2015 Volkswagen GTI THE ESSENTIALS TEST DRIVE 

Brilliant! Great choice! Thanks for watching and enjoy!

Congrats, Denis! Enjoy!

Thanks, again! We do get all the good stuff in Canada! #blamecanada

for 2018 you can get the clark plaid in the se trim. unfortunately no more sport trim for us here in the usa

Thanks! I think you'll love the GTI!

Thanks! I'm sure you've earned the upgrade!

Great choice, Alex!

It could be the all around most perfect car available today.

I could agree with that

This guy is a championship winning racing driver in a front wheel drive car. This guy might know more than you think.

They'd be fun in there weren't overrun by mindless drivers and police ready to apply some overzealous traffic laws. I may be a little biased because I always enjoy driving anywhere other than Ontario much better. Thanks for watching!

Brian Makse Without the performance pack here in the US (extra HP & limited slip) is it still a better buy than a MKVI in your opinion?

David Lombana Undoubtedly. It's a markedly better car than the VI is so many ways.

+Armand Vanderlinden Buy the GTI. You can't go wrong. You'll love it. The M235i is otherwise a superior choice, a wonderful little car. I made my kid climb in the back of two door cars for years, even 911s.

...and all of it remains inauthentic.

The GTI absolutely uses a speaker to fake-ify engine noises. It's in the rain-tray, it's called the "Soundaktor". www.golfmk7.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2091&d=1406140766

Thanks! I hate that kind of stuff.

This video is so old I don’t remember anything I said! Love GTIs, though. Saw the new one a couple of days ago.

Thanks, Tim!

Do it! Don't hesitate!

Taking your advice and scheduling a test drive this weekend. But now my newest problem...White or Red?

shawnriv9 Between those two? White.

shawnriv9 The GTi has always been defined by the tartan seats and the red stripe on the grille. So even though the red is stunning, you lose a bit of that. I am getting it in white next year.

You can't really go wrong in this group. Let us know what you get!

+Lee How's it been so far?

Honestly, it depends on how much you enjoy driving. For me, it's a must. I haven't tested the base WRX yet, but am in the next few weeks.

Lucky to test drove a 15' WRX today. The power delivery wasn't that smooth. And I noticed a quite bit of power loss with AC on. Is this a normal turbo behavior?

No, A/C might only use a couple of horsepower and shouldn't be discernible.

+Peter Yoo GTI cus you won't want your son to accidentally lose control with the rear wheel drive BRZ especially its his first car without much driving experience

+Peter Yoo How about telling him to save and work for his own car. That would be better than giving him a car.

I can answer this. Production is scheduled to start in week 50. No change in that data at this point.

Russell Soares Thanks - I assume that means mid-December production.

***** Correct, likely early-January on dealer lots.

PP cars are available for purchase (at dealers, not waiting at port) in Canada now, so I imagine there are some sprinkled in various states.

Thanks! It's a little difficult to do, since every measure here and elsewhere is Metric. When I'm in the US and measuring fuel consumption, I use American (or whatever it's called).

Hi Jerry, thanks for watching! The GTI and Civic Si should be right at the top of your list. Both are excellent, but very different in character. I think your decision will be based on your preference for torque vs hp and hatch vs coupe. You really can't go wrong with the GTI and while the Civic isn't as quick or as perfectly composed, it's quite good as well. I just wish they'd bring a Civic Si hatch to North America for us. I haven't driven the WRX (though I recently tested the STI and published the film a couple of weeks ago) and I'm not a fan of the Focus ST (see our film from last year). You're correct on the spec I drove, but you're right. Product planners in the US and Canada do different things. Unfortunately, I don't have any info on the US specifications, but that should be readily available at vw.com. Thanks again for watching!

Hi Jerry. My name is Jeff, obviously. :) I don't know if you still need this information, but, unfortunately, you can only get those great Clark Plaid cloth seats in the base "S: model here in the USA. They're not available in the "SE" or "Autobahn" trim levels. They have leather seating. But, if you get the "S" trim you can't get the sunroof or navigation. As a matter of fact, you can't get nav on the "SE" either. If you want it you have to go for the "Autobahn" trim, and that is only available as a 4-door. It kinda shocks me that VW doesn't offer nav on the two lower trim levels. Pretty odd for a relatively premium car in 2014. The Fender upgraded sound system is also not available on the "S" trim level car. You have to sacrifice quite a bit to get those cool seats! It's a shame. But, you CAN get the "Performance Package" with all of the trim levels. I would highly recommend that--10 more hp, bigger brakes, and a locking limited-slip differential. That's a lot for $1500. I hope this was helpful to you.

Jeff Puha Thanks so much Jeff. I have been checking out the VW website and came to the same conclusions. I'm so disappointed that I can't set up the car exactly how I want it especially considering that I'm getting ready to spend 30K on a Golf.... Anyway, I'm thinking I'll probably just go with the S trim since it will have the plaid interior and I'll add the performance package, perhaps upgrade the sound system afterward. I have a great Garmin nav that I can just plug in and free lifetime updates. Thanks again!

Jerry Sawasaki Hi Jerry. That sounds like a plan. Good for you! I'm glad for you. Yeah. I don't understand VW's thinking as far as some of the features that are, and are not, included with the different trim levels. I love those plaid seats, but I want the sunroof and nav too. And I want a 2-door, so that rules the Autobahn model with the nav out. Perhaps I could get the SE model and get a pair of the plaid seats from a junkyard car that was in a bad accident, and swap them out later. Lol. Have a great time with your new GTI. I wish you many years of fun and safe driving.

Doesn't bother me at all, but I'd rather have a handle for e-brake turns. Didn't really have a problem with the hold function, either.

All GTI trim levels in Canada allow Leather as an option (except the least expensive model, which only has Clark Cloth).

Well now I'm really jealous here in the states. They only offer us bundles and it's really annoying. I would have preferred to save some money on the leather and get those great fabric seats. May be doing a seat swap in the future.

To be fair, they bundle them here as well, such that you can't get the LP on the least expensive 2-door version.

+ParkersGarage Here, in Europe we have even more greater option like cloth/leather/alcantara seats.

The stock exhaust sounds terrible...

+Jordan HS we have to be somewhere!

+Brian Makse haha I just got slightly excited cause I recognized that bridge, isn't that near the dvp?

+Jordan HS probably, but I don't remember. This video is pretty old now. Be sure to subscribe! Many more scenes of Toronto will show up.

Thanks! I think that this is so well balanced that it doesn't need a tune. Plenty of power. Perhaps a good tune will impress me one day.

Brian Makse When I picked up this car in August I thought it was fast. 1 month later I was used to it and it didn't feel fast anymore. Now it's just quick.

APR or AWE will fix that ! My MK6 put out around 320 hp at the crank and it felt perfect

Kevin Cheung I hear you. I still think it's a well-balanced package. DSG GTI is coming for a test soon and I'm looking forward to revisiting it.

Torrey B that's the thing, it's so easy for these guys to do. I'd want to try an APR tune before I bought it. I'd hate to lose the all around goodness of the GTI.

Yes, but not on video.

What's your take on it vs the 7? I love my VW's, but I can't help but want the MK6 more for the simplicity of the design, it's not as modern looking and the leather Recaro seats/headrests are unreal in the 6th gen

Daniel Tojcic The 7 is better in every way, except that it has to fake its engine sound.

Tell VW USA, don't tell us.

That's a problem easily resolved by the aftermarket.

I've heard that putting wider tires on the car helps with grip, particularly when you go APR stage 1 and have 360 ft/lbs pumping through the front wheels :)

bob g No need for wider tires, just throw on some race tires. That'll help with traction.

What's that?

Why?

+Brian Makse +TheMacsaan Quite the opposite. I picked up my 2016 GTI with some great discounts as a result of the VW diesel crisis. Great price, great car, loving every second in it.

+Trevor Cook Indeed.

+TheMacsaan I'm pretty sure that whole debacle is only involving VW diesels and only in North America. I just bought a 2016 TSI for about $2000 less than the 2015 version was not long ago. The dealer said the drop is most likely because of this, and I'm in Australia. Now is the best time to buy a GTI.

+Lee It's what the entire world uses except 'Murica.

+Brian Makse Murica...FUCK YEA!

+David Lyn That's what I keep hearing.