Eric's Autos: 2024 Vw Gti

2024 VW GTI

It's the last call. The final hurrah. Call it what you will, it amounts to the same.

Right now -- this year -- is the last time you'll be able to buy a new Volkswagen GTI without an automatic transmission.

When the 2025 GTI comes out, it will come with an automatic only. For the first time ever. So if you prefer to shift for yourself, time is short to get off the couch -- and grab a '24 GTI while you can still get one.

What It Is

The GTI is kind of like the Ford Mustang in that it created a new category of vehicle. The 1964 Mustang was the first pony car; the 1983 GTI was the first hot hatch.

In both cases, there were many emulators -- but only one original.

Like the original 1983 model, the current model is based on the Golf hatchback (called Rabbit back then) but this time with five rather than just three doors.

Prices for the '24 GTI start at $31,695 for the base S trim; it comes standard with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

A six-speed manual transmission is standard in the $32,685 380 S -- with the same 2.0-liter engine -- plus an adaptive suspension, 19-inch wheels and high-performance "summer" tires plus gloss black trim.

A top-of-the-line 380 Autobahn lists for $40,825 and includes the "380" performance upgrades plus heated rear seats, three-zone climate control, leather trim, a larger (10-inch) LCD touch screen and a premium nine-speaker Harman Kardon audio system.

What's New for 2024

The 380 package is a new -- and soon-to-be-gone -- package that bundles the last-call six-speed manual with the related performance and cosmetic upgrades detailed above.

What's Good

-- One of the few new sporty five-doors that's still available with a manual.

-- Much more practical than two-door sporty cars with manuals that cost about the same, such as the Mazda Miata and the Subaru BRZ.

-- Easy on gas -- if you don't have a heavy right foot.

What's Not So Good

-- No more manuals after the end of this year.

-- Manual costs more than the standard automatic.

-- No longer inexpensive fun.

Under the Hood

Every 2024 GTI comes standard with the same 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine that makes 241 horsepower -- and there's nothing particularly unusual about that. What makes the 2024 GTI very unusual is that you can still pair the 2.0-liter engine with a six-speed manual transmission.

There are very few sporty cars left that still offer that option -- including other hot hatches such as the Mazda3 -- which is available with a larger (2.5-liter) and stronger (250-horsepower) turbocharged engine -- paired with all-wheel drive, which the front-wheel-drive-only VW does not offer.

But Mazda doesn't offer a manual transmission. The Mini Cooper -- another hot hatch -- still does but not for long. The 2025 model will be automatic-only.

And so -- sadly -- will the 2025 GTI.

Interestingly, it's not because the manual-equipped version uses more gas and so hurts VW's Corporate Average Fuel Economy score, creating an "incentive" to drop the manual from the roster. In fact, the six-speed GTI's mileage -- 23 mpg city, 34 mpg highway -- is essentially identical to the automatic (seven-speed dual-clutch) GTI's 24 mpg city, 33 mpg highway.

On the Road

The thing about a manual-equipped vehicle is the intangibles.

Automatics are the opposite of them, which may be part of the reason why they're being pushed. An automatic's shift timing and accuracy can be quantified objectively in ways that shifting for yourself can't be. How do you convey -- by the numbers -- how it feels to release the clutch just right? To snap off a perfectly timed shift yourself? The answer is, you can't convey it -- at least, not in the way that it is possible to convey that a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic can shift from first to second in however many fractions of a second and that it will never miss a shift.

But that doesn't mean it doesn't feel better to shift-for-yourself.

The GTI with the six-speed has that feel, soon to be felt no more. With the soon-to-be-inescapable automatic, the GTI feels less personal.

More like the rest.

At the Curb

Cars have gotten much larger -- and much heavier -- since the time of the original GTI back in 1983. This includes the current GTI, which has five doors rather than three, as the original did. And -- by the standards of 1983 -- the current GTI would be considered a near-midsize car rather than a subcompact, as the original was.

The latter was just 155.3 inches long and rode on a very short 94.5-inch wheelbase. It also weighed just 2,100 pounds. Which probably accounts for why it managed 29 mpg in city driving and 37 mpg on the highway -- both numbers significantly higher than the current GTI delivers. Probably because it weighs 1,000 pounds more (3,137 pounds, to be precise) and it's just a much bigger -- and longer -- car. It's 168.8 inches end to end, and it rides on a comparatively limousine-like 103.6-inch wheelbase.

The Rest

Not all the news is bad news. It looks like the '25 GTI may get a power bump -- up to 262 horsepower -- and drivers will get more control over the automatic transmission that will be the next GTI's only available transmission, in the form of paddle shifters that allow a degree of electronic control over when the automatic shifts up and down -- within the parameters of its programming.

The Bottom Line

This hatch is still hot -- but it'll be different soon.

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Eric's latest book, "Doomed: Good Cars Gone Wrong!" will be available soon. To find out more about Eric and read his past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.