Following the success of the Mk5, Volkswagen set to work on the Mk6, which hit auto shows in 2008. With the car back on track, VW did the Porsche thing and worked on honing their car rather than starting from scratch. The Mks 5 and 6 share a lot under the skin, but seeing as how some think that the Mk5 made for the best GTI of all time , that was a good thing. Instead they sweated the small stuff, making the interior feel more premium and the face a little easier to love. They landed on a good design and by 2013, when it came time to make the Mk7, little was needed to make it look up to date and rakishly handsome.

At Worthersee modifiers mostly honed, too, working on details like ride height and wheel size. And some rose above the rest in our eyes and here we present them, in no particular order, for your consideration:

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Look around you in traffic and you’re likely to find a sea of silver and black. The colors are fine, but they’re over-represented, so it’s nice to see a colorful car every once in a while. This teal Mk7 brightens up the road and the flat finish and black wheels preserve its sporty look. It’s like one of those well-dressed basketball players (by which, of course, I mean all basketball players), it’ll kick your butt and look good doing it.

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As the old axiom goes: when in doubt, black it out and this Mk6 is proof of the accuracy of that axiom. And what could be better? How about some fender flares? This Golf is a stunner, and there's little more to say on that score.

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Some colors naturally go together. Like cookies and milk, blue and gold just works. It’s a fact of like. Never mind that Subaru owners will say that it started with the WRX, they can tell you that as you pass them in their ugly, bloated shadow of a formerly interesting car whose successes all happened a lifetime ago.

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Speaking of glory , this brand spanking new Golf GTI Clubsport S is the fastest ever FWD car to hit the Nurburgring. As we all know, going fast is looking cool. So by that logic this is the coolest FWD car that money can buy.

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I hate to say that things were better in the past. They weren’t. There were nice things in the past, there are nice things now. The one thing that was actually better back in the day is racing liveries, and the best belonged to Gulf racing cars. I’m a sucker for the orange and blue, so naturally this Gulf Golf makes the list.

Disagree? Well, you’re wrong, but you’re welcome to defend that wrongness in comments after taking a look through our gallery of Mk6s and 7s.