Volkswagen Golf GTI to score Performance 1 spec in October

VW’s entry level Golf GTI gains power and tech for 2019 as it stares down rivals.

Volkswagen Australia will turn up the wick on its Golf GTI range for 2019, with the entry-level car set to score the same specs as the sold-out Performance 1. 

The GTI, which will arrive in showrooms in October, will pack a 180kW/370Nm version of the 2.0-litre turbo petrol four – up 11kW and 20Nm – as well as a seven-speed wet-clutch DSG, electro-mechanical locking front diff and a brake package plucked from the Golf R, all supplied as standard.

The updated specs are partly necessary thanks to VW’s head office mothballing the 169kW tune in the EA888 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine… but VW Australia’s marketing head Ben Wilks has also used the late-life upgrade to the venerable GTI as a chance to throw shade at new hot hatch rivals like Hyundai’s i30N.

“Volkswagen has the unique ability to adapt and upgrade in this way, as opposed to carmakers that seek to emulate the GTI paradigm,” he said in a statement.

“Such has been the demand for Performance Editions that making its specification standard is a logical progression, especially in terms of DSG, a transmission others are either trying to copy or cannot.

The Golf GTI will, unlike the Performance 1, only be available in a five-door body style.

“This GTI embodies what customers want.”

The 169kW/350Nm, $41,990 (plus ORCs) GTI is currently $2000 dearer than the manual-only 202kW/353Nm i30N. Hyundai insiders predict a DSG gearbox won’t be available for the i30N until 2019 at best.

Final pricing won’t be known until closer to the GTI’s launch, but CarsGuide understands that the new pricing, though likely to be higher, will be “very sharp”.

The Golf GTI will, unlike the Performance 1, only be available in a five-door body style, though VW Australia says that an announcement around the recently previewed Golf GTI TCR – a 213kW/370Nm front-drive three-door – is expected in June.

If – as is anticipated – the TCR is confirmed for Australia, it will take the mantle of the most powerful front-drive Golf ever offered from 2016’s Golf GTI 40 Years, which made 195kW and 370Nm from a Golf R-sourced two-litre turbo four.

At the other end of the scale, VW’s new five-door Polo GTI, which uses a 149kW/320Nm version of the EA888 as well a similar MQB platform underneath, will land in August, priced from $30,990 before on-roads.

Where do you sit with the GTI vs i30N debate? Tell us what you think in the comments below.