Volkswagen Golf GTI manual 2005 review

It's that good.

After much poking and prodding, we discovered the car comes with only a space saver spare wheel, which loses it half a mark in our eyes.

If you ever had a flat tyre – particularly out in the country – you'll rue the day you open the boot to discover one of the funny looking space savers nestling under the floor.

The skinny little rims and tyres are only good for about 400km, after which they must be replaced – and that is a story in itself.

Apart from this, our only quibbles concern the boot lid which does not seal properly on first shutting and the optional sunroof which suffers from a compression build up of air in the cabin unless you open the side windows.

Volkswagen has really nailed it with this one.

No wonder it decided to launch the car separately to the rest of the Golf range.

The GTi builds on the excellent Golf V platform with more power, bigger and better brakes, 15mm lower sports suspension and a long list of standard equipment.

You get all this for a starting price of $39,990 – it's enough to take your breath away.

The Golf GTi is credited with starting the whole hatch thing way back in 1978.

This is the fifth generation GTi but it is a quantum leap forward from the previous lack lustre model.

That car's 1.8-litre turbocharged engine put out a pretty ordinary 110kW of power, compared to the new car's 147kW.

It was also pretty hefty giving it an unimpressive power to weight ratio.

Not so with the new GTi.

It's still not as powerful as a WRX, I hear you say, but the proof of the pudding is in definitely in the driving and this car leaves nothing to be desired.

Even our resident power junky, Mr "V8" Barnwell is impressed and that's saying something.

The heart of the matter is VW's 2.0-litre, high pressure FSI engine which has been turbocharged to produce 147kW of power at 5100rpm and 280Nm of torque from a low 1800rpm.

You get a choice of six-speed manual or six- speed DSG, double clutch auto.

The GTi goes like the clappers as we discovered at Canberra's Sutton Road Driver Training Centre, with no discernible lag from the turbo.

We drove the six-speed manual which some felt could have done with a shorter throw shift, but it pushes all the right buttons as far as we're concerned, being smooth and easy to use.

The manual GTi accelerates from 0-100km/ h in 7.2 seconds, while the DSG is even better at 6.9 seconds.

In fact, the DSG is even quicker than a Rex with automatic transmission, but who's count- ing?

The bloke in the WRX on the way back from Canberra certainly showed us some respect.

However, we were happy to tuck in and sit behind him all the way back to Sydney.

Everything in the GTi has been adjusted to suit the car's sporty personna, including the electronic stability control system which kicks in only when absolutely necessary.

On the road the car feels light and responsive, with a nice note from the exhaust and impeccable mid-corner manners, even at the limit.

Standard equipment includes stability con- trol, brake assist and alarm system with interior monitoring.

Optional are the DSG auto which adds $2300 to the cost, plus metallic paint, leather upholstery, bi-xenon headlights, electric sunroof and satellite navigation.