German Car Zone

First Test: 2010 Volkswagen GTI

Don't Drive it if You're in a Hurry


As someone who's not a card-carrying Volkswagen-isti (my usual beat is hybrids and other odd-balls, making me sort of the Mother Teresa to the automotive unloved), driving the new, sixth-generation GTI to work the other day was complete revelation. These 'VW people' -- more specifically, Golf-drivers -- are utterly, completely, romp'n stomp'n nutball for their favorite two-box automobile. I had simply no idea.

Driving the GTI home (50 miles) in the stealth of night was predictably uneventful. I drive lots of new cars, and it's not at all unusual for no one to notice. I'm sometimes tempted to roll the window down and yell, "Don't you people care that this is the all-new quad-turbo gazillion-horsepower Flamethrower GT or whatever?" The answer is no, they usually don't much care, and if I did inform them at the top of my lungs, they'd probably 911 the cops. A nut on the freeway yelling things, they'd report. CalTrans would have their electronic freeway billboards flashing "Watch out for a guy yelling at other drivers from a....well, we don't care what kind of car it is either."

Ah, but this new GTI is worth hollering about. Although it employs virtually the same drivetrain as the last-generation GTI -- meaning a 2.0-liter four-cylinder spinning-out 200, direct-injected, turbocharged, and intercooled horsepower (take a breath) -- it's a real eye-opener to be reintroduced to the incongruent notion that a fast car doesn't necessarily mean 0-60-quick. Really. Our 0-60 best, achieved fingering through our test car's DSG transmission gears, was a satisfying 5.8 seconds. But, gads, in our last roundup of such pocket-rocketry, a Subaru WRX planted a staggering 4.8 seconds to 60; a previous-gen Mazdaspeed3 took 5.5 Mississippis. And yet, the GTI strikes you as simply fast. No need to construct convoluted explanations why. It feels just, plain, fast.……

2010 Volkswagen GTI First Test - Motor Trend