Mk 8 Golf

[Splashalot]

Well, here it is.....certainly doesn't do much for me  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHOeIfUMgEE

It's going to have to be a significantly better drive than my 7.5GTI to tempt me.  All digital interior alone is enough to stop me from buying one, let alone the pig-dog nose.

[Jim_mk7.5]

Hmmmm 🤔

[Jim_mk7.5]

Hmmmm 🤔

Least the GTI badge is less obvious on this colour.. I’m still undecided on it being central.

[Philip]

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-germancars/new-volkswagen-golf-gti-officially-revealed/41926

Wheels look truly awful and it seems to have overall lost the subtle distinction that has always made the GTI stand out.  The GTD looks better although it could be the wheel / colour combination.

Being in the minority who only want a two or three door car the Mk8 was never going to make my shopping list but I certainly won't be feeling any new model envy when these start to appear on the road.

[mcmaddy]

Red doesn't do anything for it at all and the two other colours actually hid some of the lines. No slider cover in central console, no hydraulic bonnet lift, wheels look awful, if you are a rear passenger you won't be able to see past the big seat tops. You're going to see finger prints and dust all over the front screens and dash and I bet you'll get wind noise from the wing mirrors too. Rear door tops hard plastic. Is it special enough? No, so it's going to have to drive exceptionally well to tempt people to buy one.

[fredgroves]

My thoughts... I think it doesn't look as bad externally as some might have suggested.

The colour is, as always, the key to making it look better - the red GTI doesn't look as good as the grey GTD in these photos.

The GTI wheels look terrible - but I always think the standard GTI ones on the Mk7 look bad anyway. The GTD ones were nicer on the Mk7 and remain so on the Mk8.

The interior... the seats look good actually. The DSG gear knob doesn't impress - a lot of dead space there. I don't like the way the inovision setup looks either and these will be the optional "navpro" version too.

So for a GTI you are looking at swapping the wheels, swapping the paint, paying extra for DSG and if you want the bells and whistles, paying for navpro too.

That might be a dealbreaker for most, especially if the base UK car is 35k to start with.... paint at 500, DSG at 2k, wheels at 1k and "navpro" probably 1.5.... thats 40k. I suspect it will be £39995 in that config.

And that more than anything else is a true worry.

The good news is that the standard GTI has effectively PP brakes and diff though....

[jv]

17's as standard? 

No illuminated VW badge for the UK. Thank fcuk.

[fredgroves]

17's as standard? 

Probably not in the UK. In Germany almost certainly.

I'm not hung up on the actual size though to be honest, as long as there is an option to fill the wheel arches to some degree it makes no difference to me what size that ultimately is - 20, 19, 18 or 17.

The other thing that I am certain is going to grind my gears though would be if on a RHD car they haven't bothered to switch around the buttons on the inovision display. Especially now these are soft buttons, not wired. It annoys me a lot on my current 7.5 NavPro.

[ar899]

Thomas at Autogefuhl has had a look at the GTI;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHOeIfUMgEE

Only watched the first few minutes so far - still don't like that nose. Full width DRLs?! At least the rear spoiler looks better than previous pic I saw.

[Juicetin]

I won't lie, I think it looks awful. Probably the worst wheels i've ever seen, i hate the front end, the badge in the middle looks rubbish and it just doesn't look like a sporty hatch. A darker colour with different wheels may improve it.