter and more solid, but refinement crucially does not come at the expense of athleticism.

This GTI has more shoulder space for front passengers and a bit more legroom in back

The 2015 pleases in the tactile sense, in nearly every way. Its clutch operates nice and easy, but it doesn’t feel like air. Its brake pedal is sensitive, but quickly mastered. The dead pedal is perfect. The shifter is a bit softer than we’d like, but not drastically. The gear ratios have changed, likely to improve fuel mileage, but thanks to broader torque peak, acceleration is stronger than ever.

The new GTI feels quicker, absolutely, and while it might be a bit less revvy, I has substantially more torque throughout the rpm range. Thrust presents as a nice kick in the gut off the line with either the manual or the DSG automatic. We’d call it fast, though anyone who remembers the 90-hp Mk 1 will laugh, because they probably thought that was fast, too. Even the mega-buck supercars back then were hard-pressed to match the 2015 GTI’s 0-60 times.

Through the Mk VI, the GTI’s steering wheel was only that – a single-purpose tool for rotating the car

Understeer is well managed in all cases thanks to either the standard electronically managed diff on the true limited-slip, and to sticky tires. In comparison to early GTIs, there is no push in this one.

Nostalgia drives any complaints. Through the Mk VI, the GTI’s steering wheel was only that – a single-purpose tool for rotating the car. The 2015’s wheel is cluttered with cruise buttons and redundant audio switches. Worse, an electric switch replaces the proper handbrake. Those just don’t work as well on dirt roads or snow-covered parking lots.

The 2015 GTI will be built at VW’s assembly plant in Puebla, Mexico, starting in early 2014. Today’s base price, about $24,500, should increase only at the rate of inflation. It will come standard with 18-inch wheels, heated front seats, Bluetooth and a new safety feature called Automatic Post-Collision Braking, which stops secondary impacts in a crash.

The 2015’s wheel is cluttered with cruise buttons and redundant audio switches

Confirmed options include leather, keyless start, power driver’s seat, 400-watt Fender audio, navigation and adaptive, bixenon headlights with LED DRLs. The Performance pack will likely be offered as a single option, perhaps with DSG. We might also get some big-ticket items offered in Europe, such as the driver-alert system.

Three- and five-door configurations and the optional dual-clutch broaden the GTI’s appeal and help make the U.S. VW’s largest GTI market. Sales surpassed 16,000 in 2012, not far below the 20,000 peak, and the car account for 40 percent of Golf deliveries in the States. In these parts, the GTI has become the benchmark for reasonably priced fun with unquestionable function and reasonably low ownership costs.

Three years ago, a 25-year-old wannabe bought his first new car, and it was a GTI. There have been only a handful of happier days. There are 25-year-olds reading now on the Internet, waiting and lusting after the next GTI. They’ll be happy to know the 2015 runs circles around the ’83.

Three and five-door configurations and the optional dual-clutch broaden the GTI’s appeal and help make the U.S. VW’s largest GTI market

They’ll own a GTI and learn and love it, until a child arrives and they swap laterally for space or hit it big and upgrade. But they’ll never forget the GTI. It will remain the guidepost for what is right and wrong in an automobile and make evident a universal truth: No matter how basic or opulent or large or economical or fast, a good car needs purity of spirit rooted in its operation in how it makes you want to drive it – even if you’re just running out for bread.

A new GTI should do that, and the 2015 does. In objective terms, it’s right in there as the continuing class benchmark. In the more important sense, it keeps the dream alive.