First Drive: 2025 Volkswagen Golf GTI

Summit Point, WV – It may seem a touch, well, odd that we’re at a race track to experience the new “generation 8.5” Volkswagen Golf GTI, but if we drill down a little more, maybe not. After all; the GTI has always been – and pretty much started – the affordable car for the masses genre, one that has since been populated by the likes of the Mazda MX-5, Toyota 86 and more. Of course, the Golf has what none of those do, and that’s the ability to not only put a smile on you face, but easily haul your groceries and the family while it’s at it. So, we’d be driving on public roads around the track as well, as we take a 360-degree look at this latest of GTIs.

The GTI has been massaged and evolved over the course of eight generations and it is a very willing dance partner in this situation. Veedub has come as close to anyone at perfecting the front-wheel-drive performance hatch.

A lot of that is about offering powerful turbocharged engines and cool styling but what the GTI does – has always done – is provide granular steering feel and chassis response without overly compromising the ride and occupant comfort. It’s what turns a mass-market compact hatchback into a proper driver’s tool.

For 2025, the GTI is available in two trims – GTI ($36,495) and GTI Autobahn ($40,495) — and with only a sprinkling of add-ons to choose from. It has received a new front bumper design, new headlights and an illuminated VW emblem. There are also new wheel designs and exterior colours and it all combines to both tighten up the styling and add just a little bit of flare.

Inside, there’s an all-new infotainment system with an enlarged touch display as well as optional new seats borrowed from the European Clubsport model. They are more supportive than previous and come finished in a material called “ArtVelour”, which, in the King’s, means a suede-like material with honeycomb inserts. They are more supportive, but they can’t be fitted with a cooling system. Luckily, the standard seats still get the tartan finish many GTI enthusiasts know and love and there’s a leather option as well that is both heated and cooled. The climate control system’s temperature controls remain a touch-sensitive affair but they are now illuminated. That probably should have been the case before but nevertheless, VW has listened to its customers and they’re here now.

Is all of this enough to earn a “gen 8.5” designation? I’m not so sure, but considering that the cabin is well-appointed and spacious — especially when it comes to both front and rear headroom – I’m also not so sure that it matters.

What I am more sure of is that the infotainment system is a big upgrade. More than just having a larger display (from 11” on the old car to 12.9” here), it also gets better, brighter graphics, a more responsive touchscreen and is more intuitive to operate thanks to smarter menu design and bigger buttons. The way it sticks up over the dash instead of sitting snuggly within does bely the fact that this is more of a refresh than a full-on change; the new display is taken from larger VW’s and their taller dashes.

With the GTI, though, all of that plays second fiddle to how it drives.

It’s performance on the track is one thing, but of course it’s the open road where a compact hatch like this really needs to shine. And shine it does; that immediate steering that helps place the car so well on the track also makes it easier to thread through bustling city streets and to park. The ride – which can be improved if you select the Autobahn model that gets adaptive dampers – does well to meter out the bumps and cracks our urban centres throw at us and our cars. Even the larger 19” wheels (18s are standard) don’t compromise the ride as much I feared they would.

Then there’s the power. It matches last year’s output of 241 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque, fed to the front wheels through a 7-speed automatic – and only a 7-speed automatic. ’24 was the last year you could get a manual transmission in either the GTI or its more powerful Golf R sibling, so it’s a 7-speed dual-clutch auto from here on out, which is a bit of a shame. As quick-shifting as the gearbox is (it gets paddles for upshifts and downshifts), there is just something about the granularity of a manual ‘box.

It is quick, though, banging through the gears at a fever pitch (especially if you’ve selected the Sport drive mode) and transmitting the power to the road with gumption and little torque steer. That means a much stronger pull out of corners and a nicely involved drive.

We end right where we started: at the Summit Point Motorsports Park in the town in West Virginia of the same name. It’s a fun, tight track with some nice undulations, off camber turns and very little in the way of curbing; there’s tarmac, then some dirt, then lovely, slippery grass all the way to infinity. It’s a neat mix of track and backcountry road, and that makes sense for a Golf GTI.

Which, for its part, acquitted itself incredibly well here. The power is just enough to get some nice pull out of corners while race mode allows just enough slip so that you really can slide this little front-wheeler if you so desire. Best of all, in all-out attack mode like this, well, you just don’t miss a manual gearbox so much because a dual clutch auto is inherently faster and you are on a racetrack so it feels right. This may not be its natural state of affairs, but it works well nevertheless.

Generation 8.5-worthy or no, the ’25 GTI continues the tradition of practicality and performance to the point it’s hard to make an argument that there’s anything out there – in North America, anyway – that can call itself an equal. It’s that good.