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GTI BADGE-------RED I

5K views 49 replies 26 participants last post by  my04tdi 
#1 ·
Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the GTI badges on a mark 4, when one has GTI wrote in silver and the other has a red I instead of silver.
 
#4 ·
eh?

The red I in GTI is meant to indicate the car is a petrol turbo as oppose to a 2.0 8v or 1.8 20v

Only the anniversary diesels have GTI on them all the others are badged TDI.

But the badges are that easy to remove and change you cant really trust anything you see written on the back of a golf.
 
#6 ·
afaic, and as said above and many times over the years, the badges mean little

1) the dealers put them on randomly

2) owners mix and match them irrespective of the car.

'I' has tradionally always stood for injection, hence the acronym, gti : 'grand touring injectiong'
 
#8 ·
The GTI means it is turbo. However, not all turbos have a GTI, some are just badged GTI, much like the 2.0 and 1.8 NA 16v engines.

It has nothing to do with being a diesel, unless badged TDI (etc), or on an anniversary Golf which were labled GTI. Also the 2.0 and 1.8 NA 16v engines were never available with a GTI badge.

Obviously people can just change the badges at thier own accord aswell.
 
#12 ·
afaic, and as said above and many times over the years, the badges mean little

1) the dealers put them on randomly

2) owners mix and match them irrespective of the car.

'I' has tradionally always stood for injection, hence the acronym, gti : 'grand touring injectiong'
as seraph has said, this question comes up many times and there is no answer except its completely random, whatever the dealer decided to stick on, I've got a turbo with silver gti, other people have 2.0 with gti
 
#13 ·
youve prob both seen both combinations, and others have seen many other combinations.

As i said, Dealers put the badge combinations on at their discretion, and consequent owners are even less scrupulous.

You could see the badges in literally any combination - i have!
 
#14 ·
They're put on randomly by users and dealers but I think the accepted convention is that the red "I" is mean't to represent the more powerful version. eg. 2.0L GTI likely to have all silver badge, the 1.8T is likely to have a red "I" (or not, depending on how the dealer was feeling on that day!)

Anyway, it's all academic becasue people put them on randomly anyway!

Adrian.
 
#15 ·
Mine came out of the garage as GTI, and remember the press cars being like that at the time.

One other way i've been told to tell the difference between a turbo'd GTI (petrol or diesel) and a 2.0 GTI, is that the turbo'd ones have 3 headrests in the back and the others didn't
 
#17 ·
As they've all said,completely dependent on what the badges the dealer has at that time that are sort of right for the car.My Golf 1.8 20 valve N/A (not 16 valve as was mentioned) only has "1.8" on the tailgate and no GTi badges anywhere,yet I see the same model and year regularly that has only a "GTi" badge on it.

Chris.
 
#21 ·
It has nothing to do with being a diesel, unless badged TDI (etc)
I'm sure the 150pd was badged as GTI (red I?)
Wasn't it badged GT TDI ?
As far as I'm aware, GTTDI only exists by people butting it on themselves.
i've seen loads of GTTDI, i thought they were just the GT version but Diesel.

i've made mine from GTI to 1.8T in Audi font!!!

ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT matter, tho similar!

every single mk4 1.8t golf i looked at before i got mine had the 20 VALVE on the engine cover.

mine hasn't and has 1.8T in badging instead!!!

whats that mean eh?!!?

but the rear badge, i assumed was

1.8T = red I

2.0 = all silver GTI or 2.0 badge

n/a = 1.8

GTTDI = diesel GTI, some people changed it to GTDI, which i like [:)]

anni = red I - diesel/petrol

then theres the random ones where red I spring up, mainly on older golfs i noticed.

my 2p,

jammy
 
#24 ·
How many times has this topic been done [:|]

I think VW originally had a clear badging policy because earlier cars tended to be very consistently badged, but as mentioned above several times the dealers acquired a tendency to throw on random badges and owners will change them but generally...

GTI should denote a 1.8T or 150bhp tdi which can also be badged as TDI or GTI

Almost every early 1.8T will be badged GTI but you do see them badged as GTI, I've seen imports badged as 1.8T. I have also seen early 1.8 20v gtis badged as 1.8 20v, later 2.0 gtis are almost always badged as GTI or sometimes 2.0

Early tdis i,e 90bhp models tended to be badged TDI and 110bhp models TDI, later spec 100pd models tend to have TDI and almost every 130pd model will be badged TDI, not sure about the 115pd

Annis are all the same GTI silver with the different font.
 
#26 ·
How many times has this topic been done [:|]
Loads, but there are new people joining all the time who want to know.

not sure about the 115pd
115pd are TDI but with non-body coloured bump strips from what I've been told.
...although the 115PD TDI was actually a 'GT', which was replaced with the 130PD engine in 2001. So it would of had the body coloured bump strips.

Generally, all TDI 150s were badged (and sold) as GTI's in the UK. Hence the BP Fuel campaign on their fuel pumps 'don't forget it's a diesel' and all that. Zee German's never badged their 150's as GTIs, and they were sold as 'Highlines', hence the all red 'TDI.'

Badges mean nothing though really, as they can be easily changed. I bought my mk4 150 Petrol 1.8T/AUM GTi from the dealer with an all silver GTi on the back. The one next to it on the lot (there were two black ones) had a Red I. Both identical...
 
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