[rainfall]

The things my next family car needs to be are: fun to drive, not too heavy and family friendly. I know, these things don't typically go together these days.

Edit: by "family friendly", I mean something with good usable trunk space, like the corolla's enclosed 13 cu ft trunk space.

A car that checks all of these boxes is the GLI, at least on paper, so I came to VW check out the new generation.

I had driven the MK7 GTI and was an absolute blast. Front wheel LSD, quiet cabin, super nimble/responsive and a-ok cargo space. The only thing i wish it had is a bit more trunk space. The Jetta GLI is the obvious next choice.

This new one I test drove had the 7-speed DSG, virtual cockpit and many other luxury items. Great. Let's see how it drives. I liked the steering wheel, fit and finish and overall ride quality.

The tester I was on already had some miles on it, so I wasn't shy about doing some harder pulls. When I did pull though, I felt it was missing something both on the low rpm AND in the high RPM. Also, while the redline was at about 6500, the DSG was automatically shifting at exactly 6000 rpm. No point saying the danger zone starts somewhere if the machine won't let me get any close to that.

I was renting Toyota Rav 4 (4-cylinder) at the time and I'm not an SUV guy at all... but honestly I appreciated the faster response of that vehicle than the GLI. The GLI just felt a little sluggish.

Overall, I felt the GLI much worse than the GTI...

I guess my question is - is it just me or does someone else have a similar experience?