Golf 8 GTI Review - We finally drive the latest Volkswagen in South Africa (and on track!)

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Hello and welcome to the new golf G T I .

That this is , this is pretty cool .

I'm uh , I'm having a good day .

This is a much anticipated car from Volkswagen .

But before we start this review , remember the cars of COSA has the largest selection of use and new cars online anywhere in South Africa .

If you're looking for a used golf G T I , you'll definitely find one on our site right .

Here we go .

The review .

You've all been waiting for the new Volkswagen Golf G T I .

So let's start with the differences between this and the golf 7.5 G T I .

Well , they've carried over the engine .

It's a two liter four cylinder turbo .

They've cranked up the power from 1 69 kilowatts to 1 80 .

That's an 11 kilowatt .

Different torque is now at 370 Newton meters .

That's not a huge jump from where it was , but interestingly , this car's got pretty heavy .

Yeah , it's now a bit of a porker .

It's been at all the German sausages while it's been in development and it is exactly 100 and 65 K G s heavier than the car .

It replaces 100 and 65 K G S is quite a lot of weight in performance card terms .

So we're almost up at 1.5 tons here now .

And that I think has changed the character of this golf quite a lot , but not necessarily in a bad way .

Let me explain one of the first things that impresses about the new golf is just how solid it feels , the doors close with a satisfying thud and generally the car feels like it was built from one giant piece of German steel rather than being welded together .

It helps make the car feel very premium and very expensive .

But all this extra weight means that the days of a playful golf G T I , the characteristics which made say the golf five G T I so memorable , those characteristics are pretty much gone .

This is not what I would describe necessarily as a chuck car , although it does change direction very well .

You do feel this car's weight .

Perhaps in hearing that if you're a bit of a purist , you might think .

Oh , no V W have absolutely stuffed this up .

They made it too heavy .

It's not a G T I anymore .

It's not true to its roots .

I'm not really bothered by that , to be honest , because the world moves on things progress , you know what people want , changes , what people are looking for .

In a car changes and I think cars have to move with the times .

And then of course below this , you also have the Polo G T I , which is the same size motor , obviously less power , but that's a bit more of a playful car .

And when golf G T I came out originally , Polo G T I didn't really exist .

So the Polo G T I , in my opinion , is now filled that gap , that sort of playfulness gap that the golf G T I has vacated .

But all this being said , there is no doom and gloom here .

There really isn't because this is a massive improvement in terms of dynamics over the outgoing model .

It just feels like a better sorted car .

It feels like the suspension is better sorted , it feels like the front end is better sorted .

There's so much front end bite in this car .

It really fills you with confidence in the corners and I think what golf is so good at doing what Volkswagen are so good at doing with the golf is making a car that works out here on the race track , but also feels great on normal roads .

I've been driving this about 20 Ks to and from the city center every day and it feels fantastic on normal roads and then you get out here and it's brilliant as well .

And that's very difficult and that's a compromise which Volkswagen gets right , probably better than any other manufacturer .

Right .

That's enough commentary and analysis .

Let's take this thing for a proper drive here around Ribon .

But you can't just go and get the most out of the car .

You know , those days are gone and there's modes everywhere .

So I'll take you through them .

You use this tiny little naff gear knob here .

Why can't we just have normal gear knobs ?

I don't know why we're going to this , even Porsches , these silly little things .

Anyway , you put that into sport mode by flicking it down .

Then in the menus over here , you go to vehicle and then you swipe right .

And you've got three E S C modes , you've got fully active , you've got E S C sports and E S C off .

Now , when you engage E S C off , it actually asks you if you're sure and it says we do not recommend doing this , which is quite funny and you have to confirm .

So we don't want E S C off because I'm not Ashley Oldfield .

Then there is a little button down here which says mode and that takes you to your E C U modes and that also controls the adaptive dampers if you've got those fitted .

So then we make sure that is in sport as well , right ?

So 0 to 100 in this car , uh , is claimed at 6.4 seconds , but it actually takes about 15 minutes .

Um Have I got everything ready ?

Am I good That's right .

Yes .

Ok .

All right .

Time to go fast .

Gun control .

Lots of wheels .

That's 65 that's 80 that's 90 100 comes up already .

120 down the main street and Aldo Ribon and 100 and 60 Ks an hour into the breaking zone .

Grab third with these overly small little flappy paddles behind the steering wheel , run it out a little bit wide .

This first corner is quite tricky sort of narrows on you down into the s keep it close to the right hand curve .

The next one comes up on you quite quickly .

You can run it around quite wide here and the way this car is just set up , I just know everything .

I know exactly what the front tires are doing all the time .

There is so much bite .

Look at that , I'm not having to change steering angle in the middle of the corner .

There's just tons of traction from those front wheels .

You'd almost be forgiving for thinking that you are in an all wheel drive car here .

Make sure it's in a straight line .

This corner is quite tricky .

It's got an off camera entry but just get it into third stick it in and hang on .

There's also very little runoff here which scares it out of me here , if I'm honest , but we're good red line it at about 6.5 1000 R PM .

Now we're down to the last corner of the track and let me just make it clear .

I am really in who left that cone there ?

I am really enjoying myself right flat out onto the main circle .

Let's see how far we can get here up .

The main straight 1 , 61 71 81 85 on the brakes .

Fourth gear down to third .

There's not really lift off over steer to speak of .

I mean , I'm sure if you're absolutely a 10 10 , which I'm not , you will start feeling some lift off over steer .

But the steering has a lovely weightiness to it .

I wouldn't say I'm getting tons of feedback through the wheel , but it is very , very nicely weighted .

Brakes are good as well hard on the brakes into this very strange left hander which dips and then goes up the hill at the back of Aldo .

Yeah , this is a proper car .

This , this really is , you can have a lot of fun in this car .

Ah , I enjoyed that thoroughly .

I really did .

It's maybe not as playful as previous G T I s but it's definitely not lost the fun factor .

Allow me to give you a thorough tour of the new interior of the new golf eight G T I , let's start with the key .

So it's the sort of fancy piano black number .

Look at that .

I mean , it looks good , but like all things that are piano black in cars , it gets full of fingerprints , but it does look very , very nice indeed .

There's a new engine start stop button , which is standard across the range , you don't get a normal ignition barrel anymore .

And from when you open the door and get in the car , it pulses red until you start it , it now has a shift by wire system .

So you get this very naff little gear knob .

I really missed proper , you know , proper gear knobs .

That kind of look interesting .

But that's to get you into sport mode , reverse and neutral in front of that wireless charging .

Also standard two type C ports , very important by an adapter because you only get type CS in here .

And then that brings us on to this large infotainment system with the digital instrument biel .

Now , I'll take you through this first .

There are four shortcut keys over here which are very , very useful .

So you can get to your driving modes over there for instance and choose between those your climate is over there , which is nice .

It's just a one touch climate .

You also have heated and cooled seats , which is very , very nice .

There are a couple of keys up here .

So for instance , for volume , you just sort of slide along like that .

I'm DJ .

So this sliding thing is sort of found right across the car .

You've got it on your steering wheel for volume .

You've even got it up here for the panoramic sunroof .

Watch this , there's no button you just slide your finger and you get your roof open .

Feels very cool , very slick , very impressive .

This is very complicated .

But one thing I did want to point out though was that you can change this theme if you don't like this orange vibe and you can change the mood and you can choose between infinity , eternity , desire , euphoria , vitality and some individual options .

Why is it called desire ?

Did they give this to like a fringe porn star to name or something ?

This gets a bit more interesting in front of me here .

It's a fully digital instrument display .

It is standard to the car .

You've got a couple of views to choose from which you toggle with using this view button over here .

So you can get traditional dials , which is quite nice .

You can get your sat nav , you can get your road assistance up in front of you because it's got lane keep assist and front radar and all the rest of it .

Or you can have one big Speedo in the middle .

The fuel gauge is a little strange .

The design is almost too minimal .

I'm not really sure what it's trying to say .

I think of all the things on your instrument binnacle .

Your fuel gauge should be very clear and very , very easy to understand .

But all in all this is a particularly nice interior .

It feels very , very well built .

The steering wheel is brand new .

It's got a lovely shape to it and a lovely feel .

It's even heated as standard heated steering wheel .

That's interesting .

These seats are also standard to the car .

There's sort of this three tone perforated so that it can cool your backside as well .

In fact , there's only actually one derivative of interior trim for the new golf eight G T I .

The only other things you can choose from are upgrading the sound system to Harmon Cardin .

For instance , you can upgrade to the 19 inch wheels that we have on this particular test unit as well .

The driver seat does have memory function and it is electric .

So you got height adjustment and back adjustment , but the passenger seat is manual .

So they have to go through the hardship of adjusting the seat themselves .

You also get a center bin .

Oh my nuts , been looking for these the whole day since we filmed this .

The pricing has been made public and we were pleasantly surprised at 669,300 rand .

It is quite a bit cheaper than I was expecting given the level of spec and the overall quality of the product order books are open .

If you want one , I suggest moving quickly .

But look at it this way .

South Africa is one of the biggest markets for G T I outside of Europe .

We absolutely love our G T I S down here no matter what price point this thing comes in at , it's going to sell Volkswagen is not gonna have a hard time , you know , Volkswagen salesmen just gonna be at Mavericks every night , you know , just making it rain , making it rain there .

Having a good month overall .

As a package , this car really works for me .

It's a great daily .

That , that's what the G T I is .

In fact , G T I stands for great time initiative .

No , I don't know what it's like to be honest .

So all things being considered , I think this package works .

I really like it .

I didn't expect to like the looks .

I didn't think it looked particularly good in pictures or in videos on the internet , but in real life , I was pretty much immediately won over by its looks .

Its proportions are just right .

Those funny headlights actually work really , really nicely .

The front bumper is particularly well designed with those integrated fog lights .

They've done a great job with the exterior design , interior , very , very well made , very nice design inside here on the dashboard .

But ultimately , this car is called a G T I .

It needs to impress dynamically and it does that by not being the most hard core hot hatch , it's not even the most exciting hot hatch to drive .

But the reason it impresses so well dynamically is because it's brilliant out here on the track and it's brilliant on normal roads and that is to be applauded .

Thanks very much for watching .

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It's a good idea for a bunch of reasons which I actually don't have really a lot of time to go into .

But uh it's good .

It's a good idea .

Excellent .

Thanks for watching .

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