VW Golf GTI Clubsport for £6k off – Akrapovic exhaust effectively thrown in free
The Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport in Mk8.5 guise makes for a tempting prospect at the right price
Until the Golf GTI Edition 50 starts arriving at dealerships, the normal Clubsport will remain the best current Golf GTI you can get. With a 35bhp boost over standard (to 296bhp) and a sharper dynamic edge, it’s the GTI resolved to a higher standard than we’ve come to expect from most Mk8s. Happily, we’ve found a brand new example that’s available for £6205 off its £52,195 retail price – a saving of over 15 per cent.
There are a couple of caveats to bear in mind, however. That discount does include the £3000 deposit contribution available from the Group 1 Volkswagen Norwich dealer that the car is available at. That being said, that still means this highly-specified car has been reduced in price by £3205.
> Buy a new Volkswagen Golf GTI here
Highly specified means just that, too. Its paint is an £810 option in the configurator, while the diamond-cut 19-inch ‘Warmenau’ wheels are a £1650 option. Those alone take us up from the GTI Clubsport’s basic price of £43,215, to near enough the £45,990 figure this example is available for. What’s then as good as ‘thrown in for free’ is the GTI Performance Pack including the Akrapovic exhaust and derestricted top speed of 167mph, exterior styling pack with matrix LED lights, the panoramic sunroof and perhaps most importantly, the DCC adaptive chassis dampers.
All told, the configurator tells us this spec is worth £47,660, albeit with the disclaimer under the GTI Performance Pack that ‘additional costs may apply’. Assumedly those costs refer to the expensive exhaust to make that £52k RRP price. In short, there’s a reasonable amount more Golf Clubsport available here than you might expect to get at the same price when commissioning a build in the configurator.
> Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport v Cupra Leon 300 – what's the best mainstream hot hatch?
Whether you’d go for a Clubsport over rivals in the first place? That’s another matter. We found during our twin test between a Golf Clubsport and the Cupra Leon 300, that the Spanish relation has more of the hot hatch chutzpah to its name than the current hottest Golf (imminent Edition 50 accepted).
‘The Cupra certainly delivers higher peaks without sacrificing overall usability. It has more personality than the Golf and makes you wonder whether Volkswagen has left too much on the table for what should be its all-singing, all-dancing, most-focused GTI. As it stands, the Cupra is the king of Volkswagen Group hot hatches.’ – Yousuf Ashraf, evo senior staff writer, who tested the Golf GTI Clubsport against the Cupra Leon 300 on UK roads.
