This Week’s Ride: 2010 Volkswagen Golf GTI

As a motoring journo, I get to kick around in some pretty special cars. It’s not the highest paying gig in the world, to be honest, so it’s perks like these that make it worthwhile. (until it comes time to buy a house, and then getting to drive nice cars becomes fairly useless to you!)

Because I’m TMR’s News Editor, I don’t do many reviews anymore. Running the news simply takes too much of my time as it is, so squeezing in a review each week is more than I can take on. Because of this, I usually only get the cars for a day or two.

This week, I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on the latest generation Golf GTI, thanks to Volkswagen Australia being only too aware of my obsession with the new Golf.

It’s a special car. I haven’t taken any photos of it yet, but it’s the three-door version of the car in this post. Admittedly the steering wheel’s on the wrong side, but hey - you get the drift.

Our review of the car will come in the next couple of weeks and I’ll be sure to post a link here, but I’ll say for now that this is just one very, very special car. Excellent power, excellent torque, amazing handling straight out of the box…

I used to drive a Golf IV GTI, and I went through periods of loathing its lack of power to absolutely adoring its handling. I always loved the build quality and style and interior, though.

This car… it’s just the whole package. I can’t say enough good things about it. Beautiful interior, great styling - especially with that grille, an homage to the first Golf GTI - and of course the power and handling.

Can’t wait for the next generation! But even more than that, I can’t wait until the Golf R - the more powerful, all-wheel-drive sibling to the GTI - arrives later this year.