2007 Volkswagen GTI Road Test
The original GTI: its the car that laid the foundation for the hot hatchback segment, and it arrived on the block around the same time that Men at Work were taking us “Down Under”, Eddie Grant had us boppin to “Electric Avenue” and what is now and seems like it will forever be the biggest band in the world (Beatles and Stones aside), U2, was just about to release “The Unforgettable Fire” which would put them over the top in the U.S. market. Yes, skinny ties, zoot suits and suspenders were on their way out and preppy pastel-coloured Alligator golf shifts by IZOD Lacoste and uncomfortable trendy deck shoes were all the rage, but it was the GTI that has stood the test of time.
I would like to write about how I fondly remember owning one with gold snowflake 13-inch wheels under rolled fenders, and how it could mow down most performance cars in its day, but I cant, because Im a child of the 90s. Nevertheless, not being there didnt stop me from admiring the vehicles from the decade earlier. I loved learning about things like Audis quattro system and the early M-Powered BMWs, but hot hatchbacks, primarily the GTI intrigued me. It didnt have a prancing horse on the badge (a prancing rabbit would have to do), it wasnt particularly showy and it didnt cost a bundle. What got me even more confused is it just wasnt very powerful. Yet, it was immensely popular, for reasons that I couldnt understand in my prepubescent mind.
The interesting thing about the GTI is that unlike most of the cars on the road today, it was an innovation born out of necessity. The car was created during a time when gasoline was ultra-expensive, at least for the time, and generally speaking, money was tight; people simply couldnt afford to have two cars as they do now - what would have been a regular practical family car (or, possibly, a big SUV, like a K5 Jimmy) and a sports car. People needed one car to do it all, and the GTI was the first vehicle to provide thrill-a-minute handling while still being thrifty to run, own and insure. And unlike most cars to emerge from Wolfsburg, the GTI was engineered by a bunch of zany wrench-heads as an after-work project, so it had little original influence from the finance department; meaning the first batch was about as pure as performance cars get.