Bid farewell to 2021 and usher in 2022, in the new year, the owner's guide wishes everyone's life to be as prosperous as this GTI!
Author: Liang Zhihao
Photographed by Lu Weijia
Quick answer! Give you 250,000, what car will you buy? Different people may have different answers to this question, young people may choose the entry-level model of luxury brands, and friends who have already established a family may choose between B-class cars or joint venture brand compact SUVs.
Anyway, in this price point that can already cover most of the mainstream joint venture brand main models, and even some second-tier luxury brand B-class cars, I believe that no one will be "stupid enough" to buy an ordinary brand hatchback, right? But I'm sorry, I'm this "stupid person".
For the same price, I chose the right
This year, ah no, it should be last year's National Day, just three days after the listing of the eighth generation golf GTI, I went to the 4S store to pay a deposit of 5,000 yuan and became a Volkswagen "prospective owner". Two months later, the official price was 229,800 yuan, including insurance and various taxes and fees, and the final landing price was 256,000 yuan, which became my "new favorite". Spending such a price to buy such a small car without any brand aura must bear a lot of doubts from my family and outsiders, but after two months of full contact after picking up the car, I am more and more convinced that this money is spent without problems.
The most "eye-catching" generation of GTIs
In the Chinese market, the listing of this generation of GTI can be described as accompanied by countless doubts and even scolding, as early as the model of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declaration, we found that it did not follow the overseas version of the use of the latest EA888 EVO4 engine to start, the originator of this "small steel cannon" has become the target of netizens and fans, about FAW - Volkswagen "reduction", "no conscience", "pit car fans" and other scolding.
But on the other hand, although the engine did not use the latest, this time FAW-Volkswagen installed the European version of the steering machine and the DQ381 gearbox on this body, which made everyone have some expectations for this one. As a car owner, I knew the "thick" and "unkind" of this car before buying the car. In my opinion, although this generation of GTI is indeed castrated compared to the overseas version, but considering the difference between it and the overseas version, and the acceptance of the Chinese people for this kind of entry-level performance car, I think faw-Volkswagen's "knife method" is still quite accurate - although the power castration, but also does not provide limited slip differential options, but these two points for daily use do not have much negative impact, on the contrary, the extremely high configuration and more sharp gearbox is obviously more able to attract consumers to pay (I am one of them).
At least, if FAW-Volkswagen introduces the overseas version of the model as original and then sets a price of 300,000 yuan, then I am afraid that I will not have a chance with this car.
Move like a rabbit
What surprises me is that although this "Chinese special edition GTI" does not have the same powerful performance as the overseas version, 220 horsepower on such a small car with a length of less than 4 meters 3 still has the ability to make the corners of your mouth rise madly, although the official "zero hundred" result is only 7.1 seconds - such data is placed at the current time node, any electric car can easily kill it, but whether it is somatosensory or actual measurement, we can find that GTI still continues the German car "reverse false mark" In the glorious tradition, its actual power level is actually around 6.6 and 6.7 seconds.
However, objective data such as "zero hundred", "horsepower", and "torque" have never been the most important places for GTI, and the subjective driving pleasure is the most important factor in evaluating whether a "small steel cannon" passes, which is the gti's strength.
Pressing the start button that constantly "breathes", at the moment of engine start, the exhaust sound coming from the back of the car can instantly provoke your deep driving desire, which is also one of the major hidden advantages of the third-generation EA888 without GPF (particle trapper).
Flick the small razor-like gear handle, tap the throttle, and you will be pleasantly surprised to find that the conventional dual-clutch starting stickiness, clutch combination unnatural and other phenomena, in this DQ381 gearbox does not exist at all, but the slight metal impact sound of low-speed gear change, the volkswagen dual-clutch stubborn disease, is still there. What is even more surprising is that compared with the DQ380 gearbox on the 7/7.5 generation GTI, the DQ381 with two independent oil pumps has made great progress in both the smoothness of shifting during daily driving and the shift logic during intense driving, and the transmission shift speed in manual mode is also very fast, and the obedience is extremely high - as long as the engine speed allows, it can immediately perform downshift instructions. It is said that the shift logic of this gearbox on the GTI is the only existence of the Volkswagen brand in the Chinese mainland market, which is why it is difficult for Magotan or Tiguan L with the same hardware configuration to provide such a sporty driving experience.
Unfortunately, perhaps considering the hardware redundancy or model positioning, this gearbox will still automatically upgrade after the speed reaches the red zone, considering the overall experience of this gearbox, if Porsche's PDK is the peak of the human dual-clutch transmission, then I am willing to call this gearbox on the GTI "Youth Version PDK"!
In addition to the coolness of the power level, the 15-segment soft and hard adjustable DCC adaptive chassis adjustment system also provides enough topicality for gti, but to be honest, due to the DUNLOP SPORT MAXX 050 tire that FAW-Volkswagen originally matched to the GTI, the grip is really crotch, so once you turn up the hardness of the suspension, the extreme dynamics of the vehicle will become a pusher. On the contrary, when the suspension hardness is kept near the comfort gear, the dynamics of the vehicle will be more abundant during the quick cornering, and the slightly sliding rear will help the cornering while further increasing the driving pleasure, and in the follow-up, I will also consider replacing the tires with stronger grip, such as Michelin PS4S, Goodyear EAGLE F1, etc., to see if the overall performance of the chassis will change.
Quiet as a virgin
For a small steel cannon, in addition to excellent driving pleasure, the friendliness of daily use is actually quite important, after all, "no wen neng wu" is the original intention of the birth of this type of model. Well, when you tighten your grumpy heart and relax your hands that hold the steering wheel, the GTI can become a competent family car.
First of all, at the configuration level, as a well-priced A-class car, the GTI can be said to be armed to the teeth: three-zone automatic air conditioning, active braking, ACC adaptive cruise, steering wheel heating, blind zone monitoring, ten-speaker HARMAN Carlton sound, HUD head-up display, matrix LED headlights, seat memory... With such a rich configuration, it is really difficult to think of a fierce character who will "fight" with Honda on the road.
In addition to the perfect comfort configuration, the DQ381 gearbox mentioned above can achieve excellent fuel economy when driving gently - when you switch to economy mode, once the throttle is released, the vehicle will immediately enter the state of neutral sliding, and when you press the brakes with the intention of deceleration, the gearbox will immediately intervene in the appropriate gear, timely use the speed to reverse the engine operation, further reduce fuel consumption, then the GTI is like those taxi drivers on the road who are accustomed to driving manual gears. Use every effort to squeeze out the maximum value of each drop of gasoline.
GTI is like the one who can wear a suit and tie to enter and exit the high-end clubhouse, pull off the tie and roll up the sleeves and fight with the.
A big drawback
However, when I switched to the identity of the car media, the GTI after losing the "owner's aura" actually had many shortcomings that could not be ignored. Among the many shortcomings, the most unbearable is its car engine system. Although Volkswagen has always referred to the 8th generation of golf as "digital golf", the worst thing this generation of golf has done is the "digital" aspect. Extremely stuttering machines + logically confused menu settings + canceling physical buttons make the entire interior experience a disaster.
I don't know why, in the eyes of the public, digitizing and canceling everything the physical buttons are drawn equal, so we can see that in addition to the double flash buttons, the GTI eye and hand touch are all replaced by induction buttons - headlight control, driving mode switching, air conditioning adjustment, volume adjustment and even sunroof opening, even the multi-function button on the steering wheel has become an induction button with vibration feedback.
Because of this, "blind exercise" on this car has almost become an insurmountable task, and what drives me more crazy is that if you want to be a little arrogant on the mountain road, you want to adjust the stability control system of the vehicle to the state of motion, you need to perform as many as 4 or 5 clicks and slide operations on the central control screen to achieve, plus the already unresponsive car machine, in a meal of operation, I am afraid that the mountain road has been run...
In addition to the big hard injury of the car machine, I can also pick out a lot of thorns at the driving level, such as when crossing the parking lot speed bump at a speed of 15-20km/h, the front axle of the GTI will have an extremely obvious large tremor, and this working condition is actually often encountered in daily use, it is understood that the same problem also exists in the ordinary version of the 8th generation golf, personal speculation that this may be related to the domestic version of the golf with reduced the front aluminum alloy subframe, The overseas version of the Golf, even the ordinary version, is equipped with an aluminum alloy subframe as standard. This is what makes me more angry than the "castration" of the engine.
In addition to the "dew filling" that will be "exposed" after the speed bump, the European version steering machine that was previously pinned on high hopes is also where I am disappointed. Although the new steering machine on the 8th generation GTI has a smaller steering ratio, with only two laps of travel from the far left to the far right, its steering feel is actually not prominent, especially the hand feel in the central area is particularly blurred, even if the steering power is adjusted to the heaviest, it cannot change this feature. On the contrary, the greater damping actually makes the angle gain of the steering more abrupt, and I thought that the steering would be a highlight of this generation of GTI, and there were many media outlets that blew about the so-called "European version of the turn", but honestly this steering really did not have a surprising feeling.
In terms of workmanship, the 8th generation GTI also has some inherent "problems" of volkswagens, such as many of the first owners of the car to reflect the oil leakage of the gearbox, and the details such as the rear reading light light light is lit for no reason, the A-pillar snap and the headlight water are also the most reflected problems in the group of car friends.
Farewell to the fuel age
Perhaps, in the eyes of most people, buying an 8th generation GTI is by no means a rational choice, but before you reject this car, I must make a few points: 1. The eighth generation of golf will not only be the last generation of pure fuel golf, but even most likely the last generation of golf, and its status will most likely be replaced by ID.3. 2, in today's increasingly stringent emission regulations, the living space left for fuel performance vehicles has become smaller and smaller. 3. The GTI produced by FAW-Volkswagen is the cheapest version in the global market.
And if you are a driving enthusiast and a performance car enthusiast, then in the price range of 200,000-300,000, GTI is still the car that combines sportiness and practicality the best. I dare not say how long I can insist on owning this GTI under the influence of the trend of electrification and policies, but I am sure that even if I drive those electric vehicles with zero hundred acceleration for 3 seconds, zero pollution and zero noise in the future, when I think back to the scene of driving a GTI on the weekend and attacking the corner on the mountain road with a group of like-minded friends, I will definitely remember it endlessly.
That's enough, isn't it?
(Some image source network)
Today's topic
Is GTI worth buying?
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