Well, sort of. VW announces hottest-yet diesel Golf, but does it deserve the badge?
Read more about the diesel GTI
Volkswagen announced today that its 2010 Golf GTD is officially on sale in the German market. The fourth model in the 2009 Golf lineup is the highest-performance production Golf with a diesel engine today.
Power comes from a 170-hp TDI engine that gives it the ability to go from 0 to 62 mph in 8.1 seconds with a top speed of 124 mph. Volkswagen says that fuel-economy is estimated at 5.3 liters fuel per 100 kilometers (that’s 44 mpg in the U.S.).
Unfortunately, there are no plans to bring the 2010 Golf GTD over the stateside. Nonetheless, you diesel lovers can hold out for the 2.0 TDI Golf, which has been confirmed for the stateside.
Press Release:
Comeback of a Classic:
Volkswagen brings the new Golf GTD to market
High-tech diesel in the Golf GTD with 170 PS consumes just 5.3 liters
Golf GTD shows clear affinity to the Golf GTI
Wolfsburg, 08 June 2009 - The Golf model lineup has been growing by leaps and bounds: At the end of 2008, the sixth generation of the bestseller was launched. Shortly thereafter, in early 2009, the new Golf Plus appeared. Then, the current Golf GTI was vaulted to center stage, closely followed by the new Golf Variant. And now the lineup continues: with the new Golf GTD. Its 125 kW / 170 PS power level makes it the highest-performance production Golf with a diesel engine today. The code letters GTD have a magical effect on diesel drivers and carry on a long tradition: 27 years ago the first GTD debuted and revolutionized the diesel market with its turbocharged diesel engine; for the first time, a diesel was not only economical but exceedingly sporty too. The GTD paved the way for the worldwide breakthrough of the TDI - the direct-injection high-tech diesel of the Volkswagen Group.
* GTD key performance data: The new Golf GTD generation is powered by a highly advanced common rail TDI engine, which makes it stronger (350 Newton-meter), more economical (5.3 liter), cleaner (139 g/km CO2 / Euro 5) and quieter than ever before. The GTD is also sportier: 8.1 seconds for the sprint to 100 km/h and a 222 km/h top speed prove it.
* GTD affinities: The Golf GTD speaks to all diesel fans who value a maximum in dynamic performance. That is why the GTD shows such a clear affinity to the new Golf GTI (155 kW / 210 PS). While the GTI is in a league of its own with an efficient turbo gasoline engine that offers the performance of far more expensive sports cars, the Golf GTD is making its debut with phenomenal fuel economy and a range of approx. 1,000 kilometer (with a 55 liter fuel tank).
* GTD high tech: The car’s technical ingredients are among the most advanced that the market has to offer. Naturally, the focal point of this high-tech composition is the TDI engine. Its specific torque is 177.8 Newton-meter per liter engine displacement. In practically any driving situation, the 16-valve four-cylinder engine offers the power of a sports car engine with six cylinders. Just as pioneering is the six-speed DSG gearbox from Volkswagen: Just as on the Golf GTI, on the Golf GTD too there will be an optional dual clutch transmission in place of the standard six-speed version; no other automatic performs more quickly or efficiently. The Golf GTD with DSG is capable of achieving 220 km/h, also accelerates to 100 km/h in 8.1 seconds and consumes just 5.6 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers on average (147 g/km CO2).
* GTD exterior: The car’s visual appearance is impressive too. The GTD - equipped with a chassis lowered by 15 millimeters, 17-inch alloy wheels (”Seattle”) and 225 section tires - shows parallels and once again a similarity to the GTI in terms of its styling and features. Consider the front end, for example: Among the hallmarks of the GTD and GTI are their bumper designs with standard front fog lights in a typical vertical layout. Their headlights and radiator grilles share the same construction as well. In the case of the GTD, the horizontal stripes in the radiator grille - typical of the GTI - are styled in chrome. At the rear, the turbo-diesel also has a diffuser, but it is modified: The diesel Golf can be recognized by the twin chrome tailpipes of its exhaust system in the diffuser. The taillights are smoked on both top Golf versions.
* GTD interior: The car’s interior follows Volkswagen’s GT philosophy as well. And this means ergonomics in its purest form, supplemented by features tailored to the Golf GTD. The “top sport seats” - the same as the ones used in the Golf GTI - define a higher standard. Their long-distance touring and racing properties are legendary, as is their styling. In contrast to the GTI, the black sport seats of the GTD are complemented by a light gray color in the diamond stripe pattern instead of red. Another highlight is the three-spoke leather sport steering wheel. And, as on the steering wheel, the parking brake grip and gearshift surround are also finished in leather. The instrument and door trim areas are treated with “Black Stripe” gloss-black accents.
* GTD is fully equipped: Furthermore, Golf GTD features include details such as chrome bezels for various switches, a black roofliner and black roof pillar trim, automatic climate control, multifunctional display “Plus”, center armrests and the RCD 210 radio system. Standard features also include lowering of the passenger’s side mirror when backing up, heated windshield washer nozzles, headlight cleaning system, “ParkPilot” (with sensors in front and rear bumpers), ESP with countersteer assist and braking assistant, as well as seven airbags, including a knee airbag on the driver’s side.
Volkswagen released all the official details on the new Golf GTD that will be debuting this weekend at the Leipzig Motor Show in Germany. The new hot diesel hatch revives a designation that originally appeared in 1982 but hasn't been seen in two decades. This time around, the high output 168 hp version of VW's 2.0-liter TDI four cylinder pushes the GTD to 62 mph in 8.1 seconds. On the EU combined test cycle, the GTD gets 44.4 mpg (U.S.) with CO2 emissions of 139 g/km.
The GTD is much a new GTI except that gas powered car's red grille stripes are now finished in chrome to set it apart. Inside the car, the red contrasting stitching of the GTI is also replaced by light grey for the diesel model. Considering the handling capabilities of the GTD, the sport seats look like they can keep the driver in place for the job at hand.
VOLKSWAGEN OFFERS PERFORMANCE WITH ECONOMY IN NEW GOLF GTD
As the new GTI hits the road for the first time its sister car has been unveiled at the Leipzig Motor Show: the new diesel-powered Golf GTD.
The ability to accelerate to 62 mph in 8.1 seconds and a top speed of 136 mph are combined with average fuel consumption of 53.3 mpg and a range in excess of 650 miles on a single tank of fuel to create a hot hatch of the moment.
Lessons learned through the creation of the sixth generation GTI are applied to the new GTD. Sharp responses and an agile chassis complement the car's substantial torque which is available from as low as 1,750 rpm.
Powering the new GTD is a refined 2.0-litre (1,968 cc) common rail TDI engine, producing 170 PS and 258 lbs ft of torque. Driving through a six-speed manual or automatic DSG gearbox, this translates to effortless performance with CO 2 emissions of just 139 g/km.
Maintaining the sharp responses expected of the GTD is suspension lowered by 15 mm when compared to the standard Golf. In addition, Volkswagen's innovative Adaptive Chassis Control system (ACC), featuring pneumatically controlled damper units, can be specified on the GTD. This allows the driver to select from normal, comfort or sport modes to define the desired suspension, steering and accelerator response settings for any particular journey.
The Golf GTD's appearance will differ significantly from that of the standard Golf's. It gains the GTI's honeycomb grille, badge-style and front-end design, though with the addition of chrome rather than red highlights. At the back, full body-coloured bumpers make the GTD appear lower and wider than it really is, while the Golf's standard wheels are replaced with unique 17-inch ‘Seattle Black' alloys. Inside, the main contact points are unique to the Golf GTD – a flat-bottomed steering wheel, a GTD gearshift and a standard tartan interior. The tartan finish is subtly different from that in the GTI, being grey, white and black, rather than red, white and black.
As with the entire Golf range, the new GTD will feature class-leading levels of safety with ABS, ESP (Electronic Stabilisation Programme) and seven airbags, including for the first time a knee airbag, all standard. The Golf was recently awarded a maximum five-star rating by the EuroNCAP crash testing agency.
UK buyers will be able to order a Golf GTD from the end of April. Prices are yet to be confirmed but will start at under £22,000. The car will go on sale on 22 June – exactly one month after the first GTIs hit UK roads.
It's the Golf GTI that does 50mpg! These days, even hot hatch drivers have to keep an eye on running costs, and although Volkswagen’s latest GTI is very efficient, the company has introduced a fuel-sipping diesel version.
Called the GTD, it gets a 168bhp 2.0-litre oil-bunner, the same suspension settings as the GTI and a subtle bodykit. The Golf GTD goes up against other oil-burning hot hatches such as the SEAT Leon FR TDI and Skoda Octavia vRS TDI, and it’s on sale now.
Frugal it may be – but the GTD certainly isn’t cheap. Priced from £21,850 in three-door form, it costs only £500 less than the petrol GTI version. So does it offer enough to tempt buyers to go diesel?
The GTD badge is rather unfamiliar, but it’s not a new one for VW – back in the Eighties, the firm offered a 1.6-litre turbodiesel-powered clone of the Golf GTI MkII. This time around, VW has tried harder to give the GTD a look of its own. The major change is the addition of silver trim on the honeycomb grille in place of the GTI’s red stripes. Below that the front bumper is pretty much the same, but at the rear the exhaust pipes are twinned, rather than located at either side of the car, as they are on the GTI.
New 17-inch alloys, or optional 18-inch wheels, and GTD badging complete the changes. However, to our eyes the look is too subtle to call this Golf a true hot hatch, particularly in five-door form as seen here. It’s better inside, as the GTI’s flat-bottomed steering wheel and tartan-trimmed sports seats are carried across – and really look the part.
Under the bonnet, the super smooth 168bhp 2.0-litre common-rail turbodiesel is 39bhp down on the 207bhp GTI. However, it makes up for that with 350Nm of torque – compared to the GTI’s 280Nm – which is available from 1,750rpm-2,500rpm. The 0-62mph sprint takes 8.1 seconds (about a second down on the GTI), while top speed is 138mph (the GTI manages 149mph).
On the move, the diesel certainly offers very strong mid-range punch. The huge torque means it’s easy to leave the GTD in a high gear, such as fourth or even fifth, when overtaking on a country road. Our car came with the £1,305 optional twin-clutch six-speed DSG gearbox – a six-speed manual is standard – and the result is smooth, seamless pace. The engine makes a decent noise, too. VW has equipped the diesel with a clever electromagnetic sound generator, which tunes the unit’s note
so it’s smooth, strong and rather sporty!
However, while the GTD is fast, the petrol version has the edge for driver appeal, boasting a wider rev range and more electric throttle response. The diesel counters when it comes to fuel consumption – VW claims 53.3mpg combined, which means it’s possible to cover 640 miles on one tank! Emissions of 139g/km are another bonus, leaving owners with a yearly road tax bill of £120.
As with the GTI, ride comfort is taut, but the car manages to soak up bumps very well indeed. The GTD doesn’t get the GTI’s XDS electronic limited-slip differential, but there’s no wheelspin, and it grips hard when accelerating out of tight bends. What’s more, the steering is well weighted and accurate, allowing you to corner with precision. Ultimately, though, while it’s an enjoyable fast car, the GTD lacks the excitement of the GTI.
Rival: SEAT Leon FR TDI
It packs the same engine as the Golf GTD, so the Leon FR is quick. It’s a wilder hot hatch and, apart from a firm ride, a fun drive, too. At £18,000, it’s much cheaper as well.
After the Polo, the BlueMotion offensive and the Golf GTI, Volkswagen is pulling the next arrow out of its quiver: this time it is the Golf GTD. It is extremely fuel efficient yet exceedingly sporty, and it is debuting as a world premiere at the Auto Mobil International in Leipzig (March 28 to April 05). The GTD code letters carry on a tradition: the first Golf GTD appeared back in 1982 – it was the GTI among diesels. Now Volkswagen has perfected the various aspects of sportiness.
The new Golf GTD with its 125 kW / 170 PS is aimed at all diesel fans who value a maximum in dynamic performance. This is where the GTD shows a clear affinity to the new GTI (155 kW / 210 PS). While the GTI is in its own league with an efficient turbo gasoline engine that offers the same performance as far more expensive sports cars, the Golf GTD is making its appearance with phenomenal fuel economy. Every 100 kilometers, just 5.3 liters of fuel flow through the piezo injection valves of the common rail engine that can hardly be pegged as a diesel. That is equivalent to CO2 emissions of just 139 g/km. This contrasts with a top speed of 222 km/h and 8.1 seconds for the sprint to 100 km/h.
Range of about 1,000 kilometer
As on the GTI, the GTD’s 6-speed manual transmission may be swapped out for an optional 6-speed DSG – which in the eyes of many experts is the most efficient automatic of our times. The Golf GTD with DSG reaches a top speed of 220 km/h; it accelerates to 100 km/h in 8.1 seconds and consumes 5.6 liters diesel on average (147 g/km CO2). These low fuel consumption values take both GTD variants to distances of about 1,000 kilometers on one tank of fuel (55 liters).
The GTD equipped with standard sport chassis and 17-inch alloy wheels (“Seattle” type) bears a close relationship to the GTI, in its highly agile handling properties as well as in its parallels in appearance and features.
GTD exterior
The exterior clearly indicates that this is the sportiest Golf with a diesel engine. Take the front end, for example: the bumper, radiator grille and headlights are a 1:1 match with the GTI. However, the red horizontal stripes in the radiator grille are styled in chrome on the GTD. At the rear, the turbo-diesel sports a modified diffuser. Even though no GTD emblem comes with the car purchase, the diesel version of the Golf can be recognized by its dual chrome tailpipes on the left side of the diffuser (the GTI has one tailpipe on the left and one on the right).
GTD sound
Sound – sporty sound – has not traditionally been a particular strength of diesel engines. However, the GTD’s new common rail engine is different. Since it no longer has a superimposed “hammering” sound that was previously typical of diesels, engineers were able to fine tune its acoustics for the first time. This is accomplished by a special sound generator, which outputs a sonorous tone, especially in the lower engine speed range. The electromagnetic sound generator evaluates engine speed, momentary power demand and vehicle speed data obtained via the car’s CAN bus and tunes the engine sound that can be heard in the interior.
GTD interior
Volkswagen’s GT philosophy is also reflected in the interior. It expresses itself in standard high-end sport seats, a 3-spoke leather steering wheel whose curvature flattens at the bottom (GTD signature in the center chrome badge), leather parking brake lever and leather gearshift boot with stitching in contrasting color. However, unlike in the GTI the color is not red but light gray. The same applies to the sport seats in “Jacky” pattern: The color chosen for the flat-felled seams are an elegant light gray (“Art Grey”) instead of red (“Flash Red”). The seats themselves are styled in a “Black-White” color combination.
GTD safety and convenience
Other standard features of the Golf GTD include details such as a black roofliner and black roof pillar trim, special interior accents, seven airbags including knee airbag on the driver’s side, automatic climate control (“Climatronic”), front fog lights with chrome framing, daytime running lights, ESP, a winter package (with heated windshield washer nozzles, heated front seats, headlight cleaning system and low washer fluid indicator light) and the RCD 210 radio system. Nonetheless, the most important component of standard GTD equipment is still the Common Rail TDI with 170 PS being used in the Golf for the first time.
TDI technology in detail
The 1,968 cm3 displacement engine is from a new TDI generation. It delivers its maximum power at 4,200 rpm. The engine – as sporty as it is fuel efficient – develops its 350 Newton-meter maximum torque between 1,750 and 2,500 rpm. Its specific torque is 177.8 Newton-meter per liter engine displacement. The upshot is that in practically any driving situation, the sixteen-valve four-cylinder engine offers power equivalent to that of a six-cylinder sports car engine.
About the technology: Fuel induction is handled by a common rail system. Fuel injection pressures of up to 1,800 bar and special eight-hole injection nozzles achieve exceptionally fine atomization of the diesel fuel. The eight-hole injection nozzles are driven by what are known as piezo in-line injectors. In this process, electrically controlled piezo crystals – boosted by hydraulics – initiate injection in fractions of a second. Compared to conventional solenoid valves, piezo technology enables more flexible injection processes with smaller and more precisely metered quantities of fuel. The results are a very quiet and pleasantly soft running engine, exceptionally quick response and the excellent fuel economy and emissions values already mentioned.
Another feature having a positive effect on the car’s acoustics is the maintenance-free toothed timing belt for the camshaft. The conversion to common rail technology and many other acoustic measures, such as a noise-damping film in the windshield, make the new Golf GTD one of the quietest diesel models in its class. In addition, the GTD will fulfill limits of the Euro-5 emissions standard. Advance sales of the Golf GTD in Germany will already begin in early May. And the prospects for a successful market launch look good. Because this sporty Volkswagen fits in perfectly with our times.
With this amount of power, the vehicle will be able to sprint to 100 km/h in just 8.2 seconds while the top speed will be limited to 220 km/h (with only 20 km/h less than the Volkswagen Golf VI GTI). According to the manufacturer, the fuel consumption will be just 5.9 l/100 km (we don’t know at what speeds and how you should drive to achieve this “record”). The new Golf GTD will make its debut on the market this summer, almost the same period as the Golf VI GTI!
