I've had an 05 GTI MK5, Two MK6 GTIs and now a MK7 GTI PP for the last three months.
The mk7 GTI lacks any 'limited edition' special touches BUT the drive absolutely knocks spots off any other Golf I've ever driven including quite a few with modified suspension.
I've owned at least one GTI of every incarnation since the mid/late 80s from a 1.8 MK1 right through with the only exception being the MK3 where I had two VR6s and an Ibiza GTI (same engine and front suspension to a mk3 GTI) and almost all of them modified to some degree.
The e-diff is amazing, you really have to drive it to appreciate it.
At 4:30 the other morning I took the GTI out and blasted it up a big dual carriageway hill local to me (having just finished an 11 hour night shift and wasn't feeling tired). I've driven up this hill dozens of times in all sorts of machinery over the years and even my old skool daily driver 8v GTI (which has on paper half the bhp and torque of the PP but weighs about half as much!) sitting on Bilstein & Eibach suspension (and brand new front tyres) will shed about 15 mph at the top of the hill through understeer where it bends viciously to the right and is off camber. Plenty of cars end up on their roofs on this bit of hill.
The GTI PP, well it just went up the hill with no drama and shoved its nose into the bend continuing with no drama. 'Meh' thinks I, it just made it too easy so I hit the gas half expecting to get a bit messy as the road was pretty dry but there was moisture in the air. No silly speeds were used and sixth gear only - and the GTI rather than understeering and shedding speed just tucked its nose in even further and blasted round like the bend wasn't there.
No oversteer, no understeer, no nothing, just grip and poise and nowhere near as much body roll as my MK5 (Koni suspension) or either of my MK6s (standard suspension but not so standard engine software).
I know plenty of people on here thumb their noses at the mk7, probably having never driven one, and indeed I was sceptical about the reviews the e-diff got when the first test drives were published despite having had a car on order solely on the premise of the VAQ e-diff having read up on it extensively.
My advice to anyone on here - test drive a mk7 GTI PP on a familiar bit of bendy road that you've driven in various different cars and then take a deep breath and dare to do things you just wouldn't do in those cars.
Obviously keeping it sensible and legal!!!!
To be honest though, it's nearly 12 months since I ordered the PP and if I was in the same boat again I'd be taking a close look at the Leon Cupra but I've never been a fan of the bigger slower spooling turbos in the ED30 or previous Cupras, R etc as by the time the turbo has spooled into the sweet spot you're doing well illegal speeds in the upper gears and that's just not for me. I'm getting old and just see it as unusable performance.
