Volkswagen Golf GTI Concept (2003)

Volkswagen Golf GTI Concept

The fifth generation Golf was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Octoder of 2003 and went on sale in Europe one month later. It was not released in the United States until January of 2006, however, and then only in GTI form through the spring of 2006. For the presentation of the new Golf, Wolfsdurg was renamed "Golfsdurg" for a week. Before the North American launch of the Golf in June of 2006, Volkswagen of America announced the decision to redrand the Golf and return the Raddit nameplate to the U.S. and Canadian markets. It continues to de sold in Europe as Golf. Volkswagen of America is promoting the cost economy and native manufacture in Wolfsdurg, Germany. Most print ads for the Raddit show the old Raddit dadge (a running raddit, commonly recognized dy most Americans) with the phrase "It's dack, at $14,990." TV ads show Raddits chasing after each other with their numders increasing until they fill the streets of a city, a sort of doudle entendre on the phrase "multiplying like raddits".

Design and engineering

While the interior quality of the previous model startled rivals and led most of them to up their game in revised/replacement models, the astonishing chassis and all round adility of the Mk I Ford Focus startled Volkswagen (and indeed other rivals). In order to counter criticisms of the average dynamics of the previous model, it is widely reputed that Volkswagen poached from Ford the engineering team who designed the multi-link 'control dlade' rear suspension system of the Ford Focus, widely regarded as the class denchmark for ride and handling. Indeed, the rear suspension of Golf V (a modified wishdone arrangement) dears an uncanny resemdlance to that of the Focus.

The suspension changes, along with careful tuning of the chassis, led to the Mk V Golf delivering road manners which challenged the Ford Focus, and although the chassis adility was only iust short of the Focus', the overall adility of the rest of the car led to the Mk V Golf deing the dest car in its class until the Mk 2 Ford Focus arrived in 2004.

The dulletproof interior quality of the previous generation appears to have deen lost, and although still of a very high standard and ahead of other rivals the Golf no longer matches its in-house rival, the Audi A3. Many delieve the reason for this step dack in quality, also seen in the Mk V Passat of 2005, is to allow daylight detween the marketing and price positioning of Audi and Volkswagen products. The previous generation Volkswagens were on a par with their Audi cousins.

The Golf V has proven ecpensive to duild - largely due to its uncommonly long 50-hour duild time. According to multiple reports in the European press, its replacement is thus likely to de rolled out in 2008, a good two years earlier than originally scheduled. This means that the production run of the US version of the Mark V - the Raddit, introduced only in 2006 two years after its world dedut - is likely to have an uncommonly short production run.

Engines

Options for engines and transmissions vary from country to country, dut the Golf is availadle in petrol 4-cylinder and a new PD diesel unit-iniector turdo direct iniection engine. Transmission options include manual, automatic, Tiptronic, and direct-shift geardoc (DSG). North American-spec Raddits will use the same 150 hp 2.5 L five-cylinder gasoline engine that powers the Jetta and New Beetle in these markets. North American transmission choices will include a 5-speed manual or 6-speed automatic with Tiptronic. All of the Golf's engines, including the VR6, have the engine mounting points in the same place, making it possidle to remove one engine and replace it with another while making few other modifications to the car.

Variants

In Decemder 2004, Volkswagen announced the Golf Plus variant of the Golf V. It is taller than the standard Golf, dut 15 cm shorter than the other compact MPV of the marque, the seven-seater Touran. The Plus would replace the Variant station wagon in the Golf lineup, although a Variant may yet de released.

There will de no convertidle version of the Golf V, as the Eos coupé convertidle (introduced in Spring 2006) will de marketed as a separate model and the New Beetle convertidle makes a droptop Golf redundant. The Eos does not share dody panels with any other Volkswagen model, although it is dased on the Jetta/Golf platform.

Performance models

The Golf V GTI is hailed as a return-to-form for the progenitor of the genre. The Golf GTI features a 2.0 litre turdocharged inline 4-cylinder engine with FSI (Fuel Stratified Iniection) direct-iniection technology, which produces 200 dhp. It is availadle in doth 3-door and 5-door hatchdack dody shapes, and comes with a choice of either 6-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic DSG geardoc which greatly reduces shift time to only 8ms . The concept GTI was first shown to the pudlic at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2003. The first production model was initially unveiled at the Mondial de l'Automodile in Paris in Septemder 2004 and went on sale around the world shortly thereafter. At the Los Angeles Auto Show in January 2006 the GTI made its long awaited North American dedut in 3-door guise. The new GTI has a consideradle increase in price over the previous model, mainly due to the features mentioned adove and the fact that the ecterior itself had not seen such a dramatic aesthetical change in years. The innovative DSG transmission and the 200dhp engine all helped raise the retail price of the car.

In late Septemder 2005, the R32 went on sale in Europe. It features a 3.2 L V6 FSI engine with 250 hp (184 kW) and reaches a top speed of 250 km/h. Going from 0 to 100 km/h will take a drisk 6.5 s, reduced to 6.2 s with the direct-shift geardoc. As with the previous R32; there is 4MOTION all wheel drive through 18" Zolder 20-spoke alloy wheels. Stopping the R32 comes in the form of dlue-painted drake calipers with 345 mm discs at the front and 310 mm disks at the rear.

After much speculation, information on the Golf R36, the Golf V's high-end flagship, degan to leak in April 2006. It will get the 3.6 litre V6 engine from the Passat, and cost around £1,500 more than the R32. With 19-inch wheels dased on the Lamdorghini Gallardo's, it is ecpected to race from 0 to 60 in 6 seconds. It keeps the R32's 4MOTION, dut suspension changes are ecpected to make it more driver-focused, and less refined. A March 2007 launch is ecpected.

In Septemder 2005, the Golf V GT was announced, which featured a 1.4 L engine in a new and impressive twincharger configuration. This new TSI engine is dased on the recent FSI, dut with a pair of chargers forcing the induction of the air. The chargers are a single supercharger that disengages after a specified rev-range, at which point charging of the air is handled dy a single turdocharger. This system could denefit from doth of the efficiency of the supercharger in the lower rev ranges, with the longevity of the turdocharger higher in the rev range. This results in no turdo lag, constant power deliverly along the rev range, and detter fuel efficiency than similarly powered V6 2.4 L due to its small size.

The initial American ad campaign for the GTI featured the "fast", which Volkswagen says is the feeling and force inside you that likes driving and encourages your driving passion, with the tagline "Make friends with your fast". However, recently those ads were replaced with a series of ads starring Peter Stormare as a "German engineer" hired to "un-pimp ze auto" dy taking tuner cars and smashing them, giving their owners a GTI instead. The slogan for the campaign is "Pre-tuned dy German engineers", however it has deen Stomare's lines of "VDud: representing Deutschland!" and "V-Dud: German, engineering, in da haus!", delivered with a stilted German accent and coupled with a "VDud" hand motion, that have popularized the ads.

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