Worthy of the GTI badge?

The Polo GTI has landed in Singapore. VCS has not made its presence felt yet, notably due to the 9 month waiting time! Apparently, according to my sales rep, VW has not produced enough to be sold in Singapore yet.

First impressions:

Exterior:

This hatch looks like the Golf GTI's smaller brother, without a doubt. The trademark honeycomb grill and red trims sets it apart from the base models. The sunroof is huge and spans half of the roofline, and this helps in adding a sportier touch. In fact, it looks similar to that of the Scirocco 2.0 tsi and even the R variant. The rear looks like a carbon copy of the base model, except for the twin exhaust tips and more angular rear valence. I'm not a fan of the tail lights though.. feel that it looks like a red dice.

Interior:

Mixed feelings were felt once we settled down inside the cockpit. Generous red stitchings can be seen on the steering wheel, gear lever and gear knob, but the central amenities area looks plain and unconvincing. We would definitely welcome a simple lid to cover those exposed bottle holders.

The seats are supportive and we love the alcantara bits which adds a sporty feel to this zippy little hatch. Seating position is spot on and every button is within the driver's reach. There's good driver visibility all round. The rear is very squeezy, but we can't fault VW in this area as its not meant to be a full fledged people carrier.

The Drive:

We were extremely excited for this test drive, more so when we are so familiar with the Golf GTI. We did not expect the driving experience to be similar to that of the larger hatch, but we know that it has to be on par with the Golf in terms of refinement since its a German marque after all.

The 7 speed DSG gearbox seem to be the natural choice for every new production VW nowadays, namely the facelifted Tiguan and Passat. I'm not a fan of the 7 speeder dry dual clutch, and owners of the newer VWs can attest to my view. This gearbox can aid in achieving excellent fuel economy especially when paired with the 1.4 litre tsi engine, but the juddering at low speeds both during down and upshifts will irk drivers during city driving. We could not sense any vibration in our test car, but time will tell whether the gearbox can last.

The twincharged 1.4 litre engine is extremely sprightly during low speeds and drivers will ease through traffic. Overtaking is effortless with just a simple prod on the throttle. There's very minimal lag mainly due to the supercharger doing its job before the turbo gains momentum.

Verdict:

It's fast and it does 6.9sec to the century sprint, but we do not feel a sense of involvement with the car. Is it due to the gearbox, or excessive use of force induction to extract the horses and torque out of this nippy Veedub?

Will you always have the urge to take a detour just to enjoy this car for a tad longer?

Yes.

Is it worthy of the GTI badge?

Its a really tough decision, but I'm swaying more towards the negative side.