Volkswagen have announced a special edition North America exclusive Golf GTI 380 for the 2024 model year. The German Automaker is making the Golf GTI 380 to celebrate the final year of manual production in Golf GTI.
https://media.vw.com/en-us/releases/1759
According to official spin, VW’s decision to kill off the Golf GTI manual was informed by the manual’s slightly higher emissions when compared to its automatic sibling. Needless to say, no one is buying VW’s pathetic excuse to cease production of manual Golf GTIs.
I think the main reason why Volkswagen is ditching the Golf GTI manual has to do with the manual transmission’s t̶h̶e̶f̶t̶ d̶e̶t̶e̶r̶r̶e̶n̶t̶ customer deterrent status. It’s becoming difficult to justify the production of a product that is increasingly becoming niche.