Volkswagen Golf GTI 2022 Review

A fairly steep price increase in the transition from Volkswagen Golf 7.5 to Golf 8 pushed the new-generation Volkswagen Golf GTI above $50,000, which is likely a threshold of sorts in the minds of some buyers.

Beyond the psychological wall of resistance at the 50 grand mark, the Golf GTI – now with a fresh price hike for 2022 that sees it closer to $55,000 – is also positioned well above some of its logical competitors, which would be another reason for prospective buyers reconsidering the VW as a choice of hot hatch.

But that’s how the whole market is headed, and in the case of the GTI the buyer does get significant enhancements over the Golf 7.5 version it succeeds.

At the new price of $54,490 plus on-road costs, the 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI comes with 18-inch alloy wheels, a body kit, front LED fog lights, fold-in power-adjustable exterior mirrors, front sports seats upholstered in cloth with red inserts/stitching, aluminium-finish pedals, a leather-bound multifunction flat-bottomed steering wheel, ambient lighting, electro-chromatic rear-view mirror, three-zone climate control, four cup holders and electric windows.

Named the ‘Innovision cockpit’, the combined infotainment and instrumentation system is standard in the Golf GTI and incorporates a 10.0-inch infotainment screen, satellite navigation, six-speaker audio system (with central speaker too), wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, Bluetooth, inductive phone charging, gesture control, voice control and driving data apps.

The test vehicle was additionally fitted with two option packs that take it closer to the $60K mark, before the on-road costs are added.

Priced at $1500, the Sound and Vision pack comprises a Harman Kardon 480W audio system with eight speakers plus centre speaker, subwoofer and 12-channel amplifier, and a head-up display.

For $3800, the Luxury pack adds heated and ventilated seats in front, electrically-adjustable driver's seat with lumbar adjust and three-position memory (including mirrors), a panoramic glass sunroof and ‘Vienna’ leather upholstery with red decorative stitching.

A five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty covers the Golf GTI, and the car is sold with roadside assistance for the first year.

The regular service interval is 12 months or 15,000km and Volkswagen also offers a capped-price service program for five years ($2300) or three years ($1450).

In keeping with the trend out of Europe, the eighth generation of Volkswagen Golf GTI leads the way in safety and driver assistance technology.

All the driving aids are bundled up in a suite Volkswagen names ‘IQ.Drive’. The standard features included are ‘Travel Assist’, forward autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist monitoring, adaptive cruise control, lane assist, junction assist, driver fatigue monitoring, side assist, rear cross traffic alert, reversing camera, park assist, acoustic parking guidance with ultrasonic sensors front and rear, exit warning and tyre pressure monitoring.

Secondary safety features fitted as standard comprise dual front airbags, front and rear side-impact airbags, side curtain airbags and ISOFIX child safety seat anchorage points.

According to ANCAP, all variants of the Volkswagen Golf 8 – including the GTI – are rated at five stars for crash safety, based on Euro NCAP testing and in accordance with the 2019 protocol.

Carried over from the previous model, the powerplant in the 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI is a belter of an engine.

It provides plenty of fireworks through the exhaust at higher revs, but also produces an admirably gruff note at lower speeds. Yet it’s really quiet and subdued just cruising at 100km/h when it’s ticking over at around 1600rpm.

There’s plenty of torque available all the way through to the 6500rpm redline, and, unexpectedly for a vehicle with a dual-clutch transmission, it will hold higher gears on steep hills at engine speeds as low as 2000rpm.

There are four different modes for powertrain operation: Eco, Comfort, Sport and Individual, the last of which can be varied for different operation of steering, transmission, engine, etc.

And the Golf’s launch control system works brilliantly (with the powertrain set in Sport mode); you can feel the car channelling torque from one side of the car and back again through the diff as it powers away from a standing start.

However, to disable the stability/traction control as a prerequisite to running launch control, the prescribed method is to add the differential control system to the favourites menu through the infotainment touch-screen.

This is done in much the same way as adding or changing an app in an iPhone. It’s not initially simple to do.

The Golf GTI is respectably economical, posting a fuel consumption figure of 8.3L/100km on a late-night test run. Owners will likely get closer to the car’s combined-cycle economy figure of 6.5L/100km.

There are no dramas with the transmission, which shifted smoothly and responsively as required, without any aggressive shunting in Sport mode.

The Golf GTI comes with shift paddles to optimise shifting when the driver is using all the available performance. They come in handy, so to speak, when the driver wants a lower gear at the earliest possible convenience.

Owning any series of Volkswagen Golf GTI is rewarding in itself, and this latest generation holds true to that.

There are few compromises to be made; this car is a comfortable cruiser during the week and a track weapon at the weekends.

The car’s steering is light in the non-Sport modes, but loads up for more feel with Sport selected. It’s a fun car to drive, turning in very neatly and steering in towards the apex of the bend, even with prodigious power applied.

The 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI sits flat through corners and feels secure and encouraging. It doesn’t quite muster the roadholding of a Honda Civic Type R or a Hyundai i30 N, but it’s certainly right on the pace, dynamically.

Braking response, stability and pedal feel are all great when the GTI is under pressure to pull up, but the system also allows soft stopping without obvious conflict with the transmission and the idle-stop system.

Ride comfort is fine in either Eco and Comfort modes, and it’s certainly not punishing in Sport mode; with the latter engaged, it just feels slightly hard-edged on country roads.

The Bridgestone Potenza 225/40R18 tyres contribute the only real source of noise in the cabin, whether at touring speeds or lower. Even so, the road noise is better than just bearable. On some surfaces it’s very well suppressed indeed.

The LED headlights are as good as expected, and the automatic high beam assist gets a thumbs up too. It recognises overhead street lights and dips the lights then, and well before any oncoming car is in dazzling range.

Unlike other cars tested recently with similar systems, the Golf GTI did not incur the displeasure of other road users.

If there’s a minor niggle with the driving position, it’s the front seats, which are well shaped for harder driving but the base cushioning is bordering on too firm for me, with slight numbness setting in after 90 minutes of driving.

And using the infotainment system came as a shock for a bloke who had literally turned 60 just a day before, taking the Golf GTI for an extended drive. The slider controls do not illuminate at night and it may take a while for users to come to terms with the system’s ergonomics in general.

Once you get there, however, it’s simple enough to use, and that’s the whole point. If you come from a smartphone user experience, you will adjust to the Golf’s infotainment system quite quickly.

There’s no shortage of charging options in the Golf GTI: four USB-C ports (two in the centre fascia stack, two in the rear of the centre console), a 12V power outlet adjacent to a cup holder in front, and an inductive smartphone charging tray in the centre console underneath the centre fascia.

This last item – the wireless charger for the phone – has a clever lid that closes over the phone to keep it secure when the vehicle is in motion and to keep the phone concealed when the car is parked.

The cup holder in front can be adjusted to accept bottles as well, and there’s a conjoined general-purpose storage receptacle which can be used to hold keys and another cup at a pinch.

Virtual switches on the steering wheel spokes require pushing à la a button, with the exception of the volume control and track or channel slide controls.

High-resolution displays for the infotainment screen and the instrument cluster are extremely attractive and highly informative at a glance, with different display modes for the instrumentation.

The door bins are large and will accommodate bottles up to roughly one litre in capacity, and the door bins in the rear doors are similarly large, although only suitable for bottles up to about 600ml.

Rear seat accommodation is quite generous for adults, with headroom and legroom adequate for occupants up to around about 180cm tall. And amenity in the rear is enhanced by adjustable vents, third-zone climate-control switchgear and a fold-down centre arm rest with two cup holders within it.

Lower the arm rest and users can access a ski port for through-loading from the boot, but the entire rear seat also folds down – flush with the boot floor, but not quite flat – in a 60/40 split for loading larger items.

A space-saver spare tyre resides under the boot floor which is relatively large, fully sealed and practical for loading with a relatively low loading lip.

The Volkswagen Golf GTI essentially kicked off the hot-hatch revolution, but it’s now the establishment, facing some very serious ‘counter-revolutionaries’.

It seems like Volkswagen must find new tweaks to hold back the rampaging hordes from South Korea, Japan and Europe. There are no big-picture features, no real watershed aspects to the 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI, to set it apart from its competition.

But the fact remains that just as Jeep can be generically swapped in for ‘four-wheel drive’ and ditto for Porsche and ‘sports car’, the Golf GTI is the go-to nameplate that sums up ‘hot hatch’.

The Volkswagen is iconic because it’s everything a hot hatch was ever meant to be, but with the added benefits in this latest model of safety and driver assist improvements.

It will continue to be one of the high flyers in Volkswagen’s local range.

How much does the 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI cost?
Price: $54,490 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 180kW/370Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 6.5L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 159g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2019)

And with that Ken Gratton drives into the sunset of retirement, looking in the rear-view mirror on some 820 reviews in his time at carsales. Ken's first review in 2007 was on a Fiat Punto and this drive of the Golf GTI is his last. Thanks Ken, you can let someone else do the test driving from here.