VW Golf GTI vs Peugeot 205 GTI: The 1984 Hot Hatch Showdown

In 1984, a British magazine called the Peugeot 205 GTI's suspension the worst it had encountered in a decade. Six years later, the same magazine named the 205 its car of the decade. In between: the hot hatch duel with the Volkswagen Golf GTI that fans still argue about today. A special episode of The Golf GTI Story. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 0:00 The worst suspension in a decade 0:41 The car to beat 1:20 Peugeot's gamble 2:06 1984 4:44 Escalation 6:10 The verdict ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Which one would you have taken in 1984? Tell me in the comments. THE GOLF GTI STORY - all episodes Full playlist:    • The Golf GTI Story   1. The Golf GTI Was Never Supposed to Exist -    • The Golf GTI Was Never Supposed to Exist   2. They Said the Golf GTI Had Gone Soft -    • They Said the Golf GTI Had Gone Soft   3. The Golf GTI That Was Slower Than the Original -    • The Golf GTI That Was Slower Than the Orig...   4. The Golf GTI That Became Just a Badge -    • The Golf GTI That Became Just a Badge   5. How Volkswagen Brought the Golf GTI Back -    • How Volkswagen Brought the Golf GTI Back   6. The First Golf GTI That Got Lighter -    • The First Golf GTI That Got Lighter   7. The Golf GTI That Finally Beat the Type R -    • The Golf GTI That Finally Beat the Type R   8. The Golf GTI That Lost Its Gear Lever -    • The Golf GTI That Lost Its Gear Lever   Special: Golf GTI vs Peugeot 205 GTI (this video) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SOURCES CAR magazine archive - "Moving right along: 2000 miles in a Peugeot 205 GTi" (1984); "Peugeot 205 at 40" Motor Sport magazine - "Two Great GTIs - from VW and Peugeot" (September 1984) Octane - VW Golf GTI vs Peugeot 205 GTI (John Simister) evo - Peugeot 205 GTI (1984-1995) review PistonHeads - PH Heroes: Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 Hagerty UK - The handbook of Sloane Ranger cars: Peugeot 205 GTI Classic & Sports Car - Peugeot 205 GTI buyer's guide Volkswagen Newsroom - Golf 1 GTI (1976-1983), Golf 2 GTI (1984-1991), history of the Golf GTI Car of the Year - all winners (caroftheyear.org) Carscoops / Irish Examiner / Practical Motoring - Performance Car Show 2016 vote Wikipedia - Peugeot 205, PSA Group, Volkswagen Golf Mk1 and Mk2, 1985 and 1986 World Rally Championship, Kenneth Eriksson Peugeot Vintage - Peugeot 205 turns 40 Lane Motor Museum - Peugeot 205 GTi 1.6 Figures attributed to Volkswagen are Volkswagen's own statements. Top speed figures for both cars vary by source. IMAGE CREDITS Photographs: Wikimedia Commons – author – licence (number of images). · Calreyn88 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (13) · Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England — CC BY 2.0 (7) · Jeremy from Sydney, Australia — CC BY 2.0 (6) · MrWalkr — CC BY-SA 4.0 (4) · TKOIII — CC BY 4.0 (3) · Vauxford — CC BY-SA 4.0 (3) · Matti Blume — CC BY-SA 4.0 (2) · Calreyn88 — CC BY 4.0 (2) · Miloslav Rejha — CC BY 4.0 (2) · Kakoula10 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (2) · Niels de Wit from Lunteren, The Netherlands — CC BY 2.0 (2) · Dennis Elzinga — CC BY 2.0 (2) · Kieran White from Manchester, England — CC BY 2.0 (2) · Charles from Port Chester, New York — CC0 (2) · Alexander-93 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (2) · Txemari. (Navarra). from Navarra, España — CC BY-SA 4.0 (2) · https://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysph... — CC BY-SA 2.0 (2) · TTTNIS — CC0 (1) · DieselFordMondeo — CC BY-SA 4.0 (1) · kitmasterbloke — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Andrew Bone — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Rutger van der Maar — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Spanish Coches — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Freggs — CC BY-SA 2.0 (1) · Steven Straiton from UK — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Michelin LIVE UK — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Thesupermat — CC BY-SA 4.0 (1) · SunflowerYuri — CC0 (1) · photobeppus — CC BY-SA 2.0 (1) · SunflowerYuri — CC BY-SA 4.0 (1) · Riley from Christchurch, New Zealand — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Glen Bowman from Newcastle, England — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Charles01 — CC BY-SA 3.0 (1) · Tim Gillin from Sydney, Australia — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Draco2008 from UK — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Eddi Laumanns aka RX-Guru — CC BY-SA 3.0 (1) · Charlie from United Kingdom — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Niels — CC BY 2.0 (1) · Frab75017 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (1) Volkswagen, Golf, GTI, Peugeot and 205 are trademarks of their respective owners. Independent documentary, not affiliated with Volkswagen AG or Stellantis. #GolfGTI #Peugeot205GTI #HotHatch