Millennial Mom’s Review: 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI

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If you’re looking for a technical review about the fun and zippy Volkswagen Golf GTI, look no further, because Driving has you covered with a First Drive, an in-depth review by contributor Jil McIntosh, as well as a comparison with the Mazda3 Sport GT — or compare the specs for both vehicles here. 

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I didn’t have any particularly zippy plans for my week with this King’s Red Metallic Golf GTI. Upon picking it up and driving through a brief of a snow squall — at one point a warning popped up saying one of the sensors was inoperable due the snow blocking it — my plans involved a week filled with school pick-ups and drop-offs, a grocery run, a doctor’s appointment, and a scheduled tattoo appointment in Shelburne. 

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The drive to Shelburne provided the most peaceful ride, letting me indulge in some alone time while blasting some music of my choice (the Encanto soundtrack — yes, even when my kids aren’t around) through the Harman/Kardon speakers, easily drowning out the noises from Sport mode. I know, I know, those are good noises, we’re supposed to like those noises, but I don’t care for them. 

The front seat is really comfortable and easily adjusted — the memory button is at the side of the seat — and I could have comfortably driven for another couple hours. The winding road that took me from Mississauga to Shelburne provided a ton of bumps, different road types, and a couple slippery areas. The Golf GTI is smooth on the highway but tends to feel a bit rumbly at higher speeds. It easily zipped around corners but it doesn’t handle potholes all that well. That’s not surprising; I’m just used to vehicles with a longer wheelbase and meatier tires softening the blows a bit. 

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Infotainment and touchscreen

Oh, boy, the lack of buttons is quite daunting, to say the least. 

The touch buttons right below the 10-inch touchscreen aren’t backlit, meaning it’s disappointingly dark and hard to find anything. There is ambient lighting, if that helps at all; it didn’t for me. 

There are very few actual buttons — almost none at all. Even the buttons to defog the front and back windows aren’t real, which is annoying. 

You’d think the lack of buttons would be complicated. It is, but it’s not as horribly complicated as expected — or maybe I had really low expectations and gave myself ample time to figure it all out. The most important button, in my opinion, is CLIMA for climate. While I do wish there were more buttons dedicated to different climate functions, a quick touch of CLIMA brings up the climate settings on the screen. My other issue is that if you take too long to decide on your temperature settings, it returns to the previous screen. In other words, just quickly make up your mind about how hot or cold you want to be. 

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On the CLIMA screen, there are three options at the top: smart climate, classic climate, and air care. At first glance, smart climate seems pointless, but I guess it’s a quick-touch option to instantly “warm feet” or “cool feet” as opposed to just manually setting the temperature you want. I could live without that option.

I like that you have the option to leave specific settings unchanged. When you turn the car off, it can save the settings to automatically return to that setting when it’s turned on. For example, I appreciate the heated steering and heated driver’s seat staying on in the winter months; a warm butt makes all the difference. 

Once I was wirelessly connected to Apple CarPlay and got the Encanto soundtrack queued up on Spotify, a simple swipe to the right gives a view of the map, the current song playing, as well as a phone and car option. There wasn’t a whole lot more that I needed to fiddle with along the drive, which was a good thing because while driving down a winding road, I had such a frustrating experience using the infotainment because the icons are so minuscule when using Apple CarPlay. If I went over the slightest bump, I tapped the wrong spot. I’m not usually a fan of big screens in cars (like the Toyota Prius and Teslas) but if you’re going to replace all of the buttons with a screen, then make the screen larger. 

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While playing with the settings and trying to figure out the options on the touchscreen, I came across the quick guide. By clicking the help icon, you’re taken to a layout, operation, and customization menu. There, you can learn quite a bit about the different functions (it’s almost like getting a new iPhone and watching all the cool life-hack videos that show you how you’re using the phone wrong). I realized you can zoom, but I wasn’t able to zoom on the icons that came directly from Apple CarPlay and my phone, meaning the buttons remain teeny-tiny. 

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Is the VW Golf GTI a family car?

The front cabin doesn’t have much room for knick-knacks or McDonald’s toys that will be lost in a couple days. However, there is a wireless phone charger and an oddly-shaped slot that can hold a couple pens at most — do with that what you may. 

In short, this probably isn’t the best option for a family of five (or larger, obviously), especially if it’s going to be your main vehicle. If you’ve got something else that works as your family-hauler, then this could be a great second car to zip around the neighbourhood for extra-curricular drop-offs that require one driver and one kid in the back. Likewise, a smaller family with young kids might find this VW has plenty of space and easily fits into the family routines.

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I never actually put all three of my car seats into the GTI because one or two was complicated enough. When my eldest daughter sat in her booster seat behind the driver’s seat, I could still feel her constant kicking; every move she made felt like a boot in my back. When my son sat in his forward-facing car seat behind the front passenger’s seat, I could clearly see the boot marks on the back of the seat — but at least there was a bit of space up front. With my youngest’s car seat, I had to manually pull the front seat all the way up to leave room for her legs dangling over the top of the car seat, which left no room for a taller front passenger’s legs — though mine comfortably fit. And finally, when my husband sat in the front passenger seat, there was no legroom behind him. 

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For a car that doesn’t have much legroom, it offers adequate cargo space and could easily hold a week’s worth of groceries, provided you don’t have a hockey bag or stroller living in the trunk. If you kick the kids out, the 60-40 split can be folded down to access even more trunk space. 

Final thoughts

The GTI is by far the easiest vehicle I’ve parked in recent months (thanks to its size); it drives very smooth on highways; and I can only assume that the few thumbs-ups I received while driving this car meant people thought I was far cooler than I am.

However, do I really want to spend $41,646 (before destination fees and taxes) — including $1,250 for a panoramic power sunroof — on a top-trim performance vehicle that won’t be performing and tending to my needs of several messy kids at one time? No, not at all. But if you love the GTI and are willing to make it work for you, then all the power to you — get to zipping!