Well thought assessment.
I had a MKV Tornado Red GTI. Mine had the 18" Hufeisen and sunroof with interlagos seats.
I owned a MKI back in the day and I wanted a GTI that was reminiscent of that original beauty. I am the kind of guy that did not had a Countach on a poster, I had a "Caribe GT" which was the Mexican version of the Golf GTI.
There are no words to describe how much I loved my MKV, up to the point that this car really saved my life. On Christmas eve 2011, a drunk teen driver on his daddy's Tahoe hit me on the side rear, my car was launched to the other side of the road and a lady on a Lexus hit me on the front.
I had non but a minor scratch on the forehead and some neck pain. But I had to be taken out of the car by cutting the door because it would not open and the one on the other side was melted in since this is near where the criminal hit.
With my insurance check, I went to the VW dealer, and behold they did have those new MKVI GTI, the old CC (not the super cool new one with the LED tails and HID heads) and a shark blue, manual TDI with the exact same set up as my old GTI as far as equipment (plus the touch screen HD radio with the very nice Bluetooth thing).
Truth to be told, I think the biggest difference between my TDI which has already 12K miles, and my old MKV GTI is that it is a MKVI.
You see, the old MKV was designed and made in an era where VW did not put so much impetus on profits, ergo their cars were a lot more beautiful and a lot more fun.
The MKVI has "improvement" that are gimmicks and marketing tricks but in reality it is a cheaper car.
The paint on the MKV was a pain, it chipped way to easy, and it had to have a sacrificial layer of tick wax all the time, but gosh is it beautiful. And I mention the paint because that is the only complain I ever had about it.
Yes, the Dunlops were not that great but once I changed them for softer tires, that car was a riot. And it was not just the superb TSI 2.0 which unlike the FSI required less maintenance and did not eat oil. It was the passion with which you can tell it was built.
DSG? I do not intend to insult, but are you serious? The manual can not hold a candle to the DSG, what lag? It is one of the fastest shifting transmissions on earth. If you were not shifting faster on a DSG than you could ever on a manual, then you were driving it wrong.
And lets move away from the handling, because it is absolutely unfair to compare a Diesel with a Gaser. And yes, the handling on the TDI is not as sharp as on the GTI nor the turning as precise, but on long haul drives, the softer set up is much appreciated.
But the interiors, lets check that. Our GTI had dials in blue and red which I though twas the coolest thing. And that set up was there since 2000 or so, since the MKIV. Why did they went to a boring white that looks like anything else out there, beats me.
The glass on the dials was glass, not plexi that gets scratched. It was not just glass, it was tempered glass with a non reflective coating, like a Porsche.
Down to the hazard button it was cooler. The MKV hazard button was a red triangle that looked awesome, the new one is just an old fashioned painted rectangle.
The wheel made you feel you were driving a Lambo. The flat dash with that thing in the middle, the grille that I never knew what it was for, looks a lot more interesting than that curbed thing we have on our MKVI.
And the Xenons were standard even on the cheapest set up.
I even liked those things that looked like handles next to the shifter.
Its not just the handling, because today's MKVI GTI is as good in that department if not better than the MKV, but the biggest difference between what you compare here is that your GTI was a MKV and your TDI is a MKVI.
And yes, the TDI is a fine vehicle, and I wish we had access to the GTD. But you can make a TDI look really cool (on the outside) and perform as a GTD with relatively cheap mods (in the order of 3-4K dollars). And in that, if you do it, I think it would be superior (although not faster) than a MKVI GTI.
The longer distances you can drive with the same tank and the amazing TDI torque make up for the 0-60 time.
But to compare it to a MKV GTI is nearly futile because in my opinion, the MKVI GTI can not compare with the MKV GTI in overall happiness and the R comes close, but not quite. It is a lot more expensive, in a price range that you could look into getting a used 911 or a Cayman, or a nice Boxter or an S4, or an S6 etc. etc. And even that super expensive Golf R has less of those small details that make a large difference than the MKV GTI had.
In conclusion, I will stay with my TDI until the wheels fall off. It is a fine car, but I will never love it nearly as close as I loved the GTI. I have not even washed my TDI since I bought it... I let the rain take care of that.
The TDI for me its an appliance, the MKV GTI was a dream come true.