Volkswagen Golf GTI Gets Its (Steering) Racks Out

If you and your buddies want to enjoy some speedy sunning, then look no further than Volkswagen to be your official "summer lovin'" provider. What you're looking at is a GTI hooked up to an electric fabric top. And, unlike most of the other convertibles out there, you can fit two friends in the back.

Styling is exactly the same as the normal hot Golf with touches such as the pepper pot alloy wheels, honey comb grille with red edging and GTI badges at the front and back. Inside, it's the same story with a leather trimmed flat bottom multifunction steering wheel, leather trimmed handbrake, red stitching, aluminium pedals and the trademark tartan fabric seats as standard or leather seats available as an option with the only difference being that there isn't a middle seat in the derriere.

Even the 2.0 turbocharged four-pot petrol that produces 207bhp, goes from 0-62mph in 7.3 seconds and has a top speed of 147mph from the everyday GTI is under the bonnet with a 6-speed manual gearbox as standard or a 7-speed DSG available at an extra cost.

The party piece is the roof and, as this is a Golf, it is pretty sophisticated. If you find yourself stuck in a crawling queue and the sun comes out, the roof can be folded away at a touch of a button in 9.5 seconds at speeds of up to 18mph.

It's around a £4,000 hike over the normal three door Golf GTI with a sunroof as the starting price is £29,310 which is actually around the same as an Audi A3 Cabriolet with a 2.0 turbocharged petrol engine and a BMW 120i M Sport convertible. Not cheap. I'll stick with the hatch, personally.