PRETORIA - Volkswagen has revealed the price for its long-awaited new Golf 8 GTI available from September 1 and it’s not as expensive as you may have thought. It’s been a long time coming and the reason according to Steffen Knapp, Head of the Volkswagen Passenger Car Brand, the group has been affected by the global shortage of the semiconductor chips that have had an impact on all vehicles built on the MQB platform.
Coming in at R669 300 the new GTI is powered by a 2.0-litre four cylinder turbopetrol engine with 180kW and 370Nm of torque, up 11kW from its predecessor, powering the front wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. VW claims it will get from 0-100km/h in 6.4 seconds.
Standard in the price are 18-inch alloy wheels, VW’s lights and vision package, Climatronic air conditioning, heated sports steering wheel, 20cm multi-colour InnoVision cockpit, App-Connect, cruise control, parking sensors, wireless charging and 30-colour ambient lighting. There are three solid paint options with Pure White, Urano Grey and Moonstone Grey while metallic options include Dolphin Grey, Atlantic Blue, Kings Red and Reflex Silver.
As far as options are concerned you can opt for a mechanically swivelling trailer hitch, LED matrix headlamps, a black styling package (with black 18-inch alloys), head-up display, smokers package, 19-inch alloys, Harman Kardon sound system, the “Discover Pro” audio system (with satellite navigation, wireless App-Connect and voice control), parallel parking assistant, rear view camera, blind spot monitoring, lane assist, adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency emergency braking.
Interestingly, South Africa is the GTI’s biggest market outside of Europe so there’s likely to be a few more people joining the so-called Vrrrpha crowd.
The GTI comes with a three-year/120 000km warranty, five-year/90 000km EasyDrive service plan and a 12 year anti-corrosion warranty.
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