Photo: Volkswagen
As you might have already heard, the latest emissions regulations are pushing some carmakers to fit gasoline particulate filters. But did you know that forced Volkswagen to discontinue the base Golf GTI?
We were reading a report about the GTI dropping its manual for 2019 in Australia - more on that later - when we began to wonder if those changes had affected the European lineup. And it does!
We checked the official website and you can no longer buy the regular version of the car, the one without the performance pack. That means 230 HP becomes 245 HP and 350 Nm is increased to 370. Good, right? You also get bigger brakes and the e-diff. But the list price goes up to €32,950 before any options. Remember, this is a 3-door hot hatch with 17-inch wheels, so there's a lot of spending left to do.
Australian magazine Drive reports that the manual gearbox is also being dropped in the country starting with the 2019 model that's going on sale in this October.
“Change brought about by the advent of Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) in Europe is one of the major challenges confronting European brands in this market, but we were able to take advantage of this situation to improve the best-selling car of its type,” said VW’s Australian marketing manager, Ben Wilks.
“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."
This makes us think back at the Golf GTI drag race against the i30 N from a while back. The Hyundai smashed it, and we couldn't help thinking that the Volkswagen could have used its performance goodies, even though it might have lost regardless.
2019 is when the new Golf comes out. And according to he German media, it's going to get a substantial power bump: up to 300 HP in the most hardcore of three planned versions.
We checked the official website and you can no longer buy the regular version of the car, the one without the performance pack. That means 230 HP becomes 245 HP and 350 Nm is increased to 370. Good, right? You also get bigger brakes and the e-diff. But the list price goes up to €32,950 before any options. Remember, this is a 3-door hot hatch with 17-inch wheels, so there's a lot of spending left to do.
Australian magazine Drive reports that the manual gearbox is also being dropped in the country starting with the 2019 model that's going on sale in this October.
“Change brought about by the advent of Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) in Europe is one of the major challenges confronting European brands in this market, but we were able to take advantage of this situation to improve the best-selling car of its type,” said VW’s Australian marketing manager, Ben Wilks.
“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."
This makes us think back at the Golf GTI drag race against the i30 N from a while back. The Hyundai smashed it, and we couldn't help thinking that the Volkswagen could have used its performance goodies, even though it might have lost regardless.
2019 is when the new Golf comes out. And according to he German media, it's going to get a substantial power bump: up to 300 HP in the most hardcore of three planned versions.
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