Next year's VW Golf GTI

Paris Motor Show 2008 The new Golf has a tough road to tread: restore its reputation for quality interiors, while also cutting production costs. Good thing the new GTI looks mean then.

We've featured the non-GTI Mark VI Golfs already, but the Paris Motor Show was the first chance for the public to see the latest iteration of Europe's iconic family hatch up close and personal. As we've noted before, the big news with the standard models is VW's decision to ditch the conventional automatic transmissions in favour of dual-clutch gearboxes (DSG, in VW-speak). The current generation Golf was criticised for the drop in quality of its interior, so VW has vowed that the new model will restore the Golf's reputation in that respect.

For the GTI, VW has turned up the power, junked the full-height black grille in favour of an item that highlights the new model's extra width and lowered the ride height.