The Golf GTI Mk4

Today was my third day without my car, using the replacement Golf GTI Mk4. As the GTI has such an important value in the history of motoring, I was really pleased with the opportunity of driving one for a week.

Well, this car is famous in the company as in very bad conditions. The clutch is not bad, it is almost gone. The engine is vibrating like a diesel truck engine and making noise as an old Cesna airplane. Then you have the car in third gear you can feel all the engine vibration in the gear knob.

Once you get used to the car as it is, though, you can drive it quite well (just a little of brute force here and there) then you start looking for the rest of the car. The interior is well equipped, with CD changer, manual air conditioning, front centre armrest and a few other goodies. The problem is that the person who used this car before it became a pool car was really careless. The interior is destroyed.

If you look the car from outside, it is a normal Golf as the Mk4 GTI didn’t have any make up. It has some rather nice 16” alloys and looks just fine. When you enter the car, though, it looks like you’re entering the result of a war. The car is too damaged inside.

Once you stop looking at the damages and start looking at how was the car when it left the dealer for the first time, you realize that the interior is just good for a £14K car. If is well put together, but compared to the Audi A3 it is ugly, controls, levers, design all look much cheaper and bad quality, the sound system that has a CD changer for six CDs like my car has much less functions and the sound quality just isn’t there.

The seats are comfortable, but they do not give you that feeling of sportness that the Audi A3 seats or even better, the BMW 1 series sport seats give you. In a 60mph bend you get pushed to the other side quite easily and it is difficult to maintain a correct position on high speed bends.

The engine pumps good power. It is petrol 1.8 liter turbo-charged. It gives me the same top power of 150bhp as my car, but as it has a rather noticeable turbo lag. I don’t know if it is a defect if this engine or if all the VW/Audi 1.8T engines suffer of the same problem, but I feel the distribution of power in the 2.0 FSI much more harmonious and pleasant and the acceleration much better.

The suspension in that car is just good. It is not as good as the Audi’s one and the handling is not as good as well. You can feel a lot of understeering and you will find yourself correcting trajectories quite often in a broad curve at high speeds.

Obviously, this car was not in factory or neither good condition. I really believe that a better kept car would perform much better than this one, but some things don’t change. The facts for me are:

Considering that the price difference between a Golf GTI and an Audi A3 Sport with similar trim level and equipment is of £2,500, I really believe that I would pay those more quid and get the Audi one. The design of the Audi is just a perfect blend of sportness and elegance, while the Golf is only raw sportness and the trim and finishing quality in the Audi are just superior.

However, if I was to take a lower spec car with good sportness and reasonable handling, then I would think about this Golf.

Obviously, with the new Golf GTI Mk5 out things change a lot. The suspension and engine of this new Golf are just much better and what I heard so far is that it has supreme handling. The looks for me are just worst, as it is really sporty and not elegant at all.

I believe that the GTI Mk5 is a much more appealing car for low 20’s for its aggressive and sporty looks, while the Audi A3 is much more pleasant for people on the second half of the 20’s like me… :-)