2024 Volkswagen Golf GTI 380 farewells manual transmission, not for Australia

German car-maker Volkswagen will soon end production of its manual Golf GTI and R hot hatches, but not before farewelling the three-pedal hot hatch with a special edition variant – available exclusively in North America.

The Golf GTI 380 package pays homage to the eighth-generation hatchback’s codename (VW380) within Volkswagen, and will be added as standard to all manual-equipped 2024 Golf GTI grades sold in North America – the S, SE and Autobahn variants.

It will not come to Australia, as the last manual Golf GTI and Golf R hot hatchbacks were brought to local showrooms in 2018.

Compared to the Golf GTI’s existing grades, the 380 package includes adaptive suspension, gloss black 19-inch aluminium-alloy wheels (from the Golf R 20th Anniversary Edition), a gloss black roof and mirror caps as standard.

In addition to the six exterior finishes already available for the Golf GTI, Golf GTI 380 buyers are exclusively offered a new ‘Graphite Gray Metallic’ paint.

There are no changes inside the cabin or under the bonnet, with the Volkswagen Golf GTI 380 continuing to produce 180kW and 370Nm from its turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder ‘EA888’ petrol engine.

Drive is sent to the front wheels through a six-speed manual transmission – the last of its kind before the Golf GTI and Golf R switch to seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearboxes exclusively for the 2025 Model Year.

While the manual Golf GTI is also sold in Europe, the manual transmission in the latest Golf R was developed specifically for North America – where three-pedal models still account for a hefty share of Golf sales.

In June 2023, UK publication Autocar reported Volkswagen will drop the manual transmission from the eighth-generation Golf with its mid-life update in 2024 – 50 years after the nameplate was launched.

The decision to do so is understood to be related to the slightly higher emissions emitted by manual Golfs compared to their automatic counterparts – driving up Volkswagen’s fleet emissions amid ever-stricter laws being implemented in Europe.

While demand for the manual Golf GTI and Golf R is still steady in North America – where they are the only Mk8 Golf models available – it is declining elsewhere.

Unfortunately, Australians haven’t been offered the choice of a manual Golf GTI or Golf R since 2018.

The 'Mk8' Golf offered a manual transmission in base form only for Model Year 2021, before it was made temporarily unavailable for Model Year 2022 – and axed entirely for Model Year 2023 production.

A spokesperson for Volkswagen Australia told Drive last year the "Golf sells as close to 100 per cent auto or DSG [dual-clutch auto] as makes no odds."

As reported earlier this year, manual transmissions accounted for less than 1.8 per cent of new passenger cars and SUVs sold in Australia throughout 2022.