With the dual-clutch transmission, the GTI leaves stoplights quickly, but it doesn’t blast away like a WRX or Mazdaspeed3 can. Eighteen-inch rims and xenon headlights are optional. Standard equipment includes fog lights, a rear hatch spoiler and 17-inch alloy wheels. See, this is the sort of hunkered-down look we always wanted. Volkswagen scaled back the outgoing GTI’s dominant black cladding a great deal it now sits at the bumper’s bottom lip, with an exhaust pipe at each side.
The new GTI is sharp, but conventionally so.Ĭontrast that with the well-done rear. You could spot a Volkswagen sporting that design a block or two away, and that may not be the case anymore. I don’t mind the new look, but it bears mentioning that the grille-meets-bumper theme was distinctive. Taken together with the nose-jobbed 2010 Jetta wagon, this could signal an end to Volkswagen’s half-decade experiment of grafting grilles and air dams into the same visual unit. Red pinstripes run horizontally across the grille, splitting it cleanly from the lower air dam. Slightly wider but identical in length and wheelbase to its predecessor, the sixth-generation GTI has Volkswagen’s most sinister face this side of the resurrected Scirocco hatch - which, sadly, we won’t see here. Last year’s drivetrains remain: a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder with a six-speed manual or six-speed dual-clutch automatic. The kids will prefer a Mazdaspeed3 or Subaru WRX, but the GTI will keep its fans - and were it not for Volkswagen’s dual-clutch gearbox, which our test car had, I’d be among them.Ī performance-oriented compact that’s related to the Golf - formerly the Rabbit - the 2010 GTI comes in two- and four-door versions, which you can compare with the Golf, Rabbit and 2009 GTI here. The GTI looks rakish but not rowdy it prefers balance to sheer power. Redesigned for 2010, this still holds true. Never the fastest or most outlandish-looking car in its class, the Volkswagen GTI has long been the civilized sport compact - like a grunge guitarist with a haircut and a Men’s Wearhouse suit.
To see what’s new for 2011, click here, or check out a side-by-side comparison of the two model years. Little of substance has changed with this year’s model. Editor’s note: This review was written in January 2010 about the 2010 Volkswagen GTI.
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