Volkswagen is saying goodbye to the manual transmission with a special edition. It is the Golf GTI 380, which brings along an exclusive package. It is a North America-only affair.
The three-pedal Volkswagen Golf is going down with a bang. The Germans came up with a special edition that celebrates the final year of the hot hatch with a clutch, which will be available for the Golf GTI and Golf R. The manual-equipped Golf GTI has been on the market for over four decades. The time has come for it to go into retirement.
The ‘380’ is a reference to the Mk8’s internal code, as well as a tribute to the fourth-generation GTI 337 special edition, on the market in 2002. That generation carried over the internal model code from the Mk1 GTI, which arrived in the 1970s. Back then, the Golf was named Rabbit in the United States and Canada, a tag that might return this fall as a trim or as a special edition.
Volkswagen uploaded a teaser video of a real rabbit on former-Twitter/current-X social media platform, accompanied by a countdown from seven, which means that whatever they are referring to, it will break cover on September 3.
Going back to the GTI 380 special edition, it comes with an exclusive color, the Graphite Gray Metallic, available for every manual-transmission trim for the 2024 Volkswagen Golf: the S, SE, and Autobahn. Customers can also choose one of the other six paintworks.
The model sports the DCC adaptive damping system as standard and rides on multi-spoke gloss black 19-inch aluminum alloy whees, borrowed from the Golf R 20th Anniversary Edition, with summer performance tires.
Photo: Volkswagen
Volkswagen also came up with a matching gloss black painted roof and gloss black mirror caps, contrasting with the red exterior accents of the GTI.
To pay tribute to the GTI, the GTI 380 special edition gets a golf-ball-inspired manual shift knob. The S and SE trims receive the classic Scalepaper Plaid cloth seats, while Vienna leather wraps the seats in the Autobahn trim as standard and is optional, for extra money, for the SE.
A turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with 241 horsepower (244 PS) and 273 pound-feet of torque (370 Nm) powers the Golf GTI 380. The engine is mated, for the very last time, to the six-speed manual. The Golf GTI and R will live on in the company of the dual-clutch seven-speed DSG automatic transmission.
The special version will hit the market in early fall 2023. The entry-level GTI 380 S will start at $32,485. Upper in the range, the GTI 380 SE kicks off at $37,285, while customers will have to pay $40,625 for the GTI 380 Autobahn. Destination fee is $1,150.
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