It may not have escaped your notice that Volkswagen is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Golf this year. What you have probably also seen or heard is that there will be an update for the latest Golf. If you have been paying attention, you know that the first images of the updated version were presented yesterday. Now the bad news: the Golf GTI loses its manual gearbox.
Perhaps there will be a special wave model to honor the manual transmission, but otherwise the American Golf GTI 380 is the last Golf with a manual gearbox. The manual gearbox was no longer available in the Netherlands. VW development boss Kai Grünitz explains at the CES trade fair in Las Vegas Automotive News Europe that the upcoming Golf GTI will not have a manual gearbox.
Why does the Volkswagen Golf GTI no longer have a manual gearbox?
The reason why the manual gearbox is disappearing is very simple: no one wants to shift gears. According to Grünitz, 95 percent of buyers opted for a DSG automatic transmission. For the same reason, Volkswagen no longer sent manual Golfs to the Netherlands, but now the third pedal is disappearing everywhere in the world for the GTI.
Manual transmission enthusiasts go for BMW
It is striking, because it recently emerged that BMW in America sells more new M2s with a manual gearbox than with an automatic. Of the M3s and M4s sold, approximately 20 percent had three pedals. Porsche would also like to continue supplying the manual gearbox. By the way, this is a completely different price range than the Golf GTI – especially in the US.
In new Volkswagens such as the Passat and Tiguan, the operation of the automatic transmission moves to the stalk behind the steering wheel, but in the Golf the automatic lever remains where it was already. Grünitz explains that it is cheaper not to change this, which makes sense. Furthermore, not much changes according to the VW CEO because 'the overall concept of the Golf is still great'.
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