Volkswagen Golf GTI

The underachieving Mk8 GTI gets a shot at redemption with the new, revised Mk8.5 version. Is it the leap forward it needs to be?

- YOUSUF ASHRAF

LIFE HASN'T BEEN EASY FOR THE MK8 Golf GTI. After the heights of the Mk7, which was superbly rounded and one of the best GTIs there's ever been, things came tumbling down when Volkswagen decided that the Golf needed more digitisation and more screens to move forward into the current decade. We won't beat what is a very dead horse here, but if you've ever tried to tap, poke and stroke your way around the eighth-gen Golf's interface, you'll know just how much of a blunder that was.

But it wasn't just the HMI system. When it launched in 2019, the Mk8 Golf no longer felt like the class benchmark for quality, while as a hot hatch there was a sense that it had lost some of the polish and slickness of its predecessor.

Yes it was more powerful and could carry immense speed down a road, but it somehow wasn't as satisfying to own, live with and drive as the Mk7.

Perhaps we would've looked at the Mk8 GTI more fondly if Hyundai hadn't come out of nowhere to produce the outstanding i30 N a year earlier. In many ways Hyundai's first hot hatch felt like a modern reincarnation of the Mk5 Golf GTI, with an addictive, pugnacious attitude and all the sensibilities you need in an everyday car. An archetypal hot hatch, in other words, and so much more exciting (and significantly cheaper) than the Golf. Shame you can't order a new one anymore.

Now Volkswagen is having another go at reclaiming the market it has traditionally been at or near the top of by launching an updated Mk8.5 GTI. Or, more accurately, one last go. An electric Mk9 Golf arrives later in the decade, which makes this the final combustion-engined GTI and one with enormous weight on its shoulders. No doubt there will be a number of run-out specials at some point to join this and the more powerful Clubsport, but for the GTI to go out on a high, the base car needs to be good.