Have you ordered an 8.5 ?

[Hawkeye14]

I'm at a loss why there's no GTi 'Special Edition' at £39,999 to keep below the luxury car tax.

Careful optioning is required ! I think I'll stick to DCC with metallic paint. Would love to stretch to a sunroof though.

[Sharpe]

Even that will tip you just over. Minus off £680 for first year VED and £55 for first registration, that’s you’ve got to play with!

[sipj]

My thoughts are why wouldn't you option your car the way you want it?  You're spending a lot of money on the car and if like me you're planning on keeping it for quite a few years, spec it the way you want it.  Yes the luxury car tax is a pain and the threshold should now be raised, but over the period of year 2 - 5 (first year is in the total price of the car) its an extra £1,640, or £34 per month over and above what you would have paid with the regular car tax.  If you're adding on additional options to get the spec you want, its not really a huge amount of money in addition, so maybe treat as another option you have added (not a great one I admit).  Or, haggle with the dealer to get another say £1,500 discount and it pretty much pays for itself.

Just my thought process, but looking forward to when mine is delivered - hopefully before the end of this year!

[ajmoir36]

My thoughts are why wouldn't you option your car the way you want it?  You're spending a lot of money on the car and if like me you're planning on keeping it for quite a few years, spec it the way you want it.  Yes the luxury car tax is a pain and the threshold should now be raised, but over the period of year 2 - 5 (first year is in the total price of the car) its an extra £1,640, or £34 per month over and above what you would have paid with the regular car tax.  If you're adding on additional options to get the spec you want, its not really a huge amount of money in addition, so maybe treat as another option you have added (not a great one I admit).  Or, haggle with the dealer to get another say £1,500 discount and it pretty much pays for itself.

Just my thought process, but looking forward to when mine is delivered - hopefully before the end of this year!

I should have done this, VW originally took so long to deliver it, I ended up paying anyway.

[Exonian]

I'm at a loss why there's no GTi 'Special Edition' at £39,999 to keep below the luxury car tax.

That’s not VW’s style.

As for the tax - it might be *just* £1640 over the period but it’s a point of principle for a lot of folk. £600 a year (which is a sum that needs proper budgeting for as far as regular people are concerned) for a small shopping car not a two ton SUV or luxury barge.

[Carlosfandango]

My GTI has arrived at the dealership.   I’ll be collecting it on Thursday afternoon, it was ordered on 10th August, so that will be ten and a half weeks from start until finish.. not too shabby considering they originally said it would be a late December / early January delivery.👌

[davo245]

My GTI has arrived at the dealership.   I’ll be collecting it on Thursday afternoon, it was ordered on 10th August, so that will be ten and a half weeks from start until finish.. not too shabby considering they originally said it would be a late December / early January delivery.👌

Don't forget to post up a decent review on how it compares to your current mk8?

Did you get a good part ex and deal or are you selling current car elsewhere?

[Dogman12]

Yeah, it would be great to hear some more detailed comparison of those who went from MK8 GTI to 8.5 GTI. In terms of driving, handling, if the steering (heft, etc..) is similar, etc..

Because you can't hear a decent information from journalists who spent 15 min in MK8, 4 years ago, and 15 min now in 8.5.

[Carlosfandango]

I’ll certainly relay my thoughts here once I’ve had some time behind the wheel.

[JoeGTI]

I put in an order today for a new CS! I hummed over it for a while, as I already have a really mint low mileage 2021 CS, so it's difficult enough to justify upgrading. But I feel I'm getting an OK trade in figure and the little subtle changes in the 8.5 are really tempting me, so why not !

I'm going for:
- moonstone grey
- 19" Queenstown wheels
- adaptive chassis
- pano roof
- harmon kardon

The "black pack" is currently priced at 1700 euro (Irish configurator), but I asked my dealer to query this with VW and I've had it confirmed that this is a mistake! It should be 245 euro! I know it has some crazy price on the UK. configurator too, so if anyone here is spec'ing it I'd strongly suggest querying it. That said, I think I'd prefer to keep the red grill stripe, so I prob won't bother with the black pack.