Motor Magazine....Did they get it WRONG???

[Mr Messy]

how did you get your car to be chosen?

Matt from Camden GTI works on my car. VW Australia called him to ask if he knew where to find a stock Mk4 GTI. He thought of me right away, and I teed it up from there.

Snowy, after reading the article, it's not really a comparison per-say of the 2 cars, it's more along the lines of seeing how the model has evolved or in the case of the wrx, de-evolved (or whatever the opposite of evolved is!) over the past decade and if it has been a favourable change. Basically, they shed it in a favourable light for all it's good points (build quality, fit and finish, creature comforts etc) but they just said that it's comfort-biased approach isn't what they wanted out of a GTi.

Very wise words. A head-to-head comparison between the cars would be fruitless, but this did show how much more effort VW put into making the GTI special anymore. Recaros, mags and a turbo don't cut it anymore.

[Manaz]

Not sure how they justify comparing a 10 year old car who's original focus was on introducing increased creature comforts with a zippy turbo motor to the small car market to a brand new more performance focused release.

The GTI name had a heritage though, and I think it's fair to say that VW probably chose badly when they took that tact with the car and still called it the GTI.

One thing nobody seems to comment on though is the performance potential of a modified M4 GTI. As several people here know, they respond VERY well to relatively minor changes (ECU flashing, etc). The factory GTI may not have been perfectly moulded to the heritage of its name, but a modified one sure seems to be!

[Manaz]

Snowy, after reading the article, it's not really a comparison per-say of the 2 cars, it's more along the lines of seeing how the model has evolved or in the case of the wrx, de-evolved (or whatever the opposite of evolved is!) over the past decade and if it has been a favourable change. Basically, they shed it in a favourable light for all it's good points (build quality, fit and finish, creature comforts etc) but they just said that it's comfort-biased approach isn't what they wanted out of a GTi.

Funnily enough, the WRX has done exactly what the Mk4 GTI did - become a more balanced all-round car than a focused sports hatch...

[gavs]

Funnily enough, the WRX has done exactly what the Mk4 GTI did - become a more balanced all-round car than a focused sports hatch...

Very true Manaz, but unlike Volkswagen, Subaru manged to make it the ugliest iteration of the car ever. Volkswagen on the other hand, made possibly the most classic, organic and pleasing shape of all the golf varients with the Mk4 body when they went for the softer approach...

[YellowDieselGolf]

Back when the MK4 was first released, there were few direct competitors to the GTI. No ford XR4 or XR5, HSV astra, no sporty little BMW's. The only real options were WRX's and maybe a Renault Sport Clio or Mini Cooper S and they're different cars.

I think in that light, the GTI looks a little less stupid.

[Treza360]

Back when the MK4 was first released, there were few direct competitors to the GTI. No ford XR4 or XR5, HSV astra, no sporty little BMW's. The only real options were WRX's and maybe a Renault Sport Clio or Mini Cooper S and they're different cars.
I think in that light, the GTI looks a little less stupid.

Well said.

The Clio didn't come out until 2001, the mini 2002. The only other hot European hatches around at that time that I can think of are the Peugeot 306 GTI and the 206 GTI that replaced it in 1999. Either that or you had to spend a lot more money on an S3.
Otherwise you had to look at a SSS Pulsar or VTI-R Civic and look at the condition they're in these days compared to a MkIV.

What needs to be remembered was that the popularity of the hot hatch had gone down, whether due to the fact that no one was making a good one anymore or just for the simple fact that people wanted other cars.

As has been seen anyway spending a few dollars provided much more fun anyway.

Cheers,
Trent