The New 2022 Volkswagen GTI Is Terrific, But Flawed 

In an era so focused on the dangers of looking at your phone while driving, automakers sure seem hellbent on making simple functions as distracting and needlessly complicated as possible.

Doug the type of rapscallion to say "jeez louise"

Love it when Doug converts the units to metric for us European viewers. Great content as always, keep up the good work Doug!

As a UIUX Designer myself, I understand the draw to going more digital, but they definitely did not do enough user testing on the controls; this is a symptom of the designers working inside a bubble and not be challenged by critical review. Not a terrible start but they have A LOT of improving to do as user feedback comes in. When it comes to cars, they need to find that balance of digital and physical controls, some of these changes are borderline unsafe.

Most important aspect of the rearview camera being behind the rear logo that Doug doesn't mention : It keeps it CLEAN. In New England, on both of our current vehicles, the rearview camera is a salty mess 4-5 months of the year.

Doug: “The infotainment isn’t that bad” Also Doug: *Proceeds to explain the most annoying , frustrating and distracting way to turn on the AC, adjust temperature and to turn on heated seats EVER*

Doug: “Be sure to check out CARS AND BIDS!“ me: *taps right side of screen 10 times*

Great hearing the fun driving experience! My years of our Rabbit were filled with dreams of the GTI! 😁

Doug: “The infotainment isn’t that bad” Also Doug: spends the next 10 minutes complaining about the terrible infotainment

I've owned my Mk7 GTI for almost six years now, and sitting in the Mk8 at the dealership recently was a huge disappointment. It's dripping with cost cutting compared to the previous generation, maybe more than most people realize if they haven't spent six years behind the wheel of the Mk7. I also love how driver-focused my car is. The ergonomics are so German in how little focus they take off the road. But no longer with the Mk8. Hope VW can find their way again with the Mk8.5 or Mk9, but I'm beginning to think the Mk7.5 may have been the last true GTI.

I remember seeing a old GTI commercial where it falls out of tree after getting stuck in it. I was about 13 years old and I fell in love. It wasn’t till about 10 years later when I was able to buy my own. It was a MkV such as yours, but black magic pearl. It was the last manual with a moon roof in Southern CA in ‘07z I remember the hype leading up to purchasing the car, watching Top Gear, and 5th gear. I can hear their British accents in my head. Then there were the “make friends with your fast” and “Un-pimp your ride” commercials. VW even sent a Fast replica, that I still have. The MkV experience was truly uncanny. Haven’t been able to find another car experience like it. Love this video. I couldnt help but smile as you smiled driving it. I am now itching to test it.

Yikes. As someone who has owned 5+ VW's, it is disappointing to see how cheap the dashboard, seats, and random trim looks just on camera. I can't imagine what it looks and feels like in person. I could tell there was some cost cutting in my MK6 compared to my MK5, but damn. At least they kept the manual and raised horsepower.

I bought a MK 7.5 because I knew all these issues with interior quality UI with the tech was an issue. Every time I see a review of the MK 8 I feel very happy about my choice!

My mk 7 has softer plastics, hydraulic hood prop, damped and lined glovebox, a volume knob, and climate controls. Guess I’ll just keep it for a little longer. Also still fun to drive

If GTI gets 3/10 for acceleration, I have to imagine that some of cheap cars must have negative scores.

Quick question Doug? Does having capacitive screens everywhere mean that in the winter, to adjust my temperature and heated seats mean I have to take off my gloves every time ? If so, looks like this is a non starter for those of us who live with snow. You spend 95% of the time enjoying a car from inside the car, cheap materials and sub par screens are just not worth the money compared to competitors offerings.

I literally can´t wait for the time when Doug is reviewing new Cars and is like: "Do you remember the early 2020s when every Car Company suddenly saw the need to replace EVERY physical button or dial with a slider or onscreen buttons? Well, we were all glad that only lasted for X ... Years!"

The 7.5 golf R interior is by far the pinnacle of VW's design. Perfect mix of hard buttons and screens and everything feels top notch quality

What a polarizing car. Some of the most brilliant design features that really blow my mind, as well as the worst I have ever seen. I really want to love this car, as I have for previous models, but I cannot tolerate it at all. What a shame.

Doug, I am happy to see that now you include the control of the heated seats trough pressing both temperature buttons that I mentioned in the comments of your previous video for the Golf and you responded to me!

It's funny to me that VW has abandoned their "premium interior" advantage, especially since Mazda has used that same feature to move upmarket. The other concern I have is that VW is well-known to be plagued with electrical Gremlins....with all the screens and haptic touch buttons/ sliders I just think they are inviting a whole new source of consumer dissatisfaction

I honestly don't understand how all those awful touch menu crap is legal. You constantly have to look at the screen, press everything anywhere from once to 8 times before it responds. But if you touch your phone to skip a song you basically get hanged.

I have the same radio in my ID.4 and once you get used to the way it works the system is great! You are almost never needing multiple things on the screen at the same time.

Good review, very detailed and honest, thank you!

With the current lineup of VW, I would go with a Jetta GLI Autobahn manual. It has most of the features of the GTI but still has physical buttons for climate control and on the steering wheel and is about $7000 cheaper with nearly as much power.

People who act like the info-tainment system's ergonomic failures aren't a big deal should consider this car is being sold as a manual. It's a massive pain to have to start messing with dials and buttons when driving stick, let alone a touchscreen, while you're trying to drive stick. Especially in city traffic.

Doug, great review and production quality, entertaining and educational. You'd be surprised to know that in Canada the base model can be order with a sunroof, heated steering wheel and wait for it, a volume knob for the the radio!

I own a 17 Tiguan. 2 liter turbo (mk6 gti motor) and I absolutely love it. I keep up with WRXs and most Hondas aren’t an issue. Interior design is spot on. Perfect mix of screens and physical buttons. Sad to see but evolution is a must in the auto world. Only way to sell to the newer generations of buyers. Either way vw makes some great engines and vehicles. They definitely have their issues but all and all my vw experience has been great.

The capacitive touch controls are a disaster in the making. Won’t be able to use in the winter if wearing gloves, and how long before these bits stop working and you lose control over virtually every function in the car? Definitely a car to lease for three years and then immediately return IMO

In my 2012 GLI, I swapped out the US-spec headlight switch with a Euro-spec one that let you turn on the fog lights separately from the headlights. It was a $20 part and a 30 second swap

I've had SO many Golfs over the years in GTI and Golf R form and they just keep getting better with each revision...until 2022. I feel lucky to have gotten a '20 Autobahn and will either stick with that until VW addresses the critiques of the infotainment or I end up getting something else entirely. And it's not just VW...so many auto manufacturers are ditching buttons for sleek screen-based systems and haptic buttons, which I personally feel is a huge mistake when you are barreling down the road and need to adjust something quickly. It's just not safe, nor is it convenient. I hope they listen to the multitudes of reviews out there are re-think some of these design choices, much like when Honda added the volume knob back to the Civic.

Nice review Doug. 240hp not bad. Love seeing 6 speed manual as an option.

I cannot overstate how much I HATE the current trend of EVERYTHING having to be in a center touchscreen. Why can't I just turn a knob to change temperature or volume??

I absolutely HATE piano black or chrome ANYTHING on the dash, especially in the gauge area. These surfaces reflect light, usually right back in to your eyes. It's very annoying and there's nothing you can do about it.

As a 2016 owner, I can only imagine what a nightmare to own this will be after the warranty expires. I still love the performance, however, not worth putting up with the electrical gremlins and more importantly, the never-ending drama of the leaking sunroof.

Mk7 was benchmark level. I’d love to see a Mk8 suspension retrofit on a 7. Especially Golf R!

7:19 The"hand near screen" detection happens since the mk7, in it's MIB1, so it's been around since 2013

Here in Germany almost everybody refers to it as GOLF GTI, as GTI is like a trim level of the Golf…

This car looks awesome with this color.

I feel somewhat alone in the MK8 world in that the infotainment/tech/interior matter fairly little to me. I don't even really care that much about the horsepower bump. The GTI is one of my favorites because of the low weight (relative to other cars in '22, anyway), the steering, and the handling.

Everything going through the touchscreen would be very distracting while driving, not sure I like it. Anyhow, I stopped by my VW dealer the other day, I have been waiting for this car for a year. MSRP of the 2022 GTI SE with leather was $36,515. Added "market adjustment $15000", Dealer processing fee $899, Dealer doc fee $799, Window tint $699, Nitro in tries $399, Paint and seat protection $799. Total asking $55,110 almost $20,000 over MSPR. Oh and "no test drive permitted till a binding offer has been accepted by the sales manager". For their asking price I could get a hell of a nice CPO BMW!

Doug, this is the reason I take your opinions above any other reviews. The copy-and-paste criticism's from all the other videos tells me nothing, but your video goes more in depth about what it can / can't do and I appreciate that.

5:33 “wOuLdNt ThAt Be NiCe!” 😂 great video man!

Besides all the technology flaws, there is also the looks (in my opinion of course) because I still think that front doesn't look good enough and I prefer the Mk7 or 7.5's front especially the GTI variant Quick edit : I'm actually happy to see that I am not the only one thinking the Mk8 is...well... weirdly designed... And as someone pointed out, it really lacks the 3 doors variant for the more sporty feeling

I read that a test driver for a car magazine couldn't drive the GTI around the track because the haptic buttons on the steering wheel kept changing his drive mode during steering. It would shift from RACE to ECO mode or something like that mid-turn. That's scary!

Great work Doug👍

Fun fact with the dome lights, you can tap each individual light housing to turn it on/off! I just drove one of these on a test drive and really enjoyed it as R's are unfortunately going to take 3-9 months to get. I think I'll definitely be getting a GTI in this exact spec after seeing this video!

I test drove one of these a few weeks ago. Still think this is a great car overall, but the lack of hard buttons for climate controls ruin it quite a bit for me. The change in materials to be cheaper is noticeable, but I don't think it makes that large of an impact. If I was looking to buy a car, I'd happily get this or snag a Golf R.

As a 2014 VW Golf owner, I'm not interested in purchasing a car that lacks physical, tactile climate controls. I want to be able to adjust the temperature and the fan speed without taking my eyes off the road.

I did buy a 2022 GTI SE manual this year after daily driving a 2013 EOS. Here are my impressions so far: - interior quality actually feels very similar to the old EOS in terms of materials, etc. GTI has much better front bucket seats and a much better back seat than the EOS. Just exceptionally comfortable and supportive driver's seat, best I've ever sat in. Leather was standard on the SE for Mk7 / 7.5, but now it is optional. Mine has the plaid cloth seats and I don't really miss having leather - you still get seat heaters. The Mk7 / 7.5 owners on this thread saying that the previous generation had a nicer interior are probably right, although it's subtle. I test-drove an ID.4 and it has a lot of the same materials. - weird cost cutting: the driver and passenger seats are both half-manual, half-power, with a power seatback angle and manual fore-and-aft. (I think you get full power seats if you opt for leather.) There is no longer a CD player of any kind, so I just play music off a thumb drive ... but the inputs are USB-C and all my thumb drives are USB-A so I need an adapter. - capacitive touch controls work perfectly fine and you get used to everything once you've had it for a few days, although I can understand why the nav screen would drive a journalist who spent a few hours with the car crazy. Dashboard is phenomenal, so many options for configuration that I probably haven't even explored half of them yet. - the engine feels a lot more responsive than it did in the EOS (which had an older version of the 2.0L turbo), like there is no more turbo lag at all. Manual transmission feels kind of like a TT shifter, hefty but precise. Everyone has their own opinion of what a nice shift action feels like, but I do like the shifter.

Greetings from Australia mate. First time on your channel. Love your review ... Now subbed 🏎

One thing I really dislike about the infotainment system is the design of the user interface. They could have made the icons look really nice like an iphone or something but for whatever reason they made them look like colorless folders from Windows 95.

While I prefer the mk7 headlights, I otherwise like the looks of these and it is sooo great to see VW keeping the Golf a reasonable size, manual, and just fun, small-ish hot hatch in today's bloated crossover filled world.

I have a 2012 Mk6 GTI and a 2015 Mk7 (2dr) and I want a Mk8 but the issues I have is that it doesn’t have actual buttons. No physical buttons to touch to control the dash, infotainment, and the fact the car is missing so much of its previous generations qualities. I will wait for a Mk8.5. Good review Doug. 👍

Just bought a 2011 gti with 98K miles drives so nice. First manual car i've owned still getting used to the clutch engaging like 75% of the way up but its not much of an issue slowly getting the hang of it.

Anyone else miss just being able to turn a physical knob to do their climate control and NOT have to take their eyes off the road to check if they'd actually say turned on their defrost?

Holy shit, literally every control is so unresponsive. Who the hell thinks touchscreens are superior to buttons in a vehicle where you have to focus on the road? Aftermarket head unit vibes with that delay

I like that Doug takes time to review normal cars. Big ups to u Doug.

Doug - I don’t think your heart was into it and it shows… I own a 2022 GTI Autobahn with a DSG. The infotainment system is actually pretty good. It’s pretty simple to use and I have had no issues. The shortcuts setup is a great way to get to quick functions. Also the climate menu is simple. I click on the seat icon on the screen and it brings me to climate menu. But when you have it on “Auto” climate - changing climate through the slider at bottom is super easy. Never really a need to go into that menu. But if I have to it’s well laid out. I have a 21 GLS and while I like that vehicle a lot, the infotainment is menu upon menu. The VW system is cleaner and simple. I don’t miss the buttons. It feels upscale and cleaner. The steering wheel buttons feel natural to click and have nice haptic feedback. I bought this car sight unseen and based on reviews such as yours and others I thought it was going to be a huge mistake to live with these touch buttons and this infotainment. But I have been very positively surprised. Great job VW! (I’m not a VW fanboy. I have never owned a VW before. My sampling of car ownership history is as follows. Current - 22 GTI Autobahn, 21 GLS 450, 17 Abarth 500c, 86 190e. Formerly - 18 XC90 Inscription, 15 M5 Competition, 14 MDX Tech, 09 335i xdrive, 03 M3, 01 325i, 02 Civic LX, 89 Accord LX) You did pick out some good quirks like finger approach sensitive text and buttons. But you missed out on a few quirks and features, such as: 1. The car can be set to turn on the heated seats and heated steering automatically based on temperature. Great to see it in this $40k car when I don’t have it in my 2021 GLS which is almost 6 figures! 2. For a weird regulatory reason, VW removed the “break hold” feature from US cars. It’s a dummy button next to park button in console. Us regulation required Hold to be spelled out in the driver cluster and VW’s software only spells it as “P”. So instead of modifying the code, VW cut a corner and just took that feature out. Ugh!!! 3. Weird cost cutting feature - rear doors top portion is made of hard plastic while front doors top portion is soft plastic. Why? 4. If using Apple Maps in CarPlay, the map guidance and turn by turn directions show up in driver screen and heads up display. That is very cool. I have seen that in 2021. VW Tiguan which has the older system but still wireless apple car play. Great integration. 5. Car has 4 USB C ports. Very handy for charging devices. 6. You can fit a rear facing car seat in the car behind drivers seat and I’m 6 ft tall. So that works! 7. The sound system in this car is exceptional. It’s not quite at the level of Bowers and Wilkins system in my former XC90 Inscription but pretty close to it. 8. My car came with summer tires and I live in the north east where it’s currently 22 F. VW does not sell a winter tire wheel package and Tire Rack doesn’t have any option to get a package like that as well…

My first daily driver was a 1964 Volkswagen Beetle. The car was reliable and fun to drive. It had adequate room, the driving position was just about perfect. It had few features but all of them were within easy reach and made total sense. It had enough room for my needs. It went well through the snow, got good mileage, and was decent enough on the highway too. It wasn’t perfect but it sure did all of the basic needs really really well and started me on a long road of vw ownership. My current Mk7 looks like it will be my last modern VW. Like my beetle, it makes sense to me and does almost everything quite well without being silly. VWs lineup except the GTI and Golf R have been basically a rental at fleet for a long time, and now the only remaining model that had me in a vw showroom has too many annoying changes to keep me. These changes make doing some of the basics more complicated than they should be.

Enjoyed your review. I was going to update my mk 7.5 Golf but after a test drive of this model - no way. I honestly could not live with the stupid infotainment system. VW has lost another customer.

I own a Mk7 Golf R - no haptic buttons whatsoever (not talking about touchscreen controls). Love it and not changing it. I did just rent a Ford Edge AWD for a trip in Minnesota. It had a large iPad-size touchscreen which incorporated all of the climate controls and heated seats. Not a fan. Particularly bad in a cold-weather zone like MN. When you get in the car first thing in the morning everything goes on max; temperature, windshield, defrosters, seats. Eventually everything heats up and you want to back it off to a comfortable temp. So you are always interacting with that screen and it is distracting you from watching the road. Then on the last day I noticed that below the screen, in between the volume and tuner knob for the radio, there are skip forward and back, and play/pause buttons. They already have those on the steering wheel!!! They could have put climate controls there! Here's another idea - when you touch on a climate control button on the screen, why not make the ENTIRE screen one GIANT button for the device you are trying to change?

Those rear seat pockets are nice. Always hated having a pocket full of junk taking up my minimal leg room in back. Makes so much more sense to raise them up like this.

I love the idea of a new, more powerful GTI, but the interior and controls in my MK 7.5 are so insanely perfect as is, I don't think I would ever upgrade.

" You would think this screen ran over the car reviewers dog" 🤣

The finger sensor for the screen has been in VW’s for a while, my 2016 Jetta has that feature its awesome

I love his „caaaars and bids“ intro Everytime I see I have to laugh. Best channel.

The fact that Doug can relay true driving enjoyment to us from a $30,000 car when he regularly drives $300,000 cars is the reason I’ve loved this channel for so long. Anybody at ANY income level can feel excited about a vehicle they are looking at on this channel without feeling bad about not being able to buy exotic or highly expensive cars. Keep it up Doug!

I hope all manufacturers drop these haptic controls for good , literally dangerous

If you want a good road to throw a car around, I recommend either the Espola Grade in Poway, or the highway heading towards Ramona! That's my neck of the woods!!

I didn't like your very first review I saw coz you were a bit too honest abt flaws of some of my favorite cars but that's what a true review is all abt especially from a well experienced car guy. Thank you for finding even the most exotic and bringing it home to us!

I love the light bar on the mk8, when it came out I had my issues with the design but after seeing a few out and about certain elements have really grown on me

Doug is a type of guy to match his shirt to a car.

11:46 Mini also has this type of mesh sun shade. my F56 JCW has it, and I believe the other R generations did as well.

Previous owner of Golf MK2 and Mk3, familiar with MK4 and they allways had good shifting, better then others !

Sad to see the climate in the screen like that from VW. I have a MKV and I always have loved how it's a fun car, nice inside and so simple. It's truly like riding a bike, you never forget how to do anything in a golf, even in a MKVI or MK7. But it makes sense, the simple sensible car doesn't mean anything, especially in the US and China markets that automakers are targeting. The overall market heavily rewards being flashy and making people think you're "high-tech"

12:40 Not sure if you can do this in the Mk8, but in Mk7, you can turn on just the fog lights only by turning the headlights dial thing to the second position (next to Auto), and pulling the dial towards you. This dims the DRLs and turns on the foglights only source: im a mk7 owner

We’ve got a mk8 golf - we don’t have any opinion on the vw infotainment as we simply haven’t ever seen it - the wireless Apple CarPlay is seamless and brilliant. As for the slider temperature buttons, you can tap them rather than slide and you get used to it in 5mins. As for the volume, it’s already on the steering wheel

I have owned my mk7 GTI for 5 years now and have heavily modded it over the years. approaching 75k miles and still puts a smile on my face everyday. Was looking forward to the MK8 but am honestly pretty dissapointed with it. Guess ill have to go another 5 years with my MK7

The MK8 GTI still comes across as having a Fu Manchu situation going on and there’s no way for me to not see that. Realistically the GTI has more than enough power for a sporty daily driver and suits the GTI mission perfectly IMO, but I’d almost get the R just for the bumper design swap alone. I think it works much better with the new droopy headlights too.

The screen and slider situation, and the capacitive touch "buttons" are an absolute deal breaker for me.

Hey I just bought a 2022 GTI! I don't notice the climate issues too much (S trim so I don't have the sliders under). I'm coming from a Model 3 so having functions buried in menus is kind of the bar for me lol. I do agree about the screen size - it feels so incredibly limiting, again especially coming from what I would consider to be the gold standard of infotainment. Overall I absolutely love the car - such a fun little hot hatch

Climate controls only on screen = instant non-starter for me. I love the sunshade closed with open roof though, I want that on my car. Great review!

My daily Stinger pitch: for the low $30k's you could have a nicely equipped 4cyl Stinger, or for the low $40k's of this particular GTI, you could have a base level Stinger GT with 368hp. Oh and yes, it's a hatchback too.

There is also a Cupra León sold in Mexico, and of course Europe, which is the Spanish brother to the Golf GTi. Over in Mexico, you can get it with 245hp or 300hp (both with front wheel drive and a 7DCT).

I have that sunroof shade on my 2022 mini clubman JCW and it’s the best thing ever!

That central screen, clima/mode panel and light switch panel are all shared between all VW group cars. They are also in Škoda, Seat, Cupra, etc. They have slightly different designs, but the same layout. Also the electronic gear lever "assembly" with buttons is shared. Again - same layot, different design.

I have the same exact feeling about this car as you, Doug. Tech isn’t that great, but looks and drives great!

It’s disappointing that they stopped selling the normal golf here, I would’ve gotten one, but instead got a Mazda 3 hatchback instead

Hey Doug I have Cerebral Palsy and was wondering do these come in AWD I live in Maine how hard would it be to put a spinner knob ( commonly referred to as a Suicide Knob )

theey killed the gold with that fronot end

I always liked the GTI but the latest generation is pretty disappointing. There are better options out there. I think the reason reviewers are so upset about the climate controls is that over the last 10 years of hating this type of design it's surprising VW has not learned lessons from other cars. People want redundant control for climate with physical buttons, not haptic/capacitive touch buttons or screens that are confusing...

The capacitive touch everywhere is absurd and I can't imagine the distractions while driving this thing. Also some of the cost cutting (especially the warning triangle laziness) is just hilarious, to be honest.

I had the same glass roof with that shade part in my fiat grande punto from ‘06

The Infiniti FX50 can also open roof and close sun shade, definitely one of the most advanced cars of its era hands down, in contrast to what the brand is today.

Honestly, as a MkVII Golf owner, I really wanted to like the MkVIII GTI. Before the full specs and features were revealed, I was considering one to become my next car in a few years. However, the infotainment system became a deal-breaker for me, and it's clear that VW cut costs in some aspects compared to its predecessor (such as replacing the hood hydraulic arm with a prop rod and a lack of a cover for the emergency triangle compartment). As a result, I'll look at a Mazda3 or Acura Integra when it comes time for me to go car shopping, as they appear to have more intuitive controls for climate and the infotainment, and any cost cutting is kept relatively minimal or well-hidden by comparison.

Very glad I got into a mk 7.5 R before all of these infotainment changes. I'm sure in California these touch control based systems are totally fine, but I live on the Canadian prairies where winters are very cold. These touch systems perform like garbage in the cold and is unpleasant to interact with when the plastic is cold. Sometimes I drive with gloves on, meaning I'd have to remove gloves to change literally ANYTHING.

Brand new Mk7 GTI-S 6MT was totaled when a police chase fugitive absolutely demolished my GTI. Settlement let me pool up to same year used R. Was super traumatic, but my R is a completely other beast! Love the last of the analog switches/gauges.

That is a bad ass looking vessel. Love it!

Can't wait for the next Golf's capacitive gas pedal.