I never understood the VW Golf GTi until now... _ 4K
**A Deep Dive into the Volkswagen Golf GTI: A Test Drive Review**
### Introduction: A Confession from a petrol head
In this video, the host, who identifies as a petrol head, makes an intriguing confession: despite being a lifelong enthusiast of high-performance vehicles, he has never had the opportunity to drive a stock Volkswagen Golf GTI. While he has driven modified versions of earlier Mark 1 models and even the more powerful Golf R, the base-spec Golf GTI has eluded him. This video serves as his overdue introduction to the iconic car that started the hot hatchback genre.
The host explains that his skepticism towards the Golf GTI stems from its understated nature. Unlike other cars he has driven, such as his beloved Mini or Audi models, the Golf GTI lacks the character and quirkiness he craves. However, he acknowledges the car's historical significance and the respect it commands in the automotive world.
### The Car: A Mark 8 Golf GTI
The host has been testing a Mark 8 Golf GTI for the past week, and the car is about to be returned tomorrow. He has covered significant mileage in it, allowing him to form a well-rounded opinion. The car is described as "a bit dirty" due to his recent drives on muddy roads, which adds a practical touch to the review.
The Mark 8 Golf GTI is noted for its understated and elegant styling, particularly in red. While the host admits he prefers darker colors like gray or blue-green, he concedes that the car's rear end and overall design are growing on him. The car's practicality is also highlighted, with a spacious boot and enough room in the backseat to accommodate three adults.
### Under the Hood: Powertrain and Performance
The Golf GTI features a transversely mounted 4-cylinder 2L turbocharged engine producing 245 PS (approximately 240 horsepower) and 375 Nm of torque. While these figures are less impressive compared to other high-performance cars like his modified Mini, the host acknowledges that this car is not about raw power but rather about balance and driveability.
The engine's output is transmitted to the front wheels via a twin-clutch automatic semi-automatic gearbox. The car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds, with a top speed of 155 mph. Despite his preference for manual transmissions, the host admits that this automatic version is "a good car as an auto," though he still longs for the feel of a proper lever.
### Interior: A Love-Hate Relationship
The interior of the Golf GTI is where the host finds himself conflicted. While he praises the supportive and comfortable seats with their GTI logo embroidery, he criticizes the infotainment system and control layout. The steering wheel, equipped with haptic buttons for cruise control and infotainment, feels clunky and poorly designed. He compares it unfavorably to the 8.5 model he saw in Germany, which had a much improved interface.
The host also expresses his desire for a manual transmission, likening the automatic's paddle shifters to those found in Audi and Porsche models. He finds them lacking in character and functionality compared to a traditional stick shift.
### Driving Experience: A Journey to Bristol
To put the Golf GTI through its paces, the host embarks on a drive to Bristol. The route includes a mix of twisty B-roads and dual carriageways, providing a diverse testing ground for the car's handling and performance.
On the winding roads, the host is impressed by the car's agility and nimble handling. Despite the challenging weather conditions—rain, standing water, and poor visibility—the Golf GTI proves remarkably stable and fun to drive. The car's balance of power, size, and front-wheel drive allows it to handle understeer gracefully, earning the host's respect for its driving dynamics.
On the dual carriageways, the car's adaptive cruise control and stability in adverse weather conditions shine through. The host notes that while the Golf GTI may not be the most thrilling on paper, it is a reliable and enjoyable daily driver.
### Reflections: A Change of Heart
As the host spends more time with the Golf GTI, his initial skepticism begins to fade. He realizes that the car's true value lies in its driving experience rather than its specifications or styling. The Golf GTI, he concludes, is a "grin generator" that delivers consistent joy on the road.
The host reflects on the significance of the Golf GTI as the progenitor of the hot hatchback genre. While modern iterations are bigger and more tech-savvy, they retain the essence of their predecessors. The Mark 8 model, in particular, strikes a balance between practicality and performance, making it a well-rounded choice for both enthusiasts and everyday drivers.
### Future Plans: More Golf Content Ahead
The host hints at an exciting event planned for later in the year with Volkswagen to celebrate the golf's 50th anniversary. He will be driving various models of the Golf, culminating in a road trip back to Wolfsburg, Germany. This experience is expected to deepen his appreciation for the car and its legacy.
For now, the host concludes that this video has been an opportunity to fully immerse himself in the Golf GTI's character and capabilities. His evolving opinion of the car underscores the importance of experiencing it behind the wheel rather than judging it solely on numbers or aesthetics.
### Final Thoughts: Engage with the Content
The host invites viewers to share their thoughts on the Golf GTI, asking if they have owned one and which model was their favorite. He also encourages subscriptions for more upcoming content, promising further exploration of the Golf's rich history and evolution.
As he approaches his destination in Bristol, the host remains focused on the road ahead, thankful for the opportunity to drive a car that has left an indelible mark on automotive history.
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This article captures the essence of the video transcription, providing a detailed and engaging account of the host's experience with the Volkswagen Golf GTI. It highlights the car's strengths and weaknesses, offering readers a comprehensive understanding of its appeal as both a performance vehicle and a daily driver.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys and welcome to petrol ped now I have a confession to make and as a pure blooded petrol head it's um it's not a great one really I've never driven a Golf GTI now my opening statement to this video isn't entirely accurate if you follow the channel for a while you may well remember that I have driven a Mark 1 Golf GTI but it was a modified one it had had an engine swap it had an interior swap so although it was a brilliant car I don't kind of accept that as a Golf GTI cuz it wasn't stock and I have driven a Golf R which is the four-wheel drive even hotter version of the golf but the Bas speec Golf GTI is a car that has eluded me I've been a passenger in one many times I've had friends that have had them and raved about them but here's the thing they've never really floated my boat I can admire them they were the car that started the hot hatch um genre arguably and I don't think anybody canot give a huge amount of admiration to golf um GTI and the things that they did for us boy races that's for sure they've got bigger and fatter and heavier as the years have gone by and this eighth generation well it's a great car and I wanted to spend some time with it it is not the latest refresh the 8.5 hopefully I will be driving that a bit later this year but my thinking behind this video was twofold one it was a little bit like my recent scoda Superb video that wasn't the very latest car to Market but I thought it was quite an interesting time to drive it and think about it as a potential great time to buy one and maybe that's the same here for the Mark 8 Golf GTI but also I'm going to be doing a really cool event a bit later on in the year with VW so I'm sure I'm going to get to drive lots and lots of Golf GTI I might tell you a little bit more about that later on in the film I'm not quite sure what it is about the Golf GTI that's never really ticked boxes for me I always think they're they're very understated car but I think that's its problem it it didn't really for my tastes have the character and the quirkiness that I would want in a car I'm a mini guy and if you look at a mini interior or the Audi's I've had in the past they've always had just something a little bit more special about the interior these are just very very good at what they do but they don't really inspire me so let's talk a little bit more about this um Mark 8 Golf GTI that I've had I've had it for the last week it actually goes back tomorrow morning I've done quite a lot of miles in the car and I've got my head around it in a big way so later on in the video we we're going to be driving it to Bristol actually um and that's why it's a little bit dirty because I haven't had time to wash it so let's have a bit of a chat about the Golf GTI the other thing that's really scary about Golf GTI and this badge is it's 50 years old this year why is it everything seems to be 50 but I think the latest gen of golf the front end styling is really understated and elegant and and I can see why that appeals to many people it's not loud and shouty it's no Civic type half for example um under the Bonnet is a transversely mounted 4 cylinder 2 L turbocharge engine now here's one of my issues it's 245 PS so around about 240 horsepower and 375 Newt M of torque well that's less power and torque than my mini allbe it my mini is stage two modified so it's not a huge amount of grunt that all goes through the front wheels uh and this particular car has a twin clutch Auto semi-auto gearbox uh not to 60 times 6.2 seconds limited to 155 mph so if you are looking at numbers pure outright performance this car doesn't really excite me a great deal I think we've kind of fallen into this trap of chasing big numbers but maybe that's my problem maybe I'm missing the point and I think we need to talk about that when we're driving the car because I'm definitely missing the point this car is not about outright numbers the rear end is nice and clean and unfussy as well and the looks of the car are growing on me I'm not a big red car fan if I'm honest uh I prefer it in I don't know a kind of darker gray color maybe blue green I just don't like red cars but I do like the the rear styling and then you've got this practicality as well as performance it's got a decent Siz boot underneath here it has a space saver wheel yes we need one of them at the moment the state of British roads having just had uh a puncture in my Hy group long termer but you've got this level of practicality there's enough room in the back for a couple of adults probably three at a squeeze yet you can take it to a B- Road and have a huge amount of fun so external Styling Big tick um performance we'll talk about that in a moment there is however for me one big issue with this car the big issue with this car for me personally is inside the interior I've got a couple of issues here first off nothing wrong with the seat I think the seats especially in this trim look amazing and they are super comfortable and very very supportive and I love the kind of GTI uh logo embroidered into them I just think they look fantastic and this kind of Heritage look big thumbs up for the seats steering wheel steering wheel in terms of feel is nice my problem starts inside on the spokes you've got these hap dick controls for cruise control and then for things on the um infotainment system you got a touch screen here and then it starts to go wrong for me the climate control buttons they're all smooth hap dicks you got some another little pad of buttons over there and it's just not a great user experience at all now one of the things I said at the beginning was this is an an eight and then they've now got the 8.5 I saw the 8.5 in Germany last year um before the Embargo lifted when I was out there with Tiguan and the new Pat and the new infotainment system and there's a lot more buttons and it's it's night and day better and I think that that was hugely needed and I think even VW knew that that was the case the infotainment system isn't great the the if you like the the ergonomics the man machine interface the way I control things isn't great the just no there's no special feel when you're touching buttons it's just I just don't like it and then the final thing is um ideally I would like this to be a manual I think the the characteristics of this car the way the engine works with the drivetrain the way you can Chuck it into Corners I'd like to have three pedals and I'd like to swap cogs manually I've got a sspeed DCT and I'm really not a fan of the changer here it just you know if you I've said this in other videos it's very similar to the changer that Audi uses very not that dissimilar to the change you'll get in um uh in some Porsche 911s I'd like a proper proper lever I don't understand these little buttons I don't like it at all so you know a nice a nice L there ideally um a manual and I know I'm testing an auto but that's fine but but I think just the longer I spent in this car I very quickly realized that it it's a good car as an auto but I'd like it to be manual you've got a a little Wireless charge mat down here which is quite quite nice and then you've got there's quite a nice configurator here just for your um for drinks holders that will support different sizes of drinks holders which is which is quite quite smart um so um the next thing bit earlier on in the week I needed to go down to Bristol because a good friend of mine was collecting a new car I think that video is probably gone on the channel by now so make sure you picked up a very very nice 911 D car um and I thought it' be a really great backdrop to spend some time in this car because the route that I took um had a mix of B- roads where I could chuck the car about I had plenty of dual carriageway uh the road uh conditions and weather weren't great on the way there um so it was a really good test of the car so let's bring back a couple of days jump into the driver's seat and go for a drive to Bristol um and maybe just I I'll expand a little bit more about my thoughts on the interior and on the Driving Experience of this Golf GTI so I thought for the driving part of this review I would go on a bit of a journey so I needed to go to Bristol because my mate's picking up an epic car today and I thought I'd take the golf and I also thought I'd try and go the back road so maybe not too much Motorway and too much dual carriageway I wanted to try and find some twisties CU after all for me that's what a Golf GTI is all about is that back road twisty driving engagement kind of Road and as I mentioned already I haven't really spent a great deal of time in golf driven Golf R driven a modified golf but never really done a long journey in one so I thought it would be it would be interesting um I've paired my phone up to the um car using Apple carplay I'm I'm actually using a c cable but it can be done wirelessly as well I'm just using a cable to stop the phone overheating if I'm honest um because yeah the the onboard infotainment system isn't the best and these haptic buttons on the steering wheel aren't the best but when you get to a nice bit of twisty Road that's much more like it now I'm in sport mode and I've got the gearbox changing gear is for itself but also in sport mode and it does a really good job of on the brakes coming into a corner I'm in third there just it's just going to hold third gear for me come into this one if it's a tight right-hander down into second for me didn't change there did it itself and then on the way out the the really nice thing about the car is on paper you would look at it and I've certainly done it in the past as we've been in a world that's basically been on this epic search for as much horsepower as possible you could be forgiven for looking at a Golf GTI buy Postman Pat slowing me down look you'd be guilty looking at uh Golf GTI and looking at the horsepower number thinking that's not that's not that impressive there's not that many ponies under the Bonnet but what's really interesting when you get on a piece of road like that and the weather conditions are as appalling as they are today lots of standing water very low grip surface there's there's enough power for you to have fun but it doesn't overwhelm the front axle of the car you yeah don't get me wrong you'll get under steer if you drive if you if you're on the throttle too early or you've got too much steering lock on when you do apply the throttle but it it just has the ability to just deal with the power it's a perfect balance of power size weight and front-wheel drive and I now start to realize what the fuss is about with this Golf GTI cuz they're really really good a this car it's a real grin generator what I love about it it it's a bit like things like Hyundai i20 NS it's it's that hot hatch Oh my days look at that wow I knew it was a bit the weather was a bit inclement today was tree down people tree down big hole in the side of the road there as well mhm need to be careful of that one wowers this isn't good really not good see how close I can get to that without oh dear yeah oh my Cas anyway where was say oh that's right be careful when you're driving in the winter in the UK people cuz you get trees down but no you can you can have so much fun in this car down a bit of twisty Road without going a million miles an hour it's just so agile and so Nimble and and what I love about it is it it's got this kind of really cheeky character it's very mini likee um you know me I'm a big mini guy what I would say is the ride is pretty firm if you're in the sports setting it's a very very kind of firm ride and I'm sure that will probably be too much for some I've now put it into an individual mode and just backed that off a little bit and and I'm still in sport change I haven't tried the paddles yet but there's still plenty of time to do that all the Fun's gone for a bit onto the um dual carriageway so I'm going to basically knock it out of sport mode uh back into normal drive and then I'm just going to put the um the cruise control on 7 see it's got adaptive cruise control got a car in front yeah so that now should be the Golf GTI being able to do a long cruise just doing the keeping the Gap in front I could just shorten the Gap to the car in front a little bit if I want to yeah off we go so now it's boring now what have got 87 miles to just chill and I think that's where that's where a car like this really comes into its own it's a huge amount of fun on a tight and twisty Road and I'm sure you could have a huge amount of fun on a circuit but this this is a daily car the amount of cars we get into now go oh you know could I daily this super car well this is a daily car this is the kind of car someone buys and runs all day every day as their are and long Journeys long cruises is part of its necessary toolkit and that's why I thought this journey uh would be quite interesting because it is a really nice mix of tight twisties like we've had uh long stretches of dual carriageway loads of potholes still on the Dual carriageway and the just the weather is is terrible for reviewing cars in one respect I can't put cameras on the outside of the car it's just minging but also it's perfect really because if a car behaves well in these terrible types of conditions then when it's bright and sunny and warm and dry you're going to have an absolute riot these conditions on the motorway for me are the scariest the apart from dusk and fog I absolutely hate the standing water that we've got here there's so much of it but this car is just so stable it really really is it's um it's it's a a lovely car to be um in even though the weather conditions are so disgusting but it's a really interesting week for me in this car the Golf GTI when the mark one Golf GTI was born the idea of taking a hatchback and and then just you know tuning the engine and putting it a little bit more performance and you better handling better brakes and turning it into a sporty car was an alien concept back then and it spawned an entire genre of car the hot hatch and when you when you drive a hot hatch I've always thought they're just fantastic things they always put a smile on your face but this arguably is the daddy of them all and this Mark 8 has come a long way since the Mark 1 clearly it's bigger and fatter and has more Tech on it and more comfort and is a nicer place to be arguably but you can still feel its jeans you can still feel where it's come from now later on in the summer um I am hoping to be doing a really cool event with golf because the golf is 50 years old this year and you might well be thinking why have I got the Mark 8 Golf GTI and not the latest 8.5 well simple answer to that is the 8.5 isn't on press Fleet yet and it's a bit like when I had the scoda superb recently you know arguably now is a great time to buy a marquet golf if you can put up with the entertainment system but the trip that we've got planned for VW in the summer we're basically taking one of each Mark of golf on a bit of a road trip we're going to take them back home to Wolfsburg so stay tuned to the channel for that but I thought this video was a great opportunity for me to just really get into the into the golf thing under its skin to finally get to drive one to finally really get my head around what they are and honestly I've changed my opinion of them I was never the biggest fan for a number of reasons I always thought the Interiors were a little bit Bland a little bit La luster and and I thought that the cars generally just lacked character aesthetically but I was so wrong because you need to drive these cars to really get your head around them don't look at the numbers and the the statistics even you don't look at the The Styling so much you need to drive them they are a superb all round car and hopefully this year I'll be spending much more time in the golf and turning into a bit more of a golf FY anyway I'm only 20 mi away from my destination so I'm going to leave you there I'm going to concentrate on my driving because uh the weather's horrible uh and I'll see you on the next film put in the comments below what your thoughts are of the Golf GTI have you owned one if you have which Mark did you have which is your favorite but lots more golf content to come later this year but for now I hope you enjoyed that if you did give me a thumbs up comments below are always welcome and if you haven't done this already please subscribe to petrin for plenty more content to come and I'll see you on the next film guys you take care drive safe hehey guys and welcome to petrol ped now I have a confession to make and as a pure blooded petrol head it's um it's not a great one really I've never driven a Golf GTI now my opening statement to this video isn't entirely accurate if you follow the channel for a while you may well remember that I have driven a Mark 1 Golf GTI but it was a modified one it had had an engine swap it had an interior swap so although it was a brilliant car I don't kind of accept that as a Golf GTI cuz it wasn't stock and I have driven a Golf R which is the four-wheel drive even hotter version of the golf but the Bas speec Golf GTI is a car that has eluded me I've been a passenger in one many times I've had friends that have had them and raved about them but here's the thing they've never really floated my boat I can admire them they were the car that started the hot hatch um genre arguably and I don't think anybody canot give a huge amount of admiration to golf um GTI and the things that they did for us boy races that's for sure they've got bigger and fatter and heavier as the years have gone by and this eighth generation well it's a great car and I wanted to spend some time with it it is not the latest refresh the 8.5 hopefully I will be driving that a bit later this year but my thinking behind this video was twofold one it was a little bit like my recent scoda Superb video that wasn't the very latest car to Market but I thought it was quite an interesting time to drive it and think about it as a potential great time to buy one and maybe that's the same here for the Mark 8 Golf GTI but also I'm going to be doing a really cool event a bit later on in the year with VW so I'm sure I'm going to get to drive lots and lots of Golf GTI I might tell you a little bit more about that later on in the film I'm not quite sure what it is about the Golf GTI that's never really ticked boxes for me I always think they're they're very understated car but I think that's its problem it it didn't really for my tastes have the character and the quirkiness that I would want in a car I'm a mini guy and if you look at a mini interior or the Audi's I've had in the past they've always had just something a little bit more special about the interior these are just very very good at what they do but they don't really inspire me so let's talk a little bit more about this um Mark 8 Golf GTI that I've had I've had it for the last week it actually goes back tomorrow morning I've done quite a lot of miles in the car and I've got my head around it in a big way so later on in the video we we're going to be driving it to Bristol actually um and that's why it's a little bit dirty because I haven't had time to wash it so let's have a bit of a chat about the Golf GTI the other thing that's really scary about Golf GTI and this badge is it's 50 years old this year why is it everything seems to be 50 but I think the latest gen of golf the front end styling is really understated and elegant and and I can see why that appeals to many people it's not loud and shouty it's no Civic type half for example um under the Bonnet is a transversely mounted 4 cylinder 2 L turbocharge engine now here's one of my issues it's 245 PS so around about 240 horsepower and 375 Newt M of torque well that's less power and torque than my mini allbe it my mini is stage two modified so it's not a huge amount of grunt that all goes through the front wheels uh and this particular car has a twin clutch Auto semi-auto gearbox uh not to 60 times 6.2 seconds limited to 155 mph so if you are looking at numbers pure outright performance this car doesn't really excite me a great deal I think we've kind of fallen into this trap of chasing big numbers but maybe that's my problem maybe I'm missing the point and I think we need to talk about that when we're driving the car because I'm definitely missing the point this car is not about outright numbers the rear end is nice and clean and unfussy as well and the looks of the car are growing on me I'm not a big red car fan if I'm honest uh I prefer it in I don't know a kind of darker gray color maybe blue green I just don't like red cars but I do like the the rear styling and then you've got this practicality as well as performance it's got a decent Siz boot underneath here it has a space saver wheel yes we need one of them at the moment the state of British roads having just had uh a puncture in my Hy group long termer but you've got this level of practicality there's enough room in the back for a couple of adults probably three at a squeeze yet you can take it to a B- Road and have a huge amount of fun so external Styling Big tick um performance we'll talk about that in a moment there is however for me one big issue with this car the big issue with this car for me personally is inside the interior I've got a couple of issues here first off nothing wrong with the seat I think the seats especially in this trim look amazing and they are super comfortable and very very supportive and I love the kind of GTI uh logo embroidered into them I just think they look fantastic and this kind of Heritage look big thumbs up for the seats steering wheel steering wheel in terms of feel is nice my problem starts inside on the spokes you've got these hap dick controls for cruise control and then for things on the um infotainment system you got a touch screen here and then it starts to go wrong for me the climate control buttons they're all smooth hap dicks you got some another little pad of buttons over there and it's just not a great user experience at all now one of the things I said at the beginning was this is an an eight and then they've now got the 8.5 I saw the 8.5 in Germany last year um before the Embargo lifted when I was out there with Tiguan and the new Pat and the new infotainment system and there's a lot more buttons and it's it's night and day better and I think that that was hugely needed and I think even VW knew that that was the case the infotainment system isn't great the the if you like the the ergonomics the man machine interface the way I control things isn't great the just no there's no special feel when you're touching buttons it's just I just don't like it and then the final thing is um ideally I would like this to be a manual I think the the characteristics of this car the way the engine works with the drivetrain the way you can Chuck it into Corners I'd like to have three pedals and I'd like to swap cogs manually I've got a sspeed DCT and I'm really not a fan of the changer here it just you know if you I've said this in other videos it's very similar to the changer that Audi uses very not that dissimilar to the change you'll get in um uh in some Porsche 911s I'd like a proper proper lever I don't understand these little buttons I don't like it at all so you know a nice a nice L there ideally um a manual and I know I'm testing an auto but that's fine but but I think just the longer I spent in this car I very quickly realized that it it's a good car as an auto but I'd like it to be manual you've got a a little Wireless charge mat down here which is quite quite nice and then you've got there's quite a nice configurator here just for your um for drinks holders that will support different sizes of drinks holders which is which is quite quite smart um so um the next thing bit earlier on in the week I needed to go down to Bristol because a good friend of mine was collecting a new car I think that video is probably gone on the channel by now so make sure you picked up a very very nice 911 D car um and I thought it' be a really great backdrop to spend some time in this car because the route that I took um had a mix of B- roads where I could chuck the car about I had plenty of dual carriageway uh the road uh conditions and weather weren't great on the way there um so it was a really good test of the car so let's bring back a couple of days jump into the driver's seat and go for a drive to Bristol um and maybe just I I'll expand a little bit more about my thoughts on the interior and on the Driving Experience of this Golf GTI so I thought for the driving part of this review I would go on a bit of a journey so I needed to go to Bristol because my mate's picking up an epic car today and I thought I'd take the golf and I also thought I'd try and go the back road so maybe not too much Motorway and too much dual carriageway I wanted to try and find some twisties CU after all for me that's what a Golf GTI is all about is that back road twisty driving engagement kind of Road and as I mentioned already I haven't really spent a great deal of time in golf driven Golf R driven a modified golf but never really done a long journey in one so I thought it would be it would be interesting um I've paired my phone up to the um car using Apple carplay I'm I'm actually using a c cable but it can be done wirelessly as well I'm just using a cable to stop the phone overheating if I'm honest um because yeah the the onboard infotainment system isn't the best and these haptic buttons on the steering wheel aren't the best but when you get to a nice bit of twisty Road that's much more like it now I'm in sport mode and I've got the gearbox changing gear is for itself but also in sport mode and it does a really good job of on the brakes coming into a corner I'm in third there just it's just going to hold third gear for me come into this one if it's a tight right-hander down into second for me didn't change there did it itself and then on the way out the the really nice thing about the car is on paper you would look at it and I've certainly done it in the past as we've been in a world that's basically been on this epic search for as much horsepower as possible you could be forgiven for looking at a Golf GTI buy Postman Pat slowing me down look you'd be guilty looking at uh Golf GTI and looking at the horsepower number thinking that's not that's not that impressive there's not that many ponies under the Bonnet but what's really interesting when you get on a piece of road like that and the weather conditions are as appalling as they are today lots of standing water very low grip surface there's there's enough power for you to have fun but it doesn't overwhelm the front axle of the car you yeah don't get me wrong you'll get under steer if you drive if you if you're on the throttle too early or you've got too much steering lock on when you do apply the throttle but it it just has the ability to just deal with the power it's a perfect balance of power size weight and front-wheel drive and I now start to realize what the fuss is about with this Golf GTI cuz they're really really good a this car it's a real grin generator what I love about it it it's a bit like things like Hyundai i20 NS it's it's that hot hatch Oh my days look at that wow I knew it was a bit the weather was a bit inclement today was tree down people tree down big hole in the side of the road there as well mhm need to be careful of that one wowers this isn't good really not good see how close I can get to that without oh dear yeah oh my Cas anyway where was say oh that's right be careful when you're driving in the winter in the UK people cuz you get trees down but no you can you can have so much fun in this car down a bit of twisty Road without going a million miles an hour it's just so agile and so Nimble and and what I love about it is it it's got this kind of really cheeky character it's very mini likee um you know me I'm a big mini guy what I would say is the ride is pretty firm if you're in the sports setting it's a very very kind of firm ride and I'm sure that will probably be too much for some I've now put it into an individual mode and just backed that off a little bit and and I'm still in sport change I haven't tried the paddles yet but there's still plenty of time to do that all the Fun's gone for a bit onto the um dual carriageway so I'm going to basically knock it out of sport mode uh back into normal drive and then I'm just going to put the um the cruise control on 7 see it's got adaptive cruise control got a car in front yeah so that now should be the Golf GTI being able to do a long cruise just doing the keeping the Gap in front I could just shorten the Gap to the car in front a little bit if I want to yeah off we go so now it's boring now what have got 87 miles to just chill and I think that's where that's where a car like this really comes into its own it's a huge amount of fun on a tight and twisty Road and I'm sure you could have a huge amount of fun on a circuit but this this is a daily car the amount of cars we get into now go oh you know could I daily this super car well this is a daily car this is the kind of car someone buys and runs all day every day as their are and long Journeys long cruises is part of its necessary toolkit and that's why I thought this journey uh would be quite interesting because it is a really nice mix of tight twisties like we've had uh long stretches of dual carriageway loads of potholes still on the Dual carriageway and the just the weather is is terrible for reviewing cars in one respect I can't put cameras on the outside of the car it's just minging but also it's perfect really because if a car behaves well in these terrible types of conditions then when it's bright and sunny and warm and dry you're going to have an absolute riot these conditions on the motorway for me are the scariest the apart from dusk and fog I absolutely hate the standing water that we've got here there's so much of it but this car is just so stable it really really is it's um it's it's a a lovely car to be um in even though the weather conditions are so disgusting but it's a really interesting week for me in this car the Golf GTI when the mark one Golf GTI was born the idea of taking a hatchback and and then just you know tuning the engine and putting it a little bit more performance and you better handling better brakes and turning it into a sporty car was an alien concept back then and it spawned an entire genre of car the hot hatch and when you when you drive a hot hatch I've always thought they're just fantastic things they always put a smile on your face but this arguably is the daddy of them all and this Mark 8 has come a long way since the Mark 1 clearly it's bigger and fatter and has more Tech on it and more comfort and is a nicer place to be arguably but you can still feel its jeans you can still feel where it's come from now later on in the summer um I am hoping to be doing a really cool event with golf because the golf is 50 years old this year and you might well be thinking why have I got the Mark 8 Golf GTI and not the latest 8.5 well simple answer to that is the 8.5 isn't on press Fleet yet and it's a bit like when I had the scoda superb recently you know arguably now is a great time to buy a marquet golf if you can put up with the entertainment system but the trip that we've got planned for VW in the summer we're basically taking one of each Mark of golf on a bit of a road trip we're going to take them back home to Wolfsburg so stay tuned to the channel for that but I thought this video was a great opportunity for me to just really get into the into the golf thing under its skin to finally get to drive one to finally really get my head around what they are and honestly I've changed my opinion of them I was never the biggest fan for a number of reasons I always thought the Interiors were a little bit Bland a little bit La luster and and I thought that the cars generally just lacked character aesthetically but I was so wrong because you need to drive these cars to really get your head around them don't look at the numbers and the the statistics even you don't look at the The Styling so much you need to drive them they are a superb all round car and hopefully this year I'll be spending much more time in the golf and turning into a bit more of a golf FY anyway I'm only 20 mi away from my destination so I'm going to leave you there I'm going to concentrate on my driving because uh the weather's horrible uh and I'll see you on the next film put in the comments below what your thoughts are of the Golf GTI have you owned one if you have which Mark did you have which is your favorite but lots more golf content to come later this year but for now I hope you enjoyed that if you did give me a thumbs up comments below are always welcome and if you haven't done this already please subscribe to petrin for plenty more content to come and I'll see you on the next film guys you take care drive safe he\n"