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Pick Your Polo Poison
Before you choose, remember, this Polo GTI won’t be coming to the United States when the nameplate arrives sometime next year. In fact, no three-door hatch is planned for America at all, since VW has...
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Announcing The Double-Blown Hot Hatch Polo GTI You Can’t Buy
The long awaited Polo GTI is not long awaited anymore. Except if you live in the U.S.A. Then you can wait until the proverbial cows come home. Or until someone at VeeDub has an epiphany and sends the...
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Piston Slap: Tuner Talk, Debunked
TTAC Commentator Rehposolihp writes: I drive a MKV GTI and despite it being a car that always brings a smile to my face when its working…well, just having to make that last qualification doesn’t bode...
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New or Used: “Affirmative Action” on a Lease Payout?
Luiz writes: Dear Steve/Sajeev: I am a 35 year old elementary school principal, married with 2 kids (5 and 9), and a certified car nut who thinks and reads about them way too much, and who is a...
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Piston Slap: of Lemons and VW GTIs
Paul writes: Good Morning Sajeev, Today is my 2010 GTI’s 15th day in the shop (shocking, right?). Earlier this month it was in for 13 days, I had it back for 6, and I dropped it back off two days...
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Where The Reichs Racers Meet
Each year around this time, owners of – what is the German equivalent to rice racer? Reichs Racer? – overengined hatches congregate around the Wörthersee in Austria for the annual GTI Meeting. This is...
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Piston Slap: Modifying the 80-year old with the clap?
Stephen writes: I have a 1.8T GTI, owned since new and more or less problem-free. Its clutch went early, and it occasionally eats a sensor, but otherwise it’s been a contrast to the image of VWs as...
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2013 Volkswagen Intramural League, First Place: GTI Mk7
The current GTI has thoroughly earned its reputation as a brilliant, satisfying driver’s car. Under the skin, however, it’s a decade old and in the time since the MkV GTI blew the bloody door off the...
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Review: 2014 Ford Focus ST (With Video)
Hot hatches are all the rage in Europe but represent a fairly small segment of American consumption. The formula is fairly simple, you take a compact hatchback, insert a turbocharged engine, stiffen...
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Roadside Temptation
Just a little ways ahead is your favorite spot on the whole trip. It’s a place you always look for as you drive by, craning your neck and slowing down to take in the view. You’ve never stopped there,...
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Capsule Review: 2015 Volkswagen Golf GTI
This is all very normal. I exited my driveway, turned left at the end of our cul-de-sac, then right onto our village’s main two-lane, low-speed thoroughfare, shifted into third and fourth, turned up...
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Volkswagen Jetta GLI: Reviewed!
This is not a GTI. This is not a GTI. This is not a GTI. Cross your tees and line your elles, this is not that darling of the #millennial boot-scoot generation: the My First Big Boy Car Volkswagen...
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2015 Volkswagen GTI 2-Door Review (With Video)
Although GTI sales are on an upward trend, the American hot hatch is a rare breed as there are just three options. We have the aging Ford Focus ST, and a new pair of hatches from Germany: the...
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Wörthersee GTI Treffen: Where Volkswagens Rule
Old and new. If you’re into Volkswagens – especially of the modified variety – Wörthersee is to you what Sturgis is for Harley riders or Carlisle to Mopar fans. Thousands and thousands of VW fans...
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2015 Volkswagen GTI Long-Term Tester Update
The media is all abuzz about former Olympic decathlon gold-medalist Bruce Jenner transforming himself into a woman. The 2015 Volkswagen GTI could be considered the sporty car equivalent of a...
View ArticleVolkswagen GTI Clubsport Is Here (And Probably Already Sold Out)
Volkswagen’s 40th anniversary model of its Golf GTI will be shown this year in Frankfu — and they’re probably already all gone. The GTI Clubsport carries the same 2-liter, turbocharged, four-cylinder...
View Article2015 Volkswagen GTI Long-Term Update: 10,150 Miles of Fun
As my personal GTI is powered by gasoline, you might think this will be the first Volkswagen story you have read in the past three months that doesn’t mention Dieselgate. You’d be wrong. When...
View ArticleWhat’s Going On with Volkswagen’s Golf GTI?
Dealers are shaving thousands off of Volkswagen’s Golf GTI — up to $5,000 at some dealers — and the hatchback is relatively easy to find at rental car counters across the country. So, is everything...
View ArticleDigestible Collectible: 1984 Volkswagen GTI
Once again, I’m dazzled by those wheels, just like the Quantum we looked at last week. I’m a sucker for clean, well-styled factory wheels: Oldsmobile Rally wheels, Fuchs found on Porsches, Rostyles...
View ArticleAsk Bark: Hi, I’m A Millennial Who Likes Cars!
Conner (Conner? Is that a real name?) writes: Hey Bark, Twenty-three-year-old car buying millennial here. I recently got my first big boy job that pays big boy money. But because I’m definitely not a...
View ArticleAsk Bark: Going from Minivan to Just Plain Old Mini
Kirk writes: Bark, Please advise a guy who just turned 50 and is rolling in a ’96 Honda Odyssey. My Ody was great, but the oil filter adapter O-ring recently failed and caused all of my oil to drain...
View Article2015 Volkswagen GTI Long-Term Final Update (And Fun With Car Buying Scammers)
The automotive media slobbered over the redesigned 2015 Volkswagen GTI sporty hatchback ever since its introduction two years ago. I put 13,500 miles on mine over the past year and I agree that it is...
View ArticleGTI or S3? Nah, It’s Easy To Make The Case For The 2016 Volkswagen Golf R
$26,415. $36,470. $43,395. The jumps in price from the four-door Volkswagen Golf GTI to the Volkswagen Golf R to the Audi S3, three closely related cars, are not insignificant. Yet in spite of the...
View ArticleVolkswagen’s Golf Refresh Has Created an Unrecognizable Monster
No, you aren’t losing your mind. This isn’t a completely new form of transportation or an abstract piece of rolling art. What you are seeing is Volkswagen’s venerable hatchback after its mid-cycle...
View ArticlePurists Rejoice: There Will Never Be a Volkswagen GTI SUV; Golf GTI Cruising...
Got your heart set on a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas, one with upsized wheels, stickier tires, bigger brakes, some red piping around the grille, and tartan seats? I feel you. But Volkswagen’s illustrious GTI...
View ArticleNext Volkswagen Golf R and GTI Likely to Become Leaner, Meaner, Maybe Greener
As Volkswagen progresses toward electrification and bolsters is court-mandated greener image, concerns arose that enthusiasts might be left to fend for themselves. Those fears appear to have been...
View Article2018 Volkswagen Golf GTI First Drive – Nothing to Anger the Faithful
The formula for the Volkswagen Golf GTI is simple; take a good car, add horsepower, add styling flourishes, and make something special. For the past 35 years in the United States, the GTI has done this...
View ArticleAce of Base: 2018 Volkswagen Golf GTI S
Ages ago, the GTI was a trim level of the Golf, bringing the heat to a funky little hatchback and virtually creating a segment. Now, there are actually three different flavors of GTI: S, SE, and...
View Article286-horsepower VW Golf GTI TCR Is ‘Almost Ready for Production’
Volkswagen’s Golf GTI isn’t a vehicle you hear people complain about very often. Bridging the gap between fun and functionality near perfectly, the hatchback delivers on every promise it makes. Still,...
View Article2018 Volkswagen Golf GTI Autobahn Review – All-around Virtue, or the Auto...
There’s a reason why the Volkswagen Golf GTI is fetishized by journalists and enthusiasts as perhaps the perfect daily-driver sporty car. Because if it isn’t, it’s damn near close. Changes for 2018...
View ArticleAsk Bark: Don’t Call It a Comeback
Yes, dear readers, I’ve missed you. More importantly, I’ve missed your questions and the opportunity to provide my occasionally helpful feedback. So we’re rebooting the “Ask Bark” column, which will...
View ArticleVW Recalls 679,000 U.S. Vehicles Over Rollaway Risk
On Friday, Volkswagen Group announced the recall of 679,000 U.S. vehicles that could roll away due to an electrical problem. Apparently, silicate buildup can accumulate on the shift lever micro switch...
View ArticleBuy/Drive/Burn: The $13,000 Sporty Car Question of 1988
In the recent Shelby CSX Rare Rides entry, long-term commenter 28-Cars-Later suggested some sporty competitors to the Shelby, all of which cost the same according to the state of Michigan. Japan,...
View ArticleSketchy Stuff: VW Shows Images of Mk8 Golf
The Volkswagen Golf has been a mainstay on the compact car scene since approximately the dawn of time, ringing up sales on multiple continents and introducing a world of new drivers to the sweet taste...
View ArticleJunkyard Find: 2001 Volkswagen GTI VR6
Because high-performance German cars require exactly the sort of regular maintenance and attention that most American car owners aren’t so good at doing, I find plenty of nice-looking factory-hot-rod...
View ArticleNext-generation Volkswagen Golf GTI Teased
Denizens of the United States, you should forget about the word “Golf” and just focus on the “GTI” designation. That’s all you’ll really need to know about, what with Volkswagen opting to ditch the...
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