Volkswagen Golf GTI Cabriolet 2012 Review - International

Not so much:
>> Not as practical as hatch
>> Adds a lot of weight
>> Can’t turn stability control off

OVERVIEW

Yet they’ve not offered the two together in the same bodyshell since the first generation Cabrio. Who knows why?

The Cabrio has always sold strongly, but maybe the body rigidity didn’t live up to VW’s ideas of what a GTI should have. Now, though, they think they’ve got a good handle on it.

The GTI has also been a keenly awaited event in the life of every Golf generation, as you can tell by the wacky Worthesee festival in Austria, built up specifically around the Golf GTI.

So it seems VW finally thinks it has sorted the chassis enough to stick the extra horses and torques in it. They don’t let too many misfires out of head office these days, and don’t expect the Golf GTI Cabrio to be one of them.

While VW Oz hasn’t figured out what it can get away with charging for the GTI Cabrio, expect the gap to be similar to the difference between the same engines in the rest of the Hatch/Cabrio range. In Europe, that means €31,350.

For that, you’re going to get pretty much exactly what you get in a GTI, right down to the tartan-checked seat and door trims.

Down at its boots, the GTI gets 17-inch alloys as standard equipment, though most people tend to upsize them (foolishly, in our opinion) for the more masculine 18s.

It has the same face as the GTI hatch, so there’s the black honeycomb grille and air intake inserts, GTI badging, a diffuser (that doesn’t really diffuse, but it looks nice) at the back framed by LED lights.

The GTI sports seats are there, too, and supportive as ever and leather trim is an option that surprisingly few people take up with this car.

The seats are manually operated, with adjustable lumbar support and your feet reach down to pedals capped with brushed stainless steel.

Like the hatch it gets a GTI shift lever, satellite navigation, climate control air conditioning and the front seats flip forward quickly and easily to let people in and out of the back.

Other bits you’re paying for include stability control, anti-lock brakes, cruise control, an electronic diff lock, a rear parking camera and a parking assistant that does the awkward rim-rubbing parallel parks by itself.

There’s nothing wrong with that. For starters, promising something is a GTI Cabrio kind of implies that’s what you’re going to get and secondly it’s a pretty good baseline.

It means you get a 155kW version of the VW Group’s 2.0-litre in-line four pot plonked across the engine bay, driving the front wheels through either a six-speed manual or a six-speed DSG. And then, of course, an “electronic diff lock” which does no such thing, but instead brakes the lightly loaded inside wheel in corners to concentrate drive to the outside one.

It’s a cracker of an engine and always has been, and its family line includes the Audi TFSI version that has been the International Engine of the Year five times and it powers everything from Passats to Skodas.

In GTI guise, that means you get direct fuel injection, variable valve timing and lift and a twin-scroll turbocharger, so it’s basically the same hardware the MINI Cooper S has and miles more advanced than Benz can offer right now in this size.

It delivers 155kW at 5300rpm, but the sheer power has never been the crux of the argument. Well before the power has made its impact, the torque has arrived, with 280Nm at 1700rpm. Only a decade ago, that was diesel territory for both engine speed and torque delivery, but this was one of the engines that heralded the move forward.

It doesn’t stop there, because that torque hits early and stays at that 280Nm level on a plateau until 5200rpm – just 100rpm shy of the power peak, which itself stays on until 6200rpm.

VW says it will hit 100km/h in 7.3 seconds and it still records a 7.7L/100km combined consumption figure. Not bad, either of them, when coupled with a 50-litre fuel tank. And not bad with a 1533kg unladen weight figure.

There is also the optional DCC adaptive chassis control so drivers can fiddle with the damper and steering settings between comfort, normal and dynamic, though we wouldn’t bother with it.

The key is a roof system that uses its longitudinal members as drip rails and four cross braces, all holding up a three-layer roof that is remarkably quiet.

The front bow is very stiff, holding the roof in shape even when it’s pushing air across it at the 235km/h top speed, and it drops into its cubby hole in 9.5 seconds after you pull its electric switch. It take 11.5 seconds to get it back up again, and you can do that at up to 30km/h, so you don’t have to be completely embarrassed at the lights.

The boot is not a patch on a hatch, but there’s no difference in the space available if the roof is up or down. That’s because there’s a permanent box for it, which leaves 250 litres of surprisingly useful space at all times and you can even pass cargo through into the back seat, because they can fold down.

There’s no permanent rollover bar anymore, because that pops up automatically from behind the rear headrests if a predefined tilt angle is exceeded.

It uses a 2578mm wheelbase and for those measuring the garage now, it’s 4246mm long, 1782mm wide and 1423mm high.

The engine hardware is broadly similar, even if the MINI’s engine is smaller than the Golf GTI’s, and they both have six-speed manual ‘boxes, though if you want DSG, the VW is the only way to go.

There will be a bit of cross shopping with Mazda’s MX-5, too, even if the ageless roadster is only a two-seater and doesn’t have a turbocharger to its name.

There are others, true, and some of them have folding metal lids, but VW is very seriously hunting for MINI customers…

It doesn’t even need the time-honoured overhead roll bar to keep things on an even keel yet, even with the 155kW engine twisting the front wheels hard, it never feels bothered by it.

The lack of a permanent roll bar helps in other ways, too, because it makes the GTI’s profile look so clean that it’s a better looker with the roof down than up, which hasn’t always been the Golf Cabrio’s ratio.

And it all combines to make the driver feel fantastic. For starters, it looks considerably more masculine than either of the MINI convertibles thanks to the GTI’s honeycomb grille and chunkier (optional) 18-inch boots. That always helps.

Then there’s its interior, full of tartan cloth and a flat-bottomed, leather-rimmed steering wheel. With just two doors, it’s more compromised in daily life than the hatch, but more practical than an MX-5 or a MINI Cabrio.

But the striking thing about the GTI Cabrio isn’t any of that. It’s just how stupidly well organised it feels to drive. Every convertible demands a compromise, but few ask so little of their owners as this one will. It’s so quiet with the roof up that you can speak normally, even at its 235km/h top speed. It’s so calm with the roof down that you never need to yell, either.

It’s no hotshot, but it will still hit 100km/h in 7.3 seconds (0.4 slower than the hatch) and it only uses 7.6L/100km, or a tenth more with the smooth-shifting DSG.

But that’s hardly the point. The real key is that it’s a sweet-spinning little motor with throttle response you don’t expect out of a turbo and mid-range strength once the preserve of the diesel world.

It’s 138kg heavier than the hatch, too, but it hardly seems to bother the handling. It just bites at the front, grips at the rear and does its best to keep you entertained while beneath the surface it gets on with the business of fighting all manner of forces that try to twist it back on itself.

The electronic “diff” helps, firing you out of corners by braking the wheel with the least grip, but the ability to turn off the stability control might help even more. Nevertheless, it rides firmly, but a fraction softer than its hard-topped stablemate.

It’s so comfortable and forgivable to drive, and so engaging in what it does, that it’s hard to imagine how you’d ever get yourself in trouble in this car.

What’s more, when you move into heavy traffic situations, the engine’s utter flexibility means you change gear a lot less than you probably ought to, because it can pull sixth gear from 1000rpm without complaining and provides genuine urge from 1500.

It sounds nice doing it, too, and there’s barely a tremor at any rev range, in any gear. The manual shifter is slick and enjoyable, but the DSG is the lazy person’s gearbox of choice.

It’s a car that’s just so easy, so natural and so welcoming that it almost makes you feel bad to say anything negative about it.

Fortunately, until we see the final price, there isn’t much negative to say anyway.

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