There's a little inaccuracy in the MK7 release dates. My neighbour had a MK7 SE in December 2012, and you could order a GTI/GTD on the 3rd week of March. I think my Dad's GTD was the first one that arrived in the UK and posted on this forum - he picked it up July 1st.
The MK8 is pretty much just going to be a facelift of the MK7, that car was a huge jump in tech, equipment and refinement over the MK5/6, and the MK6 was no great improvement over the MK5 - slightly different styling and marginal output improvements on some of the engines but essentially the same car.
The car industry is going the way of mobile phones, giving you a reason to chop one in every few years even though the generational gains might not be much from one to the next.
Save for ACT tech debuted on the 1.5TSI, there have been very few true technological improvements made to fuel economy in the last 5 years - stop-start gains for mpg have been massively overstated because the test cycle output can be massively affected by it, but real world gains are tiny unless you're shuffling along a gridlocked London road. All the recent improvements have been in weight saving (we're getting thinner body panels - are they really as sturdy as those from VWs of old that were built like tanks?) and connectivity tech (MP3/BT/Phone integration).
I'd likely be more peeved I bought a MK6 just before the MK7 came out, rather than buying a MK7 just before the MK8 came out.
