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In the not-too-distant past, if you bought a basic Volkswagen Golf you were assured of a decade or so of trouble-free driving, with a solid little vehicle built to house four adults, with decent performance and good fuel economy.

But every time you went past a GTI — the original “hot-hatch” 40 years ago — you had a flash of envy because you didn’t want to spend the extra money for the GTI and settled for the sturdy, dependable Golf.

As years passed, Volkswagen didn’t keep redesigning the Golf, it simply refined and tweaked what was already there. Whenever it came time to redo the GTI, Volkswagen handed down the finer features of the current GTI to the basic Golf, meaning that car improved dramatically in performance, fun-to-drive quotient, and satisfaction to the owner.

Next up, VW built the Golf R, which was an all-wheel-drive hot rod with turbocharged power on that tried and true 2.0-liter, overhead-cam 4-cylinder, and the hot hatch with AWD was the perfect car for anyone living where it might snow a little. Or a lot.

As we go hurtling into an electrified future, VW is meeting those requirements, and it has cut back on what cars it sends to the U.S. from Wolfsburg, Germany. For example it is discontinuing the basic Golf, and has said the only Golf model it will send to the U.S. is the GTI and the AWD Golf R.

It seems a shame, until you drive the 2023 GTI — which no longer says “Golf” on any body emblem. It is a GTI, period. The car remains solidly built, enough to withstand a blow from the mob of larger SUVs and pickups roaming the streets these days, which makes it the perfect vehicle for your teenager to drive while giving you peace of mind.

The test car I drove for a week was a classic silvery grey, with the standard 4-door body style — no more 2-door coupe — and the best evidence of why a hatchback makes so much sense. VW designed the original to fit around four adults, and four adults can still fit inside with surprisingly adequate headroom and legroom. And under the hatch is enough storage space to carry all your worldlies if you’re traveling across country.

You can pick a 6-speed manual shifter in a new GTI, although the test car’s 7-speed automatic shifted as smooth as silk and has steering-wheel paddles so you can shift it manually. The 2.0 revs readily, and it kicks out 241 horsepower at a 5,000 RPM level, with 273 foot-pounds of torque peaking at a mere 1,700 RPMs. That means it launches quickly from that low-revving torque, and never seems to run out of power as you run the revs up toward red line.

The car handles superbly, and gives you an air of confidence in sharp cornering. It also would be a kick to take out to a local autocross on a weekend to challenge the local hot-rodder. In stock form, the GTI can still teach some of the new dogs some old tricks. I love the plaid fabric seats, and, after getting used to ti,

I didn’t even mind the weird shifter, which consists of a little box on the console, recessed from being bumped, with a couple of detents. You push the top one for R, or reverse, and move it to the side for another button for P for Park, and at the bottom of  the little box you can click D for Drive. You also can click it over to the left to engage S for Sport, in which case you will shift it manually. Another mode control engages your choice of Eco, Comfort, Sport or Custom. I liked Sport best because it firmed up the suspension and steering and borough the engine to full power for sporty performance.

At that, I was impressed to get 27.4 miles per gallon even hot-rodding it a little around town, and it should easily get mid-30s or even approach 40 mpg if you drive it anywhere from conservatively to reasonably. The sticker price on the test far was $32,425, which is a steep price for a buyer who remembers basic Golfs for $10,000 less than that, but it’s a bargain for buyers who are being thrust behind the wheel of a fully satisfying hot hatch, or family sedan if you don’t know better.

You can, by the way, spend $10,000 more and select the Golf R, with its all-wheel-drive and  well over 300 horsepower.  The rest of us can wait patiently, enjoying the heck out of the new GTI and knowing that the next revision will probably bring the AWD to the bars GTI. Then we can churn through winter storms while having more fun than your basic snowmobile.