VW has announced that orders for the Golf 8 GTI are now open in South Africa, with a starting price of R669,300.
This follows the official unveiling of the vehicle in March and a later statement from the company that said that VW will launch the GTI locally in Q3.
The highly-anticipated hot hatch will start being delivered on 1 September 2021, and it will only be sold with an automatic transmission.
Included in the price is a 3-year/120,000km warranty, 5 year/90,000km EasyDrive Service Plan, and a 12-year anti-corrosion warranty.
South African specifications
Driving the VW Golf 8 GTI is a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol motor that develops 180kW and 370Nm – 11kW more than the model it is replacing.
The engine is mated to a seven-speed DSG automatic transmission, which pushes the GTI to 100km/h in 6.4 seconds.
Additionally, the eighth-generation GTI is fitted with a newly-developed Vehicle Dynamics Manager and an electronically-controlled locking differential that integrates into the car’s control units for better handling performance.
According to VW, this significantly improves handling compared to the previous models and eliminates the inherent grip disadvantages of front-wheel-drive cars.
In the features department, the Golf 8 GTI follows in the footsteps of its ancestors by offering a substantial standard equipment list.
This Golf comes with automatic LED headlights with daytime running lights, a heated multifunction steering wheel, Vienna leather upholstery, a wireless charging pad, ambient lighting, cruise control, park distance control, and shifter paddles.
As with every GTI generation, the 8 also gets exclusively-designed alloy wheels – 18-inch rims in this case.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are supported through a large infotainment display, too, and the modernised interior incorporates a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, touch-capacitive buttons, and a shrunken gear lever thanks to a new “shift-by-wire” transmission system.
This generation of the Golf then scored a 5-star Euro NCAP safety rating.
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