Need some help - in two minds as what to do.

when the mk3 came out, manufacturers were under pressure to start making cars a lot safer in the case of an accident (which would you rather crash in a mk3 or a mk3?) the golf was also one of the biggest selling car's in europe so needed to appeal to a mass audience (hence the slightly bland styling)

Only mistake I think they made was selling the 16v with the suspension and set up as the 8v, they could have had an 8v GTI with the settings the mk3 gti's came with, and then done a 'proper' gti which wasn't wallowy and soft!!!

If you look at almost every major manufacturer from that era - all cars went the same, astra of the same era was positively pants compared to the previouse GTE era etc

 

whaaaaat. it was massively under damped to make a car that was good for making progress in. it was just wrong

so get the suspension right, the brakes were ok, the engine ok, so thats half the battle

a bit more power would have been good to overcome the weight increase, the weight increase is natural

 

the point im getting at, is not the the mk3 was the way it should be - just that if you look at what other manufacturers were putting out at the same time were all very similar. The emphasis had shifted from fun, sporty kill yourself down a country road - to safer, more reliable and mass sales

 

no no no the definition of gti didnt change

gti means rip your face off levels of fun

in the mk3 it started to mean, we'll use it to take the kids to school too and other gay stuff, which is wrong, hence why i did a whole load of work to mine to get it back to being gti again

vw was following a market trend, but the market trend was heading away from "gti"