Volkswagen Golf

Oh dear, oh dear, what have I done? As Auto Express's road test editor, one of the biggest pleasures of my job is handing out the keys for the long term fleet and deciding who should drive what. I should have guessed the latest arrival would cause some friction.

That's because everyone on the magazine who has driven the Volkswagen Golf GTI simply adores it. As soon as I announced we would shortly be taking delivery of one on long-term test, colleagues started being suspiciously friendly.

But all semblance of good manners went out the window when the car arrived. My team of road testers immediately headed round to our car park, intent on laying claim to our newcomer - winner of the best hot hatch and sporting car awards in our New Car Honours this year.

And who could blame them for fighting it out for the keys? There's no denying our Golf really looks the part. Having seen how unassuming black, grey and silver GTIs look on the road, we wanted something that was going to stand out.

We settled on Tornado Red initially, but when we saw how good Candy White looked, we revised our order. A controversial decision (especially when it comes to keeping the car clean over winter), but we think it looks great with the red grille surround, and really sets the hot hatch tone.

Having saved money by not opting for metallic paint (£335), we also kept our hands in our pockets by choosing the three-door model with standard six-speed manual gearbox, 17-inch alloys and Interlagos cloth trim. In our eyes, the GTI looks and feels its best in this guise. Besides, selecting the base model let us splash out on options. Adding DVD sat-nav, bi-xenon headlights, a CD changer, multifunction steering wheel with cruise control and other niceties boosted the price to £23,060. Expensive, but then the Golf is very desirable.

Having just completed a 1,000-mile running-in period during which the GTI returned 30.9mpg, we are now starting to enjoy the 200bhp performance and punchy low-down torque. No doubt about it, everyone in the office is itching to have a go. But to prevent any more arguments breaking out, I've decided the only solution is to run the GTI myself. Power has its privileges, after all.

Second Opinion

Having taken a Golf GTI all the way to Germany to test it against the new Vauxhall Astra VXR, I am a massive fan of the car's style, special interior detailing and driving experience. So I was one of the first in the scrum for the keys to our GTI - especially as, like Ollie, I think that the Candy White colour scheme looks great.
Owen Mildenhall