Traditionally, GTI customers have enjoyed interior appointments from the next class up, but the finishes in the latest generation aren't good enough for an Audi. While the dashboard is more modern than the upright minivan-like design of the old car, the materials lack richness and disappoint when you touch them.

The Drawbacks: It’s a Mark 8 Golf: The interior feels a smidge cost-cut and hollow, especially next to the outgoing Mark 7.

Unfortunately, Volkswagen has slightly cheapened the Golf's interior for this generation. Harder plastics run throughout the interior, and soft-touch materials that used to be commonplace in the previous-generation Golf R are now gone.

As fun as the 2022 VW GTI is to drive, its interior, though nicely assembled, isn't especially premium. It looks futuristic, for sure; VW matched the exterior's futuristic look inside the cabin with sharp lines and plenty of honeycomb patterns, but there's a lot of hard plastics all around.

Unfortunately, unlike the high-quality environs of the previous generation, the new interior is marred by some chintzy finishes and hard plastics.

VW moved the GTI upmarket in price point. But the interior has gone from “Audi on a budget” to just “budget.” And it’s hard to forgive feeling like you’re flying in coach with the $40,000-plus Autobahn trim. The front seats and steering wheel feel lovely, but the rest of the cabin is varying shades of cheap plastic. My base model 2016 Sportwagen S interior at least made an effort to look premium.

​​​​​​​Though this is the most expensive and feature-rich GTI model ever, cost-cutting in some areas is obvious. We love that VW added extravagant features like a heated steering wheel, heated/ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, a Fender audio system, and more, but these all seem to be there to distract from a downgrade in interior materials. Part of the reason why we always felt the GTI was worth its price premium over rivals was the near-luxury interior. You could hop out of a GTI into an entry-level Audi, and wonder why the Audi was $10,000 more. The Mk8 lacks that niceness.We compared our tester's nearly $40,000 interior to a used base model GTI from 2016. The comparison showed many areas where the old model felt superior to the new car. Previously soft-touch materials for the dash and door cards on the Mk7 are replaced by tough scratchy replacements on the Mk8. Even under the hood, where admittedly owners rarely look, the new car now features a cheaper hood prop instead of a hood strut, and an ugly unlabeled engine cover. It's a nitpick, but for 40 grand, we can be picky.