Should I buy a second hand Golf R?

[Sharkie]

I love my R and will no doubt hang on to it for quite a while. As mentioned above, look for a R sold in 2019 as it will have 5 years of warranty on it then, which should remove any/most of the risk in buying a R.

If you can drive a manual consider looking for the R in a manual instead. In the long run it will be worth more and have less reliability issues. The only downside is that in order to put any kind of tune on it, you will need to do a clutch upgrade as the stock clutch cannot handle any more torque than 400NM. A Stg 1 tune therefore turns into a $3500 exercise ($2500 clutch and $1000 tune), which does mean fewer are likely to have been tuned I suppose.

[Dutch77]

..or they just have a ****ed clutch?

Problem with the 2019+ cars is they're priced too close to a brand new car currently because of the weird market we are in. However understand if high 50s-60k is over desired budget, so then it's a case of cherry picking the sensibly priced second hand stuff.

[Gladbach]

Yeah, I have some time, just want to have it all finalised by February before our baby comes. I think the reality is that I'll either end up with a 2019 GTI with the remainder of a 5 year warranty, or a 2018 R with the remainder of the 3 year warranty.

[Dutch77]

Keep an eye out before hand, but otherwise everything turns a year older in January and you can use that against the seller - less relevant on an older car, but makes a difference on a 2019 or even maybe 2018 (even if it shouldn't).

December salesman - "it's only complianced this month!"
January wholesaler - "yeah that's a 20xx car mate"

[Ozsko]

The interior is nice, with more tech once again, but I much prefer having physical buttons/dials for the aircon etc.

While I somewhat agree with you the reality for me is I can't remember the last time I changed any settings on my CC.

[Gladbach]

I do all the time to be honest. If I open the sunroof for example I'll usually turn it off. Also if I get into the car on a hot day I'll often use the Max A/C button for a couple of mins. I also press the re-circ button if there is a truck or car with bad exhaust.

One bugbear that I have is that to turn off the Air con, you turn the fan dial down all the way, but then have to wait a min or two and do the same thing for it to turn off.

If I did get a new golf, I'm sure I'd learn to love the new interior though, once I got used to it.

[gregozedobe]

.... I much prefer having physical buttons/dials for the aircon etc.

Me too. I frequently find myself changing the fan speed and sometimes the temp (admittedly I'm an unashamed control freak)

[Gladbach]

So I actually bought an S3, I wasn't really expecting to. It's a funny thing, I played around a bit with the tech and started to quite like it, despite my earlier conclusion that it wasn't as good as the Golf. I like the virtual cockpit and, surprisingly, I got used to the Android Auto pretty quickly when I was playing around with it. After trying it out a bit more I thought I'd consider an S3, but had thought that I'd probably end up with a Golf... that is until I drove the S3. Wow. I drove two Golf Rs and I wasn't blown away by them, but when I drove the S3 it immediately had me sold. It just felt so much more eager, a bit lighter and more nimble than the R and the biggest difference was that the transmission didn't seem desperate to get into 7th gear like the Golf Rs did (and my Tiguan does). I wasn't really pushing the S3 much either, it just felt more drivable than the Rs I had test-drove.

I bought the S3 second-hand through an Audi dealer well within (below) my budget. Picking it up tomorrow. I'll let you know if my take on it changes after a few weeks of driving.

[LimestoneR7]

So I actually bought an S3, I wasn't really expecting to.

Congratulations.

Your observations are interesting. Before buying my (manual) R I never considered an S3 as I didn't like the dashboard/interior design compared to the Golf (strange as Audis are usually better than just about anything else in that department) but more importantly most comparisons I read concluded that the R was slightly more nimble/better handling than the S3. But I've never driven a S3 and only sampled manual MK7 (not 7.5) R's.

They all have the same engine and the same DSG box, accounting for the update from 6 to 7 speeds. Maybe the S3 was stuck in Race Mode or whatever Audi call it, and the R's were in Eco mode

[gregozedobe]

I wonder if the S3 had a TCU tune (eg TVS Stage 2+). These can make a huge improvement to how the DSG drives.

BTW, enjoy your new car ....

[Sharkie]

I wonder if the S3 had a TCU tune (eg TVS Stage 2+). These can make a huge improvement to how the DSG drives.

Congrats on the S3!

And yes, I suspect greg is correct, a TCU tune transforms the DSG's behaviour. If you have a DSG equipped car, this should be your 1st mod. You may have gotten very lucky (about a $1000's worth) and picked up a car with it already done.

[Gladbach]

Thanks guys. It did surprise me bit. Obviously tested the different modes in each car.

I guess it's possible that it's had a DSG tune. It is from an Audi dealer but that probably doesn't mean much. In terms of ECU tune, it felt like a stock tune, not specifically in terms of performance but in that the power delivery felt smooth and natural whereas Stage 1 tunes I've experienced tend to be very bursty low down.

[Gladbach]

Thought I'd come back and report on how the S3 experience has been so far. It's a lovely car and I've really enjoyed driving it. The tech does feel a bit dated compared with my 2017 Tiguan (and the Golf R 7.5s that I looked at) but Android auto works well and I like the minimalist interior, in fact I often drive with the pop-up screen down because it just looks so clean. Despite the tech being a bit dated, the virutal cockpit is probably a little nicer than the VW AID.

I'ts got plenty of punch, and the DSG is really nice driving around town - much more eager than my Tiguan.

The ride is exceptional, steering is so sharp and it feels like it's on rails. However that really does come at a cost, the suspension set up is a bit too firm for my liking. Some of the roads around my place are pretty poor and every imperfection in the road is amplified with some real jolts from the suspension. The car doesn't have magnetic ride - I chose one that didn't have the sports performance pack because I preferred the non-sports seats (sports seats are manual, where as the standard ones are electric). By all accounts though, even owners with magnetic ride have reported that the suspension can be too harsh even in comfort mode. I've dropped the tire pressure down to 32PSI, although not sure how great this will be for the tires. I've considered changing the suspension setup (swapping out with some more compliant springs/shocks) but for now I'll put up with it. Coming from a Tiguan, anything will feel a bit firm I guess.

Would I swap it for a Golf? Not sure yet to be honest. It's a lovely looking car and while the ride is firm, I've really enjoyed driving it. I think time will tell. I do think though that a either a Golf R or GTI would probably have provided a smoother, more comfortable ride with perhaps a little bit more practicality. Who knows, perhaps the S3 will see me through the next year or so before I going back to VW.

Just for the record - the car is completely stock, at least physically. It was an Audi approved vehicle, and I've since taken it to a European car workshop to check the suspension as I thought it may have had aftermarket lowering springs, but they confirmed that they are OEM.

[Fangbosun]

Funny story, that was my first one and absolutely loved the colour but couldn't go past the tumeric yellow special edition.

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Nor could I !!