It was a preposterous suggestion in the 1970’s – like dividing by zero or wearing white after Labor Day, a practical, economical vehicle that was also fun to drive just didn’t compute. The concepts were mutually exclusive. Yet Anton Konrad of Volkswagen saw an opportunity not to be missed, a market segment yet to be invented. It is essentially thanks to Konrad that attainable sports cars exist today, from the Honda Civic Si to the Ford Fiesta ST, because the very first such car was the 1976 Golf GTI. In the 45 years that have followed, the Golf has reached its 8th generation, and every single one has had a GTI equivalent to set the standard for what an affordable sports car ought to be. Konrad’s radical notion remains so popular to this day that while the regular Golf will no longer be sold in the United States, you’ll still find your local VW dealer’s lot brimming with brand new 2022 GTIs.
Most sports cars fall into one of two, maybe three camps. There’s the classic higher-payments-than-my-mortgage category, where the brand name and performance are enough to drive interest and put each new model onto bedroom posters around the world. Similarly, brand-new sports cars and variants generate plenty of excitement thanks to their newness – the original Dodge Viper is a great example of that. The totally separate camp is that of the legacy sports car, the model that has become as much about its heritage as its current performance, and that is the camp in which you’ll find the GTI. If this perennial Car and Driver’s 10 Best model is on your radar, it’s worth your while to understand a little bit about where the 2022 VW GTI comes from.
Something From Nothing
The oil crisis and subsequent economic slump of the early ’70s had the automotive industry languishing in boring, uninspiring designs. In that atmosphere, VW’s Beetle replacement was the Golf, a lightweight, affordable vehicle with great practicality but a predictably unenthusiastic powertrain. Thus the concept of the Mk1 Golf GTI was simple – take the standard Golf and stuff a 110 hp I4 engine in it, making it faster.
When Konrad’s secretive project finally earned a green light from VW, they predicted a sales run of 5000 units, planning for just enough sales to recoup their development costs and qualify the GTI for racing leagues. But the Golf GTI was an instant hit, and VW sold over 420,000 of them by the time the first generation was over (finally doing away with the Beetle in the process)! In addition to the more powerful engine, the GTI rode on a slightly stiffer suspension and boasted barely better brakes, but it made all the difference in the world to its drivers. Its 8.2-second 0-60 time and top speed of over 110 mph were more than satisfactory to drivers who were still making over 35 mpg while outrunning entry-level Porsches in their featherweight hatchback.
Also key to the package were the cosmetic adjustments, little tweaks that have become icons of the GTI just as BMW’s tri-color striping has for the M-series. While they may not seem like much, the red stripe around the grille, tartan (otherwise known as plaid, to those as fashionable as I) cloth seats, and subtle black accents around the rear window are as much a part of GTI DNA as the sportier engine. Keep those seats in mind if you want to be intentionally traditional with a 2022 model, which offers Clark plaid and leather trim options – although you’ll need to sacrifice heated seats and possibly limit your trim level to get the plaid look.
A Legacy Through the Years
With sales more than 80 times higher than predicted, the formula clearly wasn’t broke, so for 45 years, VW has refused to fix it. The Golf and Golf GTI have continued to evolve in tandem, with their relationship hardly ever changing. Some Mk2 GTIs got a supercharger; the 1998 Mk4 blasphemously dropped the red grille stripe (but was still widely regarded as an iconic and pivotal design). The Mk4 GTI and on have had turbocharged engines, and since the Mk6, the twin tailpipes have been split to the left and right sides of the car. By the Mk7, the Golf GTI had 228 hp, cracked a top speed of over 150 mph, and ran up from 0-60 mph in under 6 seconds.
Every generation has stayed true to the formula of adding a little to achieve a lot. With a great platform in every Golf to date, the economical hatch has never needed a lot of help to become a ton of fun. The visual cues are similarly subtle, but you’ll know it as soon as you hit the road that you’re in no ordinary econo-hatch, whether you’ve found a well-preserved Mk1 model or you’re looking at the brand-new Mk8.
The Latest and Gr8est
It’s a testament to the popularity of the Golf GTI that the US market is getting the Mk8 at all for 2022. The base Golf model has been pulled from our shores as a result of reduced demand. But the starts-at-$28,545 GTI is sticking around, making it one of the cheapest ways to access exciting performance without sacrificing the practicality of rear seats!
The Mk8 is more of a style refresh than a total overhaul, especially from the outside, but you might like what they’ve changed anyways. Look for an optional LED in the grille that highlights the signature red strip, and check out the pop-out rear-view camera hidden behind the VW logo. Available 10-spoke alloy wheels are a pretty nice touch, too, showing the red brake calipers to emphasize the sporty nature of this classic hot hatch.
Changes from the Mk7 are more dramatic on the inside, starting with the wide infotainment touchscreen and fully digital gauge cluster. The redesigned dashboard is home to oodles of touch controls as opposed to buttons and knobs; be sure to try this out on your test drive. Some people will like it, and it’s certainly a sleek, modern feature, but it’s my opinion that the best control is one I can use without looking at it. Sticking with the theme of modern and sleek, the GTI includes ambient interior lighting as well, augmenting the upscale feel of the cockpit.
The automatic gear shifter, should you choose that instead of the standard manual transmission, is no longer a tall stick but is instead a small nub, part of a modern powertrain control system that’s more about buttons than gates. Speaking of which, both transmission options are highly regarded as exceptional performers; the auto is an inexpensive upgrade and pairs with the GTI’s 241 hp turbocharged engine to achieve a 5.1 s 0-60 time, while the standard manual preserves the pure joy of driving that the GTI has always been famous for.
VW would not want you to think that this is a fun first, safety second automobile – it’s just the quicker, nimbler sibling of the prudishly sensible Golf. As such, it includes all the safety and active driver assistance features you would expect from a modern economy car. All models include the Intelligent Crash Response System, which cuts off fuel, unlocks doors, and activates the hazard lights after an accident. A Blind Spot Monitor, Rear Traffic Alert, and Forward Collision Warning with Autonomous Emergency Braking and Pedestrian Monitoring all use advanced imaging techniques to look out in all directions for hazardous situations and also come standard on every 2022 GTI.
Available in the options are Adaptive Cruise Control, High Beam Control, Lane Assist, and Park Assist, protecting you and those around you from bumps, scrapes, and high beam blindness. The importance of features like these depends on the driver – many people appreciate the helping hand that these alerts provide, and they stop short of the potentially intrusive behavior of lane keep assists and other semi-autonomous functions that can easily irritate some drivers. If any of these features are new to you, be sure to try them out on your test drive to see if they’re a good fit for your driving preferences.
Run, Rabbit, Run
The VW Golf has been a constant presence on our roads since it was first introduced in the ’70s (although it was marketed as the “Rabbit” here in America for most of that time). The sporty GTI variant was singularly responsible for inventing the “hot hatch” and for galvanizing an industry that was paralyzed by the oil crisis. The GTI has continued to dominate sales of the VW hatchback line 45 years after its introduction, to the point that it remains available in the US even as the base Golf is pulled from the lots. The 2022 Mk8 VW Golf GTI is a sporty, engaging hatch when you want it to be, but it’s also a totally practical and comfortable daily driver in an accessible price range. Sure it has its quirks, but if you’re somebody who enjoys a good twisty road, it’s worth a test drive to see how it fits for you. Besides, the plaid seats need to be seen to be believed.
