Volkswagen Golf GTI review

Yes, you get tartan. Let’s get that right out of the way first. As standard, the GTI Mk8’s bolstered seats are resplendent in the traditional plaid of Haus GTI, albeit a fairly monochrome one. Upgrade to the Clubsport and you’ll lose that checked goodness in favour of ‘premium sports seats’.

But you won’t care about the seats (no matter how comfortable they are) if VW hasn’t fixed the problems it introduced with the Mk8 Golf, will you?

Luckily, the early signs are good. The infotainment system boots up much quicker and responds to your inputs at the first time of asking. The larger screen also allows VW to leave shortcuts for the climate control down at the bottom and for access to things like the driver assist menu up top. This makes everyday use much simpler and those upper shortcuts are customisable, although proper buttons would be even better. The steering wheel controls are vastly improved as a result.

Volkswagen is still pushing its ‘all-digital’ approach though and the dial display is still a 10.2-inch screen with GTI-specific graphics. It has also introduced its new IDA voice assistant that it wants you to use as much as possible. It calls on ChatGPT to supposedly allow proper conversations with the driver, but we struggled to get it to select the correct radio station. Oh dear. Plus, it’s probably worth noting that in our test of a non-GTI 8.5 Golf, the central infotainment screen still had issues. In fact, it decided to freeze just as we’d set the air conditioning to its polar vortex setting. How very apt. And cold.

Still, at least the sliders for controlling the temperature are now illuminated. That means (when they’re working) you can at least change the temperature at night.

Tech-wise, there’s standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring, plus a wireless phone charging pad, but like an increasing proportion of new cars there’s only USB-C support, so lots of current devices will need an adaptor cable for charging and data transfer.

And of course, this is a Golf five door, so there’s good oddment storage, decent rear seat room (though, it has to be said, not quite as much as the related Seat Leon or Audi A3). The boot offers 374 litres of stowage in a usefully oblong shape. It’s a Golf after all – it’s supposed to do the boring workaday stuff well.