2007 Volkswagen GTI Road Test

The Original Hot Hatch Is Back

The original GTI: it's the car that laid the foundation for the hot

The true pioneer - VW's first GTI. (Photo: Volkswagen Canada)

hatchback segment, and it arrived on the block around the same time that Queen released a collection of ultimately "cool" live tracks on "Live Killers", Elvis Costello continued his new wave revolution with "Accidents Will Happen" and Roger Waters and David Gilmour (but what one was Pink) waited 'til the twilight hours of their lengthy psychedelic careers to upend the charts with the album of the year, The Wall. Yes, hip-hugging flares and floppy collared velour pullover V-necks might have been on their way out while skinny ties, zoot suits and suspenders were making a comeback, 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 can't, because I'm a child of the '90s. Nevertheless, not being there didn't stop me from admiring the vehicles from the decade earlier. I loved learning about things like Audi's quattro system and the early M-Powered BMWs, but hot hatchbacks, primarily the GTI intrigued me. It didn't have a prancing horse on the badge (a prancing rabbit would have to do), it wasn't particularly showy and it didn't cost a bundle. What got me even more confused is it just wasn't very powerful. Yet, it was immensely popular, for reasons that I couldn't understand in my prepubescent mind.

The

First-gen with the new fifth-gen model. Note the size difference. (Photo: Volkswagen Canada)

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 couldn't 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.

It is widely regarded that the first GTI was the best of the bunch; the so-called

This was VW's idea of a GTI. It looks no different than a regular Golf, which it more or less is. (Photo: Volkswagen Canada)

'Holy Grail' of compact cars, but the one that really does it for me is the second generation - perhaps because it's the GTI that I remember most fondly. It was usefully bigger, but it retained much of the nippy, nimbleness of the original car, not to mention that it looked great up until its demise in 1992. The third generation car was fat and stupid, and because the fourth generation GTI was an affront to the name, I'm not really going to bother talking about the car.   

At that time, Volkswagen was concerned with moving the brand up-market, rather than focusing on the spirit of the GTI. It's not that the third and fourth generation GTIs aren't good cars either, because they really are. The third generation GTI (eventually) bore the unique 15-degree narrow-angle VR6 engine that made it suitably brisk and refined, and the fourth generation had an interior that could serve a one-two knockout punch to the

Talking about the Mk.III and IV GTI hurts. So, here's a picture of the new car. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press)

likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW. But such attributes have little to no face value when it comes down to the true nature of the GTI; the Mk.III and IV cars failed to retain any sort of sparkle. A hot hatch without sparkle is merely a room temperature hatch, and there are very few things that are appealing at room temperature.

But thankfully Volkswagen's modus operandi has changed; they're no longer trying to be Germany's Next Top Model, building eight-cylinder Passats and six-figure luxury sedans, not to mention terrain-conquering SUVs. Volkswagen is now hitting back with clever yet very realistic vehicles, the same kinds of cars that they used to build. We'll soon see it in upcoming niche models, the first of which is the latest GTI.