Road test: 2014 Volkswagen Golf GTI

The classic hot-hatch still has the ability to make you feel young, writes Kevin Hackett.

The new Golf GTI may outwardly look a bit bland, but it enjoys a horsepower boost from its previous incarnation and has excellent handling. Courtesy Newspress

Nineteen-year-olds definitely have their own take on what’s cool. My son, who is that age, dismisses my taste in many things – music, films, clothes and almost anything else that I could mention – as deeply uncool. And I can cope with all of that, because I felt the same about my own parents when I was that age – but, when it comes to my choice of car, surely even he would admit that the Volkswagen Scirocco is a cool set of wheels.

Apparently not. And this little nugget comes to light while I’m ferrying him around Dubai in the current Golf GTI (a car that is basically the same as mine, underneath its rather more staid exterior). The four-door Golf is, he reckons, one of the coolest cars on the road right now, and he says that he’d like to own one once he has the funds to buy and insure one. By which time, the actual car we’re in will no doubt be on its hundredth owner, such is the cost of insuring anyone under the age of 85 to drive in the United Kingdom, where he resides.

Ignoring this slight against my own Vee Dub (he’s definitely wrong about this one), I have to say that the Golf GTI is an absolutely brilliant little car – and even though I’ve already driven one a good year or so ago, a reappraisal has been very beneficial. Because, when I was thrashing it around the epic mountain roads of Cannes in the south of France, I couldn’t really tell any difference in its performance from my Scirocco, which is now getting on for four years old. Why, I recall wondering, would anyone see this as a major step ­forward?

It’s entirely evident on these familiar Dubai roads that I was wrong in my earlier dismissal. This actually feels like it has a good 50-or-so additional horsepower over my car – suddenly I’m getting a bit eager to try the new one of those. Because, if the sensible Golf is as strong as this, the much cooler Scirocco – assuming it gets the same motor when it arrives here – will be an absolute riot. I’d best start saving, just in case.

With 220hp, the new GTI is actually more powerful than the outgoing model, which had a still healthy 207hp – but it’s testament to VW’s ability to take an already excellent power unit and gently tweak it, while delivering such a different experience, that’s remarkable. Suddenly my car feels a bit slow – which will never do, obviously. Acceleration is rapid, with 100kph coming up from rest in just 6.5 seconds, the 2.0L four-pot being helped along by forced induction as before, but the power band is far more distinctive, with a linear delivery of 70Nm of extra torque that makes it feel far more punchy than its comparatively humble specification might suggest.

While the French mountain roads that I experienced last time served to highlight the GTI’s excellent handling dynamics, here there’s really no opportunity to hoon it around the twisties. But I can assure you that, given the right road, this thing would give a bona fide supercar sleepless nights – as a point-to-point weapon, it excels at going extremely quickly extremely safely. But despite our lack of S-bends, Dubai Marina’s appalling road surfaces in the tram construction areas do show how well screwed together it is. This car is showing nearly 20,000km on its digital odometer, but it feels as tight and bombproof as a showroom-fresh example.

The exterior looks are a bit bland, there’s no denying that, but it’s still an attractive-looking car, and Golf GTIs do generally serve to attract a more mature buyer than the Focus STs and Astra OPCs of this world. The interior, however, could have done with a more adventurous refresh – the excitement felt when behind its wheel is not reflected in the cabin’s design. The materials used are generally plush, and the infotainment screen offers vivid navigation displays, but the stereotypical Teutonic vibe is getting a bit tiresome.

What could never be accused of being tiresome, however, is the way that this car drives. It reminds us that owning a “sensible” hatchback need not be boring or routine; that motoring can be more than getting from point A to point B. It’s extremely efficient, sturdy in its construction and practically peerless in its engineering. But it’ll seat five adults (just get them to pack lightly, as boot space isn’t all that generous) and give them unending thrills when the roads are right. It’s the kind of car that makes you seek out the curves, even if that means taking a longer route.

It also manages the impossible: it’s a four-door hatchback that a 19-year-old thinks is really cool.

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