I just think even as a died in the wool VW Golf user, that the MK8 GTI is going to be a harder sell than ever. VW for many years had this area to themselves and even when never upstarts came along, they relied on the heritage and "all the car you will ever need" bias.
Trouble is today, the GTI (and the R) have serious rivals sporting not only more power, but don't have the full buttonless interface (which let's face it, nearly every reviewer has criticised heavily). At it's new launch price of nearly £35k (DSG model) that brings it mightily close to offering from BMW (even before the 128ti hit the streets), Mercedes and Hyundai. Add a few options on and you are looking at nearly £40k (or just over if you want sunroof and leather).
That's a lot of of money for a vehicle with arguably "questionable" looks outside (compared to the classy outgoing MK7 / 7.5 models) and with a very unpopular hepatic buttonless interior. Heritage will only get you so far but in my opinion, it's not a looker (sure much better than the standard MK8 models, but not as nice as the outgoing model) and VW are really going to have to discount these down a lot in my humble opinion to prevent lost sales to other marques which have not only caught up, but perhaps overtaken the Golf in many areas).
Biggest problem, is that if you want a nice GTI with some of the newer options such as 19", DCC, Sunroof, Leather, HUD, Kings Red Metallic, Winter Pack, rear view camera etc, then the list is over £41.5k, so even with a huge discount (down to say £35k), you are still in the £40k VED tax bracket. I don't mind paying that for a 300+ HP AWD hot hatch with lots of toys, but for a FWD hatch with "only" 245ps -really ?
