Is the Up! TSI 90 a budget GTI?

Hello guys and welcome to this cashier assistant video. Some of you may remember that in early 2018, when the GTI was being launched, a YouTuber named Misha Sheridan made a video saying that you shouldn't bother buying the GTI, you should just buy a TSI 90. because they are basically the same car, well , because he didn't actually drive the car or even see it in the metal, he got a few things wrong and I felt the need to make a video to correct it, which I quickly did, but since then. I thought that day I had always wondered if the TSI 90, perhaps a

budget

alternative to the GTI, could have some of that magic, but with a saving of approximately three thousand pounds through my business, the buying and selling of these cars It actually just happened. to have an example of each here and I thought I'd set the record straight once and for all and see if the TSI 90 can really compare to the top GTI.

Now, to do that, we can just take a walk around the two. cars and I'll just check the specs with a few small differences and then most importantly we'll be able to put them to the test on my favorite British B road so without further ado let's take a closer look at the top GTI and the TSI 90 ok. let's start with the TSI 90, as you probably know I have done the GTI to death on the previous bridge. It's useful to have it here for comparison because it's easy to see the difference when the two cars are side by side.

Missha take note, let's do a quick summary of the TSI 90, so it came out in 2016 up to about the points. I think for about the five years they were without you, they can only get normally aspirated engines and they were a bit wimpy on the open road, perfectly fine. around town, but the turbo TSI engine gave this car a new life and suddenly it was so much fun to drive so well that the GTI model was suggested while everyone thought it was going to be brilliant because it was so good and I don't think many people were disappointed now some of the original reviews of the GTI said it also had a unique front bumper, that's how unique they are, the only difference is this one is in black and this one is on the TSI 90 in the body color, it is You get a straight fog light when cornering. lights on the standard GTI but I'm pretty sure you can spec them on a TSI anyway but these are the important parts all this if you're exclusive to the TSI models the same goes for the rear actually it's an identical rear bumper, so unique.

So we have parking sensors as an option on this one, but if you look at the violence and the way the license plate opening is, it is identical to that car. Check out the exhaust too, okay so yeah it's identical, it even has a visible tailpipe which I think is unique to the CSI, it's not a chrome e1 like on the GTI but it's still visible, you know what? Is it a TSI? There's a little spoiler here, but it's part of the wireframe that it doesn't have. It has a plastic sticker like the GTI, this is the Beats model so it was a special edition which cost around eleven grand compared to fourteen for the equivalent GTI and you get a sound system but it's actually quite lacking standard. equipment too, so well let's start with the wheels, these are 15 inches and have 185 5515 tires running the exact same size as the BBS wheels on the Golf GTI Mark 2.

I really can't believe that sidewall we have. get used to it there, it's incredible, we have smaller brake discs, four to five, six, there is quite a bit of fire on the sidewall of the tire, although to protect the wheel, that is something useful for a city car because I always felt that GTIs they were very prone to braking, luckily I got away with it on my car, yes, better than if it were a slightly camp limited edition I think, so you get these slightly dodgy mirrors, slightly dodgy center caps, very dodgy stripes, badges not so dubious inside, yes there's a lot of beige, but it's a pretty uplifting place, you know, we've got a lot of cool stuff here that just doesn't look like a cheap city car with a plastic key, so we've got this thing that always reminds me of a Bandera Japanese I think we have different colors, we have very nice fabrics on the seats, so it's actually one, two, three, four different types of fabric on those seats, it's quite an expensive thing to put together and it has red stitching. and it has antara in the headrests in comparison.

I said the top GTI tartan seats are much cheaper to make than these, we don't have the top GTI heated seats they are standard because they are a GTI thing so you can know that. They talk but you don't understand them, you get this very golf normal golf steering wheel, which is quite nice and the color coding is really nice, much more interesting than the really boring plain black style that you get on your regular or garden golf . There are some. other things are missing, think about it, we are missing a gear in the gearbox because it is only a 5 speed box, but we will get to that later, this is a 2018 model car, so you still have the lever on the brake hand that was removed from the 2019 model, better not from the 2019 model year, but at some points in the last few months of production they have become like horrible plastic, just a continuation of that really on the handbrake, which just shows that the accountants have been sharpening their pencils, oh yeah, the one thing we don't have is a trip computer key in the car, so we have a real wall mounted zx81 type screen, which is a couple of degrees below the one in the GTI , we don't have a button. at the end of the trip computer lever, it's a real shame.

Do we really have fuel autonomy? I'm not sure. Actually, let's take a look, so we have the mileage, the ambient temperature, and a Low Fuel Warning, but that's pretty standard. No, no, it's a shame. No disappointing fuel range. Here we have the phone holder that you can remove if you don't like it. I find it quite useful. I think he looks like the same guy. stereo like through GTI, that's it, there is really not much more to say, everything is put together quite well, the quality of the plastic is reasonable, there is nothing to say, the beats here, the speakers are the same, I just have it there, actually yes, but you know it's a It's interesting and reminds me probably of what the Fiat 500 is like.

Not that I've been in one. You don't get the GTI's red stripe, you just get the silver one. I have the same two levels. boots, there's one thing I don't know if they'll tell you, but I bet they won't, is that if you ask for beats, you get the tool kit that moves around in the trunk and an increasingly soft thumb and it scares me. You like it? I thought you had gone over a rock because under the rugs you have a spare tire full of subwoofer and therefore the tools have to float in that bag, I tell you I wouldn't bother with the rhythms because of that, yeah, I mean you know it's a great looking car, but because it has smaller wheels that sit more in the arches and it's a little taller, it just doesn't have as nice, it's the same body panels as a GTI, but it doesn't look like it's a wide arch, this looks perfect, you know, get it at the right angle and it looks like a Lupo GTI with its wide arches mainly because it's a little lower and the wheels are wider and that width probably will be Outside, yes, it looks pretty good, but via TSI 90 years old, I don't know, it's a little cheaper, still removed the foot of the drums at the rear, probably identical to those of the GTI, yes, I want I mean, there are other models that don't have to have a Beats model, but this was a special edition and I think it was particularly good value, so yeah, I figured it's 80% of the price, 80% of the talk and 80% of the horsepower, so there we go.

Quick GTI reminder, yes, there you go HP, we'd like to talk about options, wouldn't we? So this car has an option. I have a previous experience, but I need to start wearing glasses to benefit from it, so leave it. I'll show you, tell you the tiniest rear view camera in the world, the Banzai rear view camera on the top GTI, which is pretty useless, yeah, yeah, I wouldn't pay more for those parking sensors, yeah, rear view camera, no , and what would be what. Didn't order this rug? You should have ordered a black roof. Yes, unfortunately, this one is just tungsten silver all over.

It has a great color, but would still benefit from a black roof. Let's take a look under the hood. Well, there's not much to see here. but the only reason I'm showing you this is because these two engines look pretty similar, there's just nothing to set them apart, the only difference is on that sticker, that's the DKR engine code that surprised the GT, I I ask from day one. and this is a CH there, it just says it there, so I haven't done it yet. I mean, I haven't done much homework on this because I'm not really that bothered, but I haven't confirmed what hardware differences exist if any, I think Misha said it was a software change that gave this 115 horsepower instead of the 90 of that one, but that's really unusual with the a2, they went from 75 diesel horsepower to 90 diesel horsepower and there were quite a few changes.

With that car, okay, they're probably a lot more

budget

-restrictive with this one, but it's not really your style to just repurpose a car and call it more powerful. They tend to change the turbo intercooler injectors, the internal parts of the engine fuel pump, who knows, I mean. I'm sure if you have the Volkswagen parts index you could figure it all out so if you know please comment below anyway you're not talking about these cars let's drive them and see if the TSI 90 really is the budget GTI, that's fine as it will probably work. I started with the GTI, the proper GTI and on Abbey Road like this, which never goes in a straight line for long.

This is a very suitable GTI because there are not many cars that can maintain themselves. Go ahead, I haven't driven one for about four weeks since I did the Polo GTI versus GTI video, so I've forgotten how much I like it. There are three things you notice right away. One is the firmness of the law. two is the fake sound generator noise compared to the TSI 90 dominators, the audio here, the TSI launch is quite quiet in comparison and the other thing is the abundance of torque from this engine, it is remarkable and that is what it really makes you smile.

A lot when you drive it, it's amazing, let's drive it a little faster and see if we can smile a little more, so in third position for this corner, let's see how the tires hold up today, damn, that was brilliant, 15 and a half degrees, I'll explain. why the good years are doing well let's be careful with these cyclists yeah lovely let's go back to fourth place you can smear this road in its entirety but we'll take it to fifth place to give you a bit of a break so yeah It never really rests and when you're doing 60 on a road like this, it feels like you're doing 100, but that's probably not a bad thing because you get the feeling of speed and the thrill of driving without having to break the law. and the chassis is so good considering the cheap ingredients used, it's a very impressive dish and even in this tricky off-camber corner with a mother of all telegraph poles at the exit ready to snap you in half, it's not scary, it's feels exciting. but it's not serious, gee, I have the hairs standing on the back of my neck if yes ninety recreates that feeling, well, there's only one way to find out, well guys, here we are behind the wheel of the up and TSI 90 and it feels. really familiar, it doesn't feel that different from a top GTI driving it quietly, it's a bit quieter which is strange because the top GTI doesn't exactly seem like a loud car, but the fake sound generator dominates the interior noise in that car.

And without it, this car feels at least as refined as a Golf, let's just turn around and drive a little more spiritually and see if we can find any significant differences. They're in second gear, a little slower now, talk, a little more late, trying it out. two thirds of this gear curve and it felt a little more on a rough edge just then we did that corner third in the GTA, it felt great now that we only have a five speed box but from what I can understand the gearing doesn't look much different. I can't determine if it's a longer gearing that's holding this car back or just a lack of power and torque.

It has 90 horsepower versus the GTI's 115. It has 160 Newton meters of torque versus 200 for the GTI. GTI, so it's got 80%, which isn't much different, it doesn't have that kind of smile inducing survey of the GTI, but it's not bad, not bad at all. I'd say the biggest difference is a chassis that feels very, very good. loose compared to the GTI and that's not perfect, so this car, although it's more or less the same way as the GTI, feels like a heavier car that rolls more on its bumps and I think that's where it lies the magic of the GTI, which is a relatively well configured car in many areas and it recovers much better than this.

If I lower it to fourth, now it's 30, put the pedal to the metal,We're getting there, but I'm not smiling, the change could have made it. Part of it, I don't know what the proportions are, but definitely the second one feels more or less the same as the GTI 60, it's on the higher end, what the Lord? Wright, well no, I think the top GTI is brilliant right out of the box, it's a really fun car with lots of character and it makes you smile. The TSI 90 is about three thousand dollars cheaper, which is not inconsiderable, but still not negligible. a GTI, if you want a GTI and you don't want to modify your car, then it's worth paying that kind of money if you want to take this basic car and turn it into a track car like Mischa.

So, sure, yeah, with a TSI 90, save three thousand dollars and put it towards modifications, but let's face it, that's not what people do, people don't really want to modify their cars with a bow and if they do, they don't want to do it. turn them into a track car, you still want to use them on the road and if you are going to do that the GTI is definitely the one guys well I hope you enjoyed this Volks wizard a video comparing the TSI 90. with the current GTI, if you have it, like, comment, share, subscribe and I will see the next video very soon.