I know what you mean. But you’d be surprised how much you can squeeze in when you have to!
Mine was totally rammed on this trip plus shoes, boots, coats and other stuff in the rear footwells and seat which I really don't care for. Still, not too often I suppose.
On a different note, I did get to give it a good run today out in the Surrey hills, lovely drive but noted the flat spot in the higher revs which I rarely get the chance to encounter. Presumably this is the payoff for the smaller turbo? Is there anything that can be done to fix this reasonably or are we only talking a remap or changing for an R? 
Having to have a few clothes and bags on the back seats etc a couple times a year is a small payoff for not having to drive something the size of a barge all year round. Give me driving dynamics and power to weight ratio any time!
The turbo hits peak boost quite low down in a GTI, a remap will give you more torque which enables you to hit that flat spot a bit quicker! (Until your clutch slips...)
A Golf R turbo has a higher boost ceiling but boosts a bit higher in the range so in a manual car it can occasionally have a flat spot at the other end of the Rev range. Flip a coin for it!
Or, get a GTI with an R engine, which is called a....
Oh, and my parcel shelf lives under the boot floor as the exhaust sounds better that way
I'll have to give that a try, thanks for the tip Ex...
It’s only marginal but it needs all the help it can get!
