golf R

[G-rig]

I agree.. The Golf R may be a little bit quicker but apparently sounds just like a GTI (no surprises there, but thought they may have done something cool with it). I still like being able to stomp on the pedal in 4th and the R32 gets moving without lag.

Here's an interesting review of a guy in NZ that has test driven one!

So, I own a R32 (http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showth...light=kiwi_r32) and got the ‘invite’ to take the new R for a drive on the weekend from my dealer.

First impressions – the colour didn’t do anything for me really, the rims are kinda like mine, but not as nice IMHO and the overall shape, well, not that fussed on it myself to be honest.

Driving it, yeah okay its quick, but it doesn’t sound any different to a GTI, so like I said to the dealer why would you bother, it’s just another 2.0l turbo. It’s basically drives and sounds like a GTI with a $20k price increase.

For me the whole point of the R32 is that sound – I test drove heaps of GTI’s, I only needed 10 mins in the R to know I could never go back.

So yeah, I wasn’t impressed and wouldn’t buy one. Anyway I’m sure you guys will get a look at one over there at some point and can make your own minds up about it.

Cheers.

http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109478

[Corey_R]

If I were spending $70k on a car I'd definitely get a 135i.

I think it's the best looking car BMW has made in a long time!

Although, if 4 doors were required it would be an R or S3 : D

I don't need the 4 doors, I'll be looking at the 3dr R, but I need the boot space and rear seat space, and the 135i has neither. Hell, if you have the sat nav, there isn't even a usable 'cup holder' in the 135i (there is two in the centre console, one is taken by the iDrive, the other is obscured by the arm rest, and even if you lift the arm rest up it falls down under any slightly harder than 'casual' braking).

[elisiX]

Interesting to read that from the guy who's had a run in the R.

AWD is awesome.. i'm an ex Audi owner, but its not the be all by a long shot.

For day to day driving, you cannot go past a GTI for value and performance.

[G-rig]

^thats true, but I'd rather go for AWD (ie. Golf R) over an over-spec'd GTI, a it will probably hold it's value more and once you have much more power than stock it's hard to put it down through two front wheels.

[elisiX]

I'd rather AWD anyday.. but at the end of the day, it all depends on your personal situation. The whole argument is mute really because everything is so subjective. I could have bought a TT-S, but instead i've spent almost half the money and bought the GTI (highly specced). If I wasn't driving in Sydney traffic and this was a second, weekend car... then i'd have specced the **** out of the R and gone with that instead most likely. Seeing as I will be in traffic I will save some extra cash available to APR it (Stage 1) and be happy that I have an extra $10-15k min in my pocket. IMO this is a great car to get to a & b comfortably with enough power to give it a bash every now and then.

[EndlessMKI]

sorry if this is a newbie question but is the AWD on the R the same as that on the TTS?

[Corey_R]

I'd rather AWD anyday.. but at the end of the day, it all depends on your personal situation. The whole argument is mute really because everything is so subjective. I could have bought a TT-S, but instead i've spent almost half the money and bought the GTI (highly specced). If I wasn't driving in Sydney traffic and this was a second, weekend car... then i'd have specced the **** out of the R and gone with that instead most likely. Seeing as I will be in traffic I will save some extra cash available to APR it (Stage 1) and be happy that I have an extra $10-15k min in my pocket. IMO this is a great car to get to a & b comfortably with enough power to give it a bash every now and then.

That's what I did with my Golf GTI. It was a MKV 3dr, it had literally every option except Metallic paint. With the money I saved on it over the R32 or S3, I purchased the APR Stage 2 and Oettinger Type RE wheels and bodykit, and was absolutely over the moon with my purchase (until an incident with a sleeping bus driver!).

I tested the R32 but personally didn't like it as much as the GTI. Felt too heavy at the front and seemed 'lazy' in the engine department. The fact it was a NA V6 meant it'd be a lot more expensive to do anything to improve that 'laziness', so it came down to GTI vs S3. But the lack of additional features available in the S3 vs GTI and a few quibbles I had with the S3 made my decision to go with the GTI easy.


So I don't care if people think that the Golf R is a bit 'reserved' in stock form, because in reality it is NOT just a GTI with AWD. It has an engine which will be 188-200KW / 350NM stock, with many mechnical upgrades over the GTI engine. The APR ECU will increase that to 240KW/435NM on the manual or DSG models for under $2k and will fix any of that 'reservedness' people have reported

[elisiX]

Yeah totally. The game has shifted with the MKVI. This is not the same as the MKV GTI/R32 difference.

Yes the engine is the same but the tuning potential is miles ahead on the R20 than it ever could have been on the R32 MKV.

[G-rig]

I'd rather AWD anyday.. but at the end of the day, it all depends on your personal situation. The whole argument is mute really because everything is so subjective. I could have bought a TT-S, but instead i've spent almost half the money and bought the GTI (highly specced). If I wasn't driving in Sydney traffic and this was a second, weekend car... then i'd have specced the **** out of the R and gone with that instead most likely. Seeing as I will be in traffic I will save some extra cash available to APR it (Stage 1) and be happy that I have an extra $10-15k min in my pocket. IMO this is a great car to get to a & b comfortably with enough power to give it a bash every now and then.

Yeah depends what you want I guess, but all the mods in the world wouldn't make a GTI a TT-S, or a R32 a Cayman for example. Modding is half/most of the fun so good idea having some left over to get it how you want. Looking back , the R32 is probably the better car to leave stockish however because the GTI is cheaper to start with so i wouldnt mind modding one of those next time, but fwd is a bit of a deal breaker.

Having said that in real life the GTI's probably aren't much slower and may come down to the driver/tyres etc but AWD is a better quality of drive/feel and is more composed IMO.

I tested the R32 but personally didn't like it as much as the GTI. Felt too heavy at the front and seemed 'lazy' in the engine department. The fact it was a NA V6 meant it'd be a lot more expensive to do anything to improve that 'laziness', so it came down to GTI vs S3. But the lack of additional features available in the S3 vs GTI and a few quibbles I had with the S3 made my decision to go with the GTI easy.

I test drove a MK5 GTI with DSG and the tyres spun on take off on the slightest incline and didn't really like it. Having said that i never test drove the R32 (but got one) and it's power delivery is quite different.

The cost of Audi options were enough to put me off, as well as the bad resale but I guess most cars suffer from that these days. The current shape is getting pretty old but would be interesting to see what they come up with next.

Yes the engine is the same but the tuning potential is miles ahead on the R20 than it ever could have been on the R32 MKV.

That's not true, the R32 has heaps more tuning potential once you stick on a turbo or SC, and less lag/more torque than a 2.0L with a big turbo. It's just not as cheap to tune.

[elisiX]

Sorry I should have clarified. I was referring to reasonable, affordable modding. ie; ECU tune, zorst, intake etc. Stage I/II type modding.

Not bigger turbo's and major hardware.

[Corey_R]

I test drove a MK5 GTI with DSG and the tyres spun on take off on the slightest incline and didn't really like it. Having said that i never test drove the R32 (but got one) and it's power delivery is quite different.

I had that issue with the stock 17" GTI wheels and the OEM tyres, which were Bridgestone somethings. Even worse, the entire car would shudder as the tyres bounced on acceleration. They were crapola!
After replacing these wheels with the Oettinger Tyre RE 18" wheels with 235/40R18 Federal SS595 tyres (lol, after spending ~$14k on APR Stage 2 upgrade and Oettinger wheels and bodykit I was short on cash) the grip on acceleration was awesome. The Federal's were nowhere near as quiet as the European tyres, but the grip was great. I still needed to be careful on acceleration, but they handled the 205KW/430NM of my GTI fine.
I also embarrashed a few R32's off the lights (random people, so don't know their driving skills or whether they were manual or DSG Etc).

[G-rig]

I had that issue with the stock 17" GTI wheels and the OEM tyres, which were Bridgestone somethings. Even worse, the entire car would shudder as the tyres bounced on acceleration. They were crapola!
After replacing these wheels with the Oettinger Tyre RE 18" wheels with 235/40R18 Federal SS595 tyres (lol, after spending ~$14k on APR Stage 2 upgrade and Oettinger wheels and bodykit I was short on cash) the grip on acceleration was awesome. The Federal's were nowhere near as quiet as the European tyres, but the grip was great. I still needed to be careful on acceleration, but they handled the 205KW/430NM of my GTI fine.
I also embarrashed a few R32's off the lights (random people, so don't know their driving skills or whether they were manual or DSG Etc).

That's good. Grippy tyres and coilovers are meant to fix most of the axle tramp/wheelspin but I guess you have to exercise the right foot a bit more.

R32 has the opposite problem - great traction but not enough power. The power figures are good but it's the weight of the car that kills it!!

[elisiX]

An APR tuned R20 is going to be one hell of a machine.

[G-rig]

An APR tuned R20 is going to be one hell of a machine.

Yeah, similar to S3/Pirelli.

[elisiX]

The Pirelli was 169 KW up from the standard 147 KW on the MKV GTI right?

Wouldnt a chipped R20 exceed the 169 KW by a bit?