Yahoo Autos The 2019 Volkswagen Golf GTI Rabbit Edition Hops to It
"Looks like a pump, feels like a sneaker" just doesn't have the marketing mojo that it generated for Easy Spirit 30 years ago. And to the layperson who doesn't see the red accents and Rabbit-specific wheels, this special-edition 2019 Volkswagen GTI is just another VW pump. GTI owners probably prefer to fly a few feet under the radar, anyway.
What more can we say about the seventh-generation VW Golf GTI that we haven't already said? The current MQB-based GTI has amassed all the trophies we can give it, winning a 10Best award every year it has been available. We loved our 2015 long-term car so much, one of us bought it.
The Rabbit Edition—we tested both manual and automatic variants—is a special trim level that VW claims will be produced in a limited run of "a few thousand" copies. Consider it part of the swan song for the Mk7 Golf in America; the eighth-generation Golf will likely go on sale in Europe in 2020 and come here as a 2021 model, possibly in only GTI and Golf R forms. The Rabbit name stems back to the first-gen Golf, which was marketed in the U.S. as the Rabbit from 1975 to 1984. The name was revived in the U.S. in 2006 as the moniker for the fifth-gen Golf, during which time the GTI was treated as a separate model. That means the combination of the "Rabbit" and "GTI" badges hasn't appeared together on the same car since the first-gen GTI debuted for the 1983 model year.
Today, the Rabbit Edition slots between the base S and the SE and comes very close to being the perfect GTI. You get Clark plaid seats and no sunroof, just like in the S, and you also receive the show-me-everything LED lights and advanced safety tech (forward-collision warning, blind-spot monitoring, and rear-cross-traffic alert) of the SE. Some bummers about this package are the absence of automatic climate control and the fact that the Rabbit comes with the base, 6.5-inch display for the infotainment system, which lacks satellite radio. Fortunately, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay interfaces make a decent-enough substitute for SiriusXM.
But the single biggest bummer of the 2019 GTI is that, unless you opt for the fully loaded Autobahn model, it comes with all-seasons rather than summer tires. Our long-term GTI, a 2015 model now in the custody of associate managing editor Jennifer Misaros, stopped from 70 mph in 156 feet and pulled 0.93 g on the skidpad on its warm-weather rubber. The '19 Rabbit with the automatic transmission needed an additional 10 feet to stop and held on to the skidpad with just 0.89 g of grip; the manual stopped in a disappointing 181 feet and turned at only 0.87 g.
Both our braking and skidpad tests depend heavily on the tires, but there is a feel aspect to these tires that isn't quantifiable by GPS data. All-seasons simply muddy the waters, and wading through with dulled sensory input isn't something we have time for now that the Honda Civic Type R and Hyundai Veloster N are legitimate contenders for our favorite-small-conveyance award. We're confident that installing the Autobahn's Bridgestone Potenza S001 rubber (Tire Rack will sell you a set for $613) would restore what we felt was missing.
For 2019, every GTI received an 8-hp bump for its 2.0-liter engine, and the dual-clutch automatic transmission option gained a gear, for a total of seven. We struggled to make the 228-hp turbo four outshine its predecessors. Zero-to-60-mph sprints of 5.8 and 6.3 seconds for the automatic and manual, respectively, mean that these Rabbits performed about the same in a straight line as the GTIs of the recent past.
Where the ultraversatile hot hatchback shines like no other $30K car is on a winding country road. The dual-clutch is so good that, despite its occasionally jerky action in traffic, we can't say you pay an enjoyment penalty for avoiding the stick shift—it's just a choice. The GTI is fast enough for you to have a ton of fun, but not so fast that it'll get you in (much) trouble, which means it’s still one of our favorite pumps.
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