Volkswagen axes Polo GTI, confirms hot hatches now only for people with money

WHEELS · MARKET DISPATCH

A Marrickville man has reportedly begun the grieving process after learning the Polo GTI will no longer be sold in Australia, forcing him to either buy used or accept a mid-range sedan like a normal person.

Volkswagen has confirmed that the Polo GTI, a car small enough to fit in a Chatswood unit car space but angry enough to make its owner feel like a racing driver, will be axed from the Australian line-up.

The news arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, the worst possible day for bad news, at approximately the moment when a 34-year-old junior accountant named Jarrod in Marrickville was eating a flat white at a Woolworths café. Jarrod, who had reportedly been "locking in" a Polo GTI purchase for the past eighteen months, confirmed to Drive that he would now need to either spend ninety grand on a Golf GTI, like everyone else with a job, or accept that he would drive a Hyundai i30 N and pretend to be happy about it.

The Polo GTI, priced at $42,490 drive-away according to published figures, represented the entry point to hot-hatch ownership in Australia — the smallest, cheapest, and most comprehensible way to own a car that could theoretically do donuts in a school carpark (though Jarrod stressed, quietly, to his housemate that he had never done this and would never do this). Volkswagen's decision to discontinue the model reflects a broader industry shift: hot hatches, once the second car of every tradies' girlfriend and the first car of every uni student's dad trying to stay relevant, are now luxury goods.

A spokesperson for Volkswagen Australia did not return calls by press time. However, the brand's stated position — that it is "moving further into" electrification and SUVs — can be translated, roughly, as: "Young people no longer have $42,490 and also they are all scared of driving now."

Jarrod has reportedly begun browsing used Polo GTI listings on Facebook Marketplace, with particular interest in a 2019 model in Pearl White with 127,000 kilometres, owned by a Penrith panel-beater named Craig who described it in the ad as "pretty quick, needs new discs, interior is sick."

At press time, Jarrod was composing a text to his father that read simply: "The Polo GTI is getting axed. The Polo GTI is getting axed. The Polo GTI is getting axed." His father did not reply.

The Polo GTI is getting axed. The Polo GTI is getting axed. The Polo GTI is getting axed.— Jarrod, 34, accountant, Marrickville

Filed by Macca Tibbett — The Brainrot Desk

Source: https://www.drive.com.au/news/volkswagen-polo-gti-hot-hatch-axed-in-australia/