2018 Volkswagen GTI: An exciting and affordable daily driver

Now we get a lot of sweet rides passing through Road Show HQ and it's hard to pick favorites. But if you told me today that I had to pick one car, and one car only, to drive for the rest of my life, I'd probably blurt out Volkswagen GTI. So what's so special about this hot, but still humble, little hatchback? [MUSIC] Let's hit the road and I'll explain. [NOISE] [MUSIC]. You're probably asking yourself, why didn't he choose something like a Miata, that's fun, or a Mercedes Bins S Class? Crap, why didn't I choose the S Class? That's an awesome choice. I guess I picked the GTI because It's more accessable and all around it's a well balanced vehicle. I mean, as an affordable car, it's a fantastic choice for something that feels premium that you could use everyday and still have a lot of fun with. As a daily driver this car is fantastically well made. It's comfortable enough to drive around everyday, it's spacious on the inside but still small enough to park easily. Now, if you look at the design, you'll find that the panel gaps are all really small and very evenly spaced. And that's a hallmark of good quality build. And you see that continue on the inside as well. The design's not really gonna push any envelopes or turn very many heads, but at the very least, this isn't a gaudy-looking car like some of its competition. You can guarantee that this car is gonna look as good in ten years As it does today. [MUSIC] Not only is it comfortable, it's packed with technology. In the dashboard we've got this large, 8 inch, infotainment system that we talk more about in a separate video. But it's got good navigation and if you don't like their navigation Navigation, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, and MirrorLink are standard. You've got pretty much everything you need out of the box, to get you down the road safely and entertained. Speaking of safety, we've got a lot of safety tech available as well. This Autobahn edition, for example, has lane-keeping steering assists that'll pull you back in the lane, if you start to drift over the line. We've also got adaptive cruise control, that'll work all the way down to a stop, but curiously, not in stop-and-go traffic. But we've also got a variety of other safety features like Ford free collision assistance [UNKNOWN] that will prep you if someone's gonna rear [UNKNOWN] Overall, it's just a really well sorted and really easy to live with daily driver. But it's all Sounds like a whole lot of fun. Under the hood we've got a two liter turbo charged four cylinder engine. That makes 220 horsepower and 258 pound feet of torque. That's actually a really good amount of power for a car of this size. It's gonna put that through either a six speed dual clutch transmission or a six speed manual transmission on it's way to the front wheels. This is one of the best front wheel drive chassis See that you can find on the road today. And it's made with one of the best sorted suspensions for an affordable car now. This Autobahn has the dynamic adaptive suspension. That's something that's gonna allow you to switch the suspension's characters between the different drive modes that you have right here. But you don't really need that. A car of this size and as well as VW switch suspension is sorted. You can get along just well, even at the lower trim levels. Overall, this is just a really fun car to drive and a very easy car to live with. And it just sort of is a really good all arounder. Sure, a Civic SI might be less expensive, a Subaru WRX is gonna be faster. You can probably even find a car with more technology at this price point, but you'll be hard pressed to find anything that does all of those things Things as well as the Volkswagen GTI. [MUSIC] The 2018 Volkswagen 2018 starts at around $27,000 for this autobahn edition with all of the bells and whistles tested around 37k. That's a bit much for a GTI and dangerously close to Golf R territory. So I think that the sweet spot's around the $30,000 mark. There you get the SE trim level with most of the performance upgrades you see here including the upgraded brakes and the limited slip differential. You'll have to make do without the adaptive suspension. But I think in a car of this size, you'll get by just fined with the fix set up. From there you just have to choose between the six speed manual and the six speed automatic transmission though I think I'll make mine a manual. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]