Volkswagen Golf GTI Performance Edition 1 2018 review

You’ll either be a fan of the three-door shape, or you won’t. If you fall into the latter category, why are you even reading this? If you’re in the former camp, like myself, you’ll probably find yourself looking at this car for slightly too long. Yes, your workmates think you’re weird for doing so.

The sharpness of the C-pillar is the bit I like most - the way it folds away like origami, yet still manages to hark back to the good old days when the Golf was really, actually, a small car.

Of course, you might think, it has to be a bit shorter overall than the regular Golf five-door models - but you’d be wrong. It measures the exact same length from nose to tail, but has an ever so slightly narrower track.

I think it’s glorious, gorgeous, and gracious to look at.

Never sat in a three-door Golf? You’d be surprised just how much space is on offer - and yes, there are five seats and the requisite outboard ISOFIX child-seat attachment points, and three top-tether hooks.

Not that you’d want to be loading kids into the back on a regular basis. Sure, the front seats flip down and slide forward to allow access to the rear, and it’s relatively easy to get in and out - but trying to reach back there is a stretch.

The doors are very long, making them a chore in tight car parks, and whether you’re in the driver’s seat or the passenger’s, the seatbelt is a fair reach behind you, particularly if you’re a shorter occupant.

It gets bigger 19-inch wheels compared with a regular GTI, not to mention a front differential lock and larger disc brakes.

You're experiencing a sense of foreboding, right? Not exactly. There are all the Golf smarts we’ve come to expect: large door pockets; two cupholders in the front; a pair of cupholders in the rear, flip-down arm-rest; some bottle holders in the front doors; and bottle caddies near where you climb in to the second row.

Plus you get a boot capacity of 380 litres - identical to the five-door - and that jumps to 1270 litres with the rear seats folded down. There’s a space-saver spare wheel under the boot floor.

Up front, the 8.0-inch multimedia screen is better than the 9.2-inch higher-spec offering in other Golf models, because you still get a knob on either side for the volume and tuning (the bigger screen is touch-capacitive only, and can be annoying). Using the Bluetooth phone and audio streaming, or plugging in to Apple CarPlay or Android Auto is a cinch.

Plus, if you want, you can call up some performance meters on the centre screen, including turbo bar pressure, g-force meter and the instantaneous kW output of the engine, plus there’s a lap timer.

Let’s start with what Volkswagen is asking for the Golf GTI Performance Edition 1. It’s $47,990, which is more than 10-grand dearer than the entry-level three-door GTI Original (due to launch early 2018) in manual guise, or $8000 more than the DSG equivalent.

But this thing still has some, er, ‘original’ style features, including a key for the ignition rather than push-button start, and manually adjustable front seats rather than electric jobbies.

There’s no tartan trim in sight - instead, the seats are lined with honeycomb micro-fleece and leatherette.

Then there are the bits that are seemingly at odds with those very hands-on elements of the cabin.

This version of the GTI is fitted as standard with the brand’s high-tech virtual instrument display, a 12.3-inch screen in front of the driver with an array of different screen set-ups to show the person at the wheel exactly what they want to see.

It also gets bigger 19-inch wheels compared with a regular GTI, not to mention a front differential lock, larger disc brakes, ‘premium’ LED tail-lights with dynamic indicators, and there’s no tartan trim in sight - instead, the seats are lined with honeycomb micro-fleece and leatherette. It has tinted rear and side windows, too.

The rear seats have the requisite outboard ISOFIX child-seat attachment points.

You get sat nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, ambient lighting, auto lights (with auto LED headlights) and auto wipers.

The only option you can get for the GTI Performance Edition 1 is a panoramic sunroof, at $1900. And you’ve only got a choice of two colours - 'White Silver', as you see here, or 'Dark Iron Blue' metallic.

There is plenty of safety kit fitted as standard, too - see what’s covered below.

The 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine doesn’t offer the powerhouse numbers of, say, the Honda Civic Type R (with its huge 228kW/400Nm outputs), but with 180kW of power and 370Nm of torque, it’s still a shredder, with 11kW and 20Nm more than the standard Golf GTI model.

The engine rewards much more than a standard Golf GTI.

The 0-100km/h claim for this spec is 6.2 seconds, which is 0.2sec faster than the regular GTI.

It is front-wheel drive, and there’s no manual option available - instead, you get a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. Yep it’s a seven-speeder, rather than a six-speed unit, because it has more torque.

Volkswagen claims fuel use of 6.5L/100km, using premium 95 unleaded, which is pretty good considering the grunt numbers on offer. And the tank holds 50 litres.

You won’t be content to stay in eco, so don’t even think you will be.

In real-world driving you probably won’t see that unless you’re content to tootle along in Eco mode - which is one of five driving modes available (the others are Normal, Sport, Comfort and Individual).

Trust me, you won’t be content to stay in eco, so don’t even think you will be… Even so, we saw respectable consumption averaging out at 7.8L/100km, with some highway, commuting and speedier driving included.

Good enough to make you almost happy to deal with traffic jams. Almost… But seriously, the most rewarding bit about being stuck in a traffic jam in the Golf GTI Performance Edition 1 is that it makes the moment the traffic clears so much more rewarding.

There’s a sequence you’ll invariably follow: dial up Sport mode; hear the noise synthesiser pipe some extra rumble into the cabin; sock the throttle in the guts; grin like a goose.

The engine rewards much more than a standard Golf GTI, which has power outputs that almost perfectly match its chassis. But this car has more power, and a better chassis set-up, and it builds pace a touch more manically, and corners with more tenacity, too.

Along with bigger brakes and larger 19-inch wheels, the GTI Performance gains what VW labels a “front differential lock”, which is an electronically controlled differential that can judge the amount of grip on the road using sensors, and manage the amount of differential lock required, based on steering input, yaw angle and speed. It works super well, reducing understeer in the tighter twists and enabling the front end of the car to grip the surface and throw you forward speedily.

The steering is very good, too - Sport mode bulks up the weighting to a point that is a little silly, so I prefer to use Individual mode and adjust the steering and adaptive suspension to the slightly more malleable Normal modes, making for better blend of turn-in feel and usability.

There’s a space-saver spare wheel under the boot floor.

If you keep it in Sport mode, the adaptive dampers will make the ride somewhat bouncy, which has a bit to do with the 19s under each corner of the car. Normal mode, again, helps tame that a tad, increasing user-friendliness.

The bigger wheels impact comfort levels - hitting sharp edges or rolling over pockmarked surfaces isn’t as unruffled as in a regular GTI, but it never gets harsh or fidgety to the point of annoyance.

The Volkswagen Golf has the maximum five-star ANCAP crash safety score, which was applied to the car back in 2013 and again in 2017 when the Golf 7.5 range launched. And across the entire Golf range - yep, even three-door ones - VW fits it with seven airbags, a reversing camera, forward collision warning and auto emergency braking.

Further to that, the Golf GTI Performance Edition 1 includes adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, semi-automated parking assistance, auto high-beam head-lights, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.

It doesn’t want for much, really.

Volkswagen offers a five-year service plan for the Golf GTI Performance Edition 1, which requires maintenance every 12 months/15,000km. The average cost per service over that period is high, at $540.

The company backs its cars with a three-year/unlimited km warranty, and the same cover applies for its roadside assist program.