Idea for a Sporty GTI competitor for 6th Gen

You can like even the current GTI and one can agree that

yet not assert a high demand for them.

GTIs and Golf Rs don't crest a thousand sales a month in the US; Chrysler pacifica minivans sell ten times more. The Corolla GR is a specialty car built to a different standard in one specific plant that dealers have charged well above stick for and Toyota sells nearly as many of those as VW does GTIs. The Golf is a last remaining ghost of a once very popular line, and a format that everyone else has given up trying to sell here. We may not agree with most car buyers, but in the US buyers largely detest hatchbacks.

To put this in perspective, look at the convertible roadster. Once upon a time, you could get one from MG, Fiat, Triumph, Jaguar, Lotus, Alfa Romeo. The Mazda Miata remains as a great example of the genre and outsells the Golf here, but it occupies its own niche. The Golf is the Miata of hatchbacks...if the Miata were only offered with an automatic transmission.

 

Facts are facts. The reason Golf Rs and GTIs are scarce is because VW USA is importing very few of them, not because tons of people want them. In 2025, there were over five times as many Priuses sold than Golf Rs and GTIs combined, and the Prius is considered a fairly low production car.

2025 US sales figures:

Total VW: 329,813
Golf GTI: 7,235
Golf R: 3,319
That means that the two Golfs made up 3.2% of all VWs sold in the US in 2025

Total Toyota: 2,147,811
Prius: 56,488 (2.6% of all Toyotas)

I wish I could do a total hatchback calculation for Toyota, but they lump all Corollas together, so I can't separate out the sedans from the regular hatchbacks and the GR.

 

I tracked down a 2019 Corolla hatch with a stick; it was 300 miles from me, but it existed. When I checked at the end of the following year, I believe there were 30 nationwide.

I've read speculation about why americans detest hatchbacks and it mostly comes down to little hatches making the driver look poor, but that buyers somehow see status in SUVs. I don't know that I buy that specific and bizarre reasoning, but it's at least consistent with sales figures.

I like the MGB, and a newly built one with a modern engine and transmission sounds neat, but not for more than $100,000.

Seems the smart companies would build cars people are willing to part money with to get -- like building a Prius normal people will buy.


One wrinkle I see in the market is back seats in small sedans. Do they get used by most sedan buyers, or is it just a bunch of us driving around by ourselves?

The AWD Prius begins to get crowded with the battery, rear motor and reduced size gas tank. I understand the Gen 6 systems to have about twice the battery capacity as Gen 5. An AWD Prius with a Gen 6 system, a rear cargo shelf and .... a spare tire -- that might scratch an itch.