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Yesterday, one of the wiper blades on my R32 started to play up, so I ducked over to Burwin to get a couple of replacements. $33 installed. Always very nice people to deal with.
Whilst there we had a chat to one of the sales guys, and had a good look at a Golf R. The one in the showroom was a manual, in silver with black leather interior. Turned out that they had another, which was a demo, so we took that for a drive. It was interesting. The demo car was black with black interior, and fitted with DSG.
The cabin was nice and tidy, but I just can't stand black. It would be a deal breaker unless I could get another colour. The details on the dash all seem to have picked up chrome finishes, which seemed a bit over the top to me. I liked the white (instead of red) displays. Cabin was very comfortable, and the seats are excellent.
Sound. Well, the sound defines the R32. It sounds good no matter what it's doing. The R sounded good at high revs, but for much of the time there was a very uninspiring sound track. The boss thought it sounded like a diesel at low revs.
Driving. Lovely ride (even on 19" wheels) with the standard suspension. Basically it felt good, though really little different to the R32.
Engine. This I really didn't like. Very noticeable lag. Very quick indeed once it got on song, but the response was anything but instant. Driving around town, with the gearbox in D, it was flat as a tack unless you prodded the accelerator enough to make it downshift, or did it yourself. The R32 has no issues in traffic in top gear, but the R really needed to be downshifted.
Overall, I suspect it would work better as a manual, either by always driving the DSG in that mode, or by having a clutch. Nice machine, but more biased towards the GTI than the previous model.
If I owned a GTI I would see this as a great upgrade, but I don't think it's for me after the R32.
Whilst there we had a chat to one of the sales guys, and had a good look at a Golf R. The one in the showroom was a manual, in silver with black leather interior. Turned out that they had another, which was a demo, so we took that for a drive. It was interesting. The demo car was black with black interior, and fitted with DSG.
The cabin was nice and tidy, but I just can't stand black. It would be a deal breaker unless I could get another colour. The details on the dash all seem to have picked up chrome finishes, which seemed a bit over the top to me. I liked the white (instead of red) displays. Cabin was very comfortable, and the seats are excellent.
Sound. Well, the sound defines the R32. It sounds good no matter what it's doing. The R sounded good at high revs, but for much of the time there was a very uninspiring sound track. The boss thought it sounded like a diesel at low revs.
Driving. Lovely ride (even on 19" wheels) with the standard suspension. Basically it felt good, though really little different to the R32.
Engine. This I really didn't like. Very noticeable lag. Very quick indeed once it got on song, but the response was anything but instant. Driving around town, with the gearbox in D, it was flat as a tack unless you prodded the accelerator enough to make it downshift, or did it yourself. The R32 has no issues in traffic in top gear, but the R really needed to be downshifted.
Overall, I suspect it would work better as a manual, either by always driving the DSG in that mode, or by having a clutch. Nice machine, but more biased towards the GTI than the previous model.
If I owned a GTI I would see this as a great upgrade, but I don't think it's for me after the R32.
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