That huge single-frame grille on the gen-five appealed to a lot of buyers and certainly made the hot variant of the Golf stand out visually from the others in the range. As well as the aforementioned frontal features, the latest Golf GTI also sports extended side sills, a roof-mounted spoiler, a diffuser finished in matte black, and twin exhaust tips finished in chrome and squeezed all the way out to the edges of the rear to give a neat wide effect.

Lowered suspension and 17-inch alloy wheels (18s are optional) complete the appearance package. Inside, the Golf GTI 6 has sports seats done in an interesting tartan pattern and with GTI badges in the headrests. There's a sports steering wheel and the styling of the instruments also carries a sporting note.

This time around the Golf GTI is being sold in three- and five-door format, making it useful for the single guy or gal, as well as the couple with children who don’t want to lose out on fun motoring just to make life easier for the junior travellers.

The 2.0-litre turbocharged engine has been lifted from 200 horsepower to 210 bhp (147 to 155 kW in non-performance car terms). Peak torque is generated over a huge spread of the rev band, running at 280 Newton metres all the way from 1700 to 5200 rpm.

All that torque was much appreciated during our drive up, down and around the Snowy ski fields, with the engine generating plenty of punch for safe overtaking and sheer driving pleasure. There's only a minimum of turbo lag and the engine is happy to rev to big numbers, while also coping very well in the mid range. Torque delivery through the front wheels is greatly assisted by a new type of electronic differential that really gave the Golf an amazingly neutral feel for a front wheel driver.

On one section of the drive program arranged by Volkswagen I had the pleasure of sitting beside Hans-Joachim Stuck. A topline racing driver for many years, seven of them in Formula One, and twice a winner at the Le Mans 24-hour, Stuck was taught to drive on the famed Nurburgring by his father, also a famous racing driver.

I got the feeling that the Aussie Snowys were rather tame when compared to the Ring, but watching the smoothness and precision of his driving as he left the hotshot amongst the local motoring journos lagging a long behind was a real pleasure. Despite its excellent road grip and ease of handling the latest Volkswagen Golf GTI has pretty reasonable comfort thanks to the sophisticated nature of its suspension.

The Volkswagen Golf GTI is one of the most iconic hot hatches on the European market. Since the first generation was introduced almost 25 years ago it has been the one the others have tried to imitate. Sometimes successfully, at other times with pale reflections of the VW original. The original Golf GTI was to be a limited run of 5000 cars. Since then – and five generations later – more than 1.7 million have been sold worldwide. The Sixth generation GTI was shown in concept form at the Paris Motor Show in September 2008.

The upgraded engine is available with either a six speed manual transmission or the DSG box. The GTI accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 6.9 seconds. Emissions fall from 197 g/km to 180 g/km and 178 g/km using the DSG.

Though the performance car buyer is Australia still tends to lean in the direction of big V8s, that situation is showing signs of changing. There's an increasing leaning in the European and Japanese direction of having relatively small and nimble hatches with strong engines. Not engines that can run sub-six second zero to 100s as do the Aussie V8s, but acceleration that's still most satisfying. All the more so when the acceleration is combined with slicing out of tight corners on mountain roads during a quiet period of the day.

PRICING

Golf GTI 2.0 litre TSI 155 kW 3 door 6-speed manual $38,990

Golf GTI 2.0 litre TSI 155 kW 3 door 6-speed DSG $41,490

Golf GTI 2.0 litre TSI 155 kW 5 door 6-speed manual $40,490

Golf GTI 2.0 litre TSI 155 kW 5 door 6-speed DSG $42,990