The Japanese term "kaizen" refers to the philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement. In a display of typical German efficiency, Volkswagen prefers to use three, simple letters to express the same sentiment - GTI.
That's because over its lifetime the hot hatch from Wolfsburg has steadily made progress without slipping backwards from its goal to be a performance-based, yet totally real-worldusable car that is available to the driving masses.
Sounds like an achievable goal. But look at the graveyard of some other nameplates that lost their way from the original concept - Ford's Thunderbird springs to mind - and you see evolution in the automotive world is not always that easy or straightforward.
Performance:
Thankfully, VW has stayed true to the original game plan after the very first GTI was introduced in 1975, the year after the Golf model, from which it was based, was put on the market.
Back then, the performance numbers were: 110 horsepower; 103 pound feet of torque; zero to 100 km/h time of nine seconds.
Four decades later and the figures for the 2015 GTI have understandably changed. Power is now upped by 100 horses to 210, torque is an amazing 258 pound feet, and the acceleration time has dropped to 5.9 seconds.
With all of those changes the body shape has remained pretty much the same with room for passengers and cargo in a sober, almost cube-like package of sheet metal.
Design:
Although, there are some subtle styling differences the GTI provides for the $32,895 sticker price which is about $13,000 more than the base Golf.
For one, there's the exposed, red brake callipers, because all that power under the hood is nothing if you can't tame it.
Plus, the GTI is shod with standard 17-inch alloys that allow you a good look at those callipers. If you want to make an even bigger statement, 18-inch wheels are available.
Inside, there's VW's race car-inspired, flat bottom steering wheel. And there's no mistaking this is a GTI when you see the tartan design on the seats- it's a GTI trademark.
The GTI of today has also kept pace in the fuel economy department when compared to its original model which back in 1975 managed a combined 100 km while burning through just a tad over eight litres.
On the highway the 2015 GTI consumes just 6.9 litres, while city driving pushes that up to 9.4 litres.
When combined, that would likely give you a 100 km rate similar to the first GTI, but with double the power and performance making the evolution of the VW GTI one bountiful journey.
