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.