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When thinking about the Golf, my personal recollection is the vivid memory of my childhood friend, whose father owned a Golf GTi Mk2. It became a family member, a car that stayed in the family for 18 years. At the end, the car and family only separated due to unfortunate circumstances. In fact, until today it is likely that you’ll hear a similar story from GTi (or Golf) owners.
Going electric has always been a very vague concept, yet it’s been in the automotive industry for as long as the latter existed. How can you convince a petrolhead that driving on battery power might actually be fun?
So here’s something different. Each year we list our favourite new cars which were launched over the last 12 months but this time around, instead of us telling you which ones we liked, our Facebook page invited YOU to vote your favourite new ride of 2016.
The list of candidates was chosen from the launches we attended or vehicles we thought were brilliant newcomers and worthy of being included in this line-up.
The Volkswagen Golf GTI has long been the yardstick for all performance hatchbacks to be measured by. One can certainly see this in our daily traffic, where the fast Wolfsburger ruthlessly outnumbers its rapid counterparts. For those wishing to stick out a little more, there’s now the limited-edition GTI Clubsport.
Spare a thought for the runner-up, that poor soul who came second. Like those athletes who return from the Olympics with a toothy smile and a silver medal dangling around their neck; or the chap who got five numbers right in the lotto. Now spare a thought for my latest test car, the Peugeot 308 GT.
Vierzig Jahre nach seiner Einführung braucht der Golf GTI sicherlich keine Erklärung mehr. Falls Sie doch eine Gedankenstütze benötigen, war dieser legendäre Volkswagen einer der ersten seiner Art, der die Alltagstauglichkeit eines vernünftigen Fließheckmodells mit frecher Leistung kombinierte.
Some facts: Volkswagen has refreshed its Polo range with more efficient engines and better technology, at the same time giving the hot-headed GTi a good seeing-to. Where once pounded a 1.4-litre heart, the new Polo GTi now has a growling 1.8-litre with 141kW; in DSG or Manual.
Over the years I’ve made some conclusions about cars and I’m more than happy to share one of them with you now. If you’re after a performance car, run your finger to the most powerful end of a showroom price list and slide it down one notch. That’s right, don’t buy a BMW M3. Buy a 340i.
In hierdie tye van besparing en kommer oor skadelike gasse kan mens wonder of daar nog ‘n aanvraag is vir opgewarmde sportiewe luikrugmodelle wat gebou is vir spoed eerder as ekonomie. Maar as jy na die lys van aanbiedings op die mark kyk is daar nogal heelwat. Die bekendste is seker Volkswagen se Golf GTI wat al lank met ons is. Dan is daar ook die Opel Astra OPC en die Renault Megane RS en later in 2016 kom die Ford Focus ST.