I was lucky enough to get a test drive in my local dealers edition 30 this morning. I drive a MKV GTi DSG with REVO so I thought a comparison test might be interesting.

First the looks; I've seen a lot of pictures of the edition 30 and like many journalists had said, I thought the bodykit was a bit of a waste of time. However, in the flesh it looked great, maybe not better than a standard GTi but still an understated and stylish looking motor. Particularly great were the alloys, the car was black and so were they - it had a real look of menace about it. When it comes time for a wheel refurb I'll be getting mine done in the same colour.

Interior wise I thought the half leather seats were fantastic, despite them having a more vinyl than hide feel to them. The lumbar support control is electric and this was a bit fiddly to operate and didn't seem to have quite the same range of adjustment as my GTi. The little edition 30 accents that are scattered around the car aren't as tacky as you might imagine, I thought it could have done without the rear badge though to be honest. What did puzzle me was a difference in the quality of the plastics compared to my MY2005 car, some bits were a lot cheaper feeling. Namely the little cubby below the steering wheel was made of very brittle plastic, the climate controls were different (felt less damped and more flimsy) and the flap that covers the ashtray was just plain black rather than having a brushed silver finish, a bit puzzling. The question is are all MY2007 cars like this? What was good is that the car had a space saver in the boot instead of an inflator and some foam.

Anyway on to the drive. The car had 20km (12 or so miles) on it when I took it out, so any comments about it's engine performance are irrelevant really. It felt a lot slower than my car which is 20,000 miles up, as you'd expect with it not being run in. More relevant is the way it handled-the car still has the ability to smooth out all the bumps that I think is the forte of the MKV Golf. It also cornered much flatter than my GTI and seemed to recover it's composure much faster through fast transisitions. This might be something to do with the larger 18" wheels than the 17's on mine. Surprisingly the car also stopped with much more conviction than my car, although in fairness I'm only a month or two away from needing a fluid change. I don't know if the edition 30 has bigger brakes than a standard GTI although the looked the same to me but either way they were very effective. All in all I'd say the edition 30 is a better drive than a standard GTI. The only place I thought it suffered was on a poor motorway surface, where it had a tendency to follow all the ruts and the Continental tyres made a lot of noise.

Would I pay a premium to own one? I wouldn't buy any new car so I guess the answer is no but give it a couple of years when depreciation may have taken its toll then I'd take one over a normal GTi anyday.

Review by LHD.