Volkswagen released teaser images of a refreshed version of its vaunted MK8 GTI, a car that driving enthusiasts love piloting, but that caused controversy with an unintuitive infotainment system and uninspiring looks.
The GTI is a timeless motoring legend but the latest MK8 GTI was the first one in a long time that came with caveats to its greatness. The driving experience was an improvement over the MK7.5, but most other aspects of the car were not universally improved, including the recent and heartbreaking decision to end production of the manual transmission GTI toward the end of last year.
Sneakily attached to a press release announcing Volkswagen’s dystopian infotainment integration of the AI bot ChatGPT, VW dropped a handful of teaser shots of its facelifted GTI with some improvements immediately visible. The teaser shots of the MK8.5 GTI show a camouflaged exterior that obscures most design details, but the keen eye can distinguish a new, more aggressive front-end design that incorporates fang-like elements that bring some needed muscularity and sharpness to the MK8’s otherwise sedate shape.
Aside from exterior styling tweaks, the interior appears to have more notable improvements to the MK8 recipe. Improvements like a steering wheel that features good old fashioned buttons in place of the current model’s touch-sensitive nightmarish excuse for a performance vehicle steering wheel. To be clear, the current GTI’s steering wheel works acceptably, but it’s simply not as user-friendly as a wheel with normal buttons.
The challenges introduced with the addition of touch sensitive buttons include inconsistent functionality, and increased potential for unintentional button mashing when driving. The GTI is the model that introduced the hot hatchback craze, and since then has dominated the category as the best all-around hot hatch. It has brought an enchanting combination of speed, handling, practicality and quality, but the combination of the steering wheel touch controls and the over complicated yet un-illuminated touch sensitive climate controls caused controversy with the MK8.
Unfortunately the teaser photos show that the refreshed GTI still seems to rely on those touch-sensitive temperature and fan speed adjustments, but hopefully they’re backlit this time so drivers can actually use them at night. The MK8 GTI has always provided a compelling driving experience, and hopefully this facelifted version rights the wrongs that VW inflicted upon the eighth generation of its previously ubiquitous daily driver king so that we may vehemently recommend it to anyone who loves driving once again. Volkswagen will debut the camouflaged MK8.5 GTI at CES tomorrow in Las Vegas.
