Last manual Golf GTI??

[ABCD]

The line I got given by the Sales person - and I must admit this sort of makes sense - that car manufacturers are trending towards simplifying model variants in order to help among other benefits meet ever more strict emissions targets. At the moment there are apparently 15 separate Golf variants in Australia alone, and probably double that globally. Ditching the manual is just the start of it, can expect to see the Golf range to shrink going forward.

[The_Hawk]

It's a damn shame we can't order some of the model / engine / gearbox variants that are possible overseas. I presume it's a compliance thing which I understand for things that might be low volume sellers. I also get the spare parts requirements, but I'd happily sign something at time of purchase saying that if buying xxx options you agree that there is a 6 week wait for parts if something breaks due to my own choices...

One of the ones that irks me a little was the Golf Cabriolet. Why couldn't I get a GTI variant? Hell even a diesel variant in Australia? We already sold that engine and gearbox combo so parts shouldn't have been an issue, VAG have been creating a more and more common platform for a long time to facilitate these sorts of options... again it's probably an Australian compliance based limitation, but it's a bit of a silly limitation if you ask me...

... and don't get me started on colours! Why are they different in different countries?

[Mk R]

Sounds reasonable but I don't buy that justification, at least not globally. We're a small market with an overwhelming preference for autos. It's logical that they try and up-sell the minority to auto. They have a good justification for doing it now too with the new emissions testing requirements that VW will have to pass for real this time. I understand that the only existing VW transmission that meets WLTP for small cars is the DSG.

It will be very interesting to see whether they try to kill off the manual GTI globally. There is a very different attitude to manual transmission in Europe and Asia. Depending on the market, 70-80% of Euro cars sold still have 3 pedals. Even the UK sold 49% manual cars last year.