It’s been a while, but I remember the Way of the Hot Hatch. Recently I’ve had a good sized chain of press cars to review, and thanks to my near-superhuman procrastination abilities, this is the first one I’ve gotten around to finally writing. The reason why this car, the 2023 Volkswagen Golf R, is the one I started with is pretty simple: it’s the one that’s still parked in my brain. Out of that parade of modern, advanced, luxurious SUVs and crossovers that glided in and out of my driveway, it was the only one that I can say I genuinely reveled in driving. Lots of the others were fine, even pleasant, but it was this Golf R that ignited some gleeful, moronic spark of visceral joy deep in my lizard brain and made me do ill-advised things.
If I sold my middle kidney tomorrow and had the roughly $45,000 needed to buy a Golf R, would I? No. Fuck no. But not because I don’t want one, because I do. I would love it! But it would be a terrible idea, which I learned from the week I had one. The car is intoxicating to drive. It’s so fast and grippy and precise and rewarding to really wring out that I found myself, shamefully, driving like an absolute maniac.
I’m not proud of this. This is a weakness. I have pretty solid control over a lot of aspects of myself – I’m slow to anger, I tend not to panic when things go sideways, I try to be patient – but it seems that if you put me behind the wheel of something quick and fun in just the right way, I become a complete moron. There’s just certain sensations I’ll abandon all rationality to experience, and if a cruel scientist put me in a cage with a switch that could either give me a nutrient pellet or trigger those parts of my brain that gave me those sorts of feelings, I’m pretty certain within a week or so some unfortunate lab assistant will be grimacing as they dump my emaciated body from the cage into a dumpster, a big dumb smile on my face.
There’s a reason I tend to own cars with around 50 hp.
But here’s the thing: you’re not as stupid as I am! You’re better than me, in all sorts of rich and exciting ways, and you can reward yourself with a car like the Golf R! In fact, maybe you should, because do you really want an SUV or a crossover as your next car? If so, why? If not, then great, because you can have something that’s an absolute blast to drive and is somehow practical for daily use, too.
A Dying Breed
The glowing core of the magic of the Golf R is that it’s a hot hatch. In fact, it’s one of the vanishingly few hot hatches you can still buy in America today. Seriously, how many are left? Aside from the Golf R, there’s its slightly tamer, FWD sibling, the Golf GTI, and there’s the Civic Type R, and it’s better-dressed brother, the Acura Integra Type S, there’s the new Toyota GR Corolla, the Mini Cooper JCW, and…what else? That’s pretty much it, I think, and that’s a shame.
The concept of the hot hatch, even after all these years, is hard to beat: a small, practical car with plenty of room for people and stuff, but it’s a blast to drive. Volkswagen has been embracing this simple and glorious idea since 1975 with the original Golf/Rabbit GTI, and then kicked it up a substantial notch with that first Golf R32 in 2002. 
Over the years, the Golf GTI and R have undergone some slow and steady evolution, with significant changes in performance and technology, but pretty much no edits to that same basic formula: a useful little economy car, but make it fun. A lot of fun, if possible, even.
It Looks Like That Because That’s What It Is
This simple concept now feels strange, because so much of the modern car landscape are crossovers and SUVs. Even if you’re never intending to drive over anything rougher than some discarded peanut brittle, most of the new cars you’ll end up looking at have huge tires and a high ride height and will be tall, heavy things. The Golf R is not that.
The Golf R is even a bit lower than the regular Golf and a tiny bit lower than the GTI, though it rides on the same MQB platform. It’s certainly bigger than the Rabbit GTIs of the Carter Era, but it’s really not all that big, at all. It’s lean, it’s taut, it feels like the essential parts of a car – four wheels, an engine, a place for about four (maybe five) people to sit and a place to stash all their crap – all smushed together and then smoothed and shaped and carved away until only exactly what was absolutely needed was left.
There’s nothing on this car that you don’t need; the body is a hood and four doors and a hatch, combined and shaped by math and natural forces, like a river stone. It is a bit heavier than you might think, though, at just under 3,500 pounds, but for modern cars that’s not really all that bad. Hell, a base Toyota Corolla weighs about 3,000 pounds now.
The look is still unmistakably a hatchback, and a four-door one at that, since you can’t get the two door (okay, okay, three door, but I never really think of the hatch as a door) Golf at all anymore. VW has distilled this basic design over, holy crap, eight generations and the result is something that feels logical and stylish in a capable way, like a Braun shaver or an Olivetti typewriter. Aside from the very general overall shape, the Golf isn’t too nostalgic about its old design cues, so the front end, for example, feels more derived from 2020s Volkswagen than some Golfian heritage.
The upper grille has become vestigial, now relegated to just carrying that full-width DRL light bar, and all of the air intake has been moved south of the bumper bar. A couple of peculiar body-colored fangs wraps around the lower edges to divide the grille into three parts.
Around back we have, incredibly, four functional exhaust pipes and an admirable lack of unnecessary ornament. The taillights resemble stylized ray guns engaged in a perpetual showdown, and the whole rear end is visored with that wing on the trailing edge of the roof.
The VW logo in the center there is impressive in that it does three distinct jobs: proudly conveys the logo of our pals in Wolfsburg that built the car, as well as hiding the rear-view camera:
…and, via some likely eye-wateringly complex bit of mechanics, is also the handle and latch for the tailgate:
It’s pretty cool, but I can’t help but think if anything does wrong with this motorized, electronics-heavy handle/camera/logo, it’s going to be expensive as hell to replace. Still, it’s a cool party trick and it does keep things like rain droplets off the rear view camera.
What’s It Like To Drive?
The Golf R is an absolute blast to drive. It’s an enabler of fun driving, no matter how mundane the errand you’re taking it on may be. Part of the reason why is the power, sure – the EA888 2-liter turbocharged, intercooled, direct-injection inline four that seems to lack a goofy engine cover makes 315 hp and 310 pound-feet of torque (some sources say 295?), good enough to kick you from a dead stop to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds (a full second slower for the manual one, sadly, according to Car And Driver). That quickness is fun, sure, but it’s really not what this car is all about.
This isn’t some muscle car with gobs of power that launches you from place to place like some kind of cannon-based public transportation system, it’s an agile, quick little brute that grips the road and really collaborates with you on your shared project of tearing ass.
Unlike many other fast cars I’ve driven, the Golf R always feels controllable and precise. The AWD system helps, as it allows for torque vectoring to each rear wheel, and I would be lying to you if I said I have any clue of exactly what it’s doing or that I could somehow feel the nuance of that torque being split amongst the quartet of wheels, but what I did feel was a car that was solid and incredibly fun to wring out and throw around in pretty much any situation.
Plus, I think this is the first car I’ve driven where I’ve actually used and enjoyed using the paddle shifters. Sure, when I first got the car, I was hoping for the six-speed manual, because I’m not some sort of filthy animal. Instead, I found it was the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, causing me to grip my tangelo-sized fists and scream CR*P! out into the uncaring night.
But then I actually gave it a chance, and, more importantly, actually used the paddle shifters, which I have previously only viewed with derision. But, on the Golf R, they’re a hell of a lot of fun. Once you get used to playing with them, a quick finger-triggered downshift and all of the accompanying sounds and vibrations and torque becomes a wildly satisfying act.
I’m just about positive that letting the computer handle the shifts gives better performance and, very likely, better fuel economy. But who gives a shit? I’m not going to set any speed records, anyway, and gas station owners have families to feed, too, so why the hell not.
I had a blast during every drive of this unhinged and yet quite hinged indeed machine. Well, more so when I was alone, as this is a very easy car to wear out your passengers in, who don’t get to experience the satisfying feedback and planted feeling and sense of control, instead just getting whipped around in their seats as the asshole behind the wheel (you know, me) indulges their basest velocity desires.
Comfort, Practicality, All That Crap
Well, fundamentally, it’s still a Golf. That. means it’s quite roomy inside, with plenty of readily-accessible cargo room and a good amount of comfort. People with more maturity than myself can drive this in an entirely reasonably way and have a terribly comfortable car with good, supportive seats, great visibility, and an interior that looks and feels great, in an understated way.
The dash and instruments are all full-color LCD displays, and the center stack UX is VW’s standard, not-so-great one, but I managed to avoid nearly all interactions with it by using CarPlay. The volume control is still a silly touch slider under the screen, and I found some of the haptic buttons on the steering wheel to be a a bot oversensitive, but do you want to know the absolute truth?
I barely paid attention to the center screen or the controls or any of that because I was having too much fun driving this thing. Maybe that’s not fantastic car review behavior, but at the same time, it’s absolutely telling about what is important about this car and what isn’t.
In the sport mode instrument cluster up there, I do kind of like that linear tach; that’s not a design you see too often, but it works well.
The electronic stuff is, you know, fine. If you use Android Auto or Apple Car Play and can avoid the native crap for most stuff, I say do that. The controls that you’ll be caring about here are the steering wheel, pedals, and paddles (or shifter). That’s it, really. Some cars are about amenities and gadgets, some are about driving, and this one is definitely in the latter camp.
That said, the sunroof was nice, even if it’s about half the length of most modern car sunroofs. The rear seat actually has plenty of room, too, and I see no reason why this couldn’t be a perfectly fine family car, as long as you’re okay with your kids seeing that mom or dad is sometimes not the most rational adult behind the wheel. I know that’s not for everybody.
There’s also HVAC vents and controls in the back seat, always a welcome touch, and even a pair of USB charging ports. Details like this are important. 
It does have the good kind of baby seat attachment latches, not the shit kind that requires you to dig your fingers into the crack between the rear seat back and the lower cushion, like you’re trying to apply hemorrhoid medication to a baby rhino.
Cargo room is pretty great, as I mentioned, and with the rear seat down you could shove some good-sized stuff in there. A lawnmower. A potter’s wheel. Two big-ass dogs. An entire air-cooled VW drivetrain. A card table and a Commodore Pet and seven bags of peat moss. You don’t need a crossover or an SUV to have a rich, complicated life that involves hauling crap all around. A hatchback can do it just as well.
This would be a great car to road trip in; not all the driving in this thing needs to be you pretending you’re winning a rally. If you want to take it easy, it can do that pretty well, though to be honest, I only tried this approach a few times, and you can refer back to the parts of this review where I remind you what an idiot I am to understand why. Fuel economy is only okay – 23 in the city and 30 on the highway – but if you do actually take it easy, you may be able to do even better.
Too bad I don’t think you’ll be able to take it easy, though. Because that’s really not the point of this car. The point of this car is to check all the boxes life is demanding you check for certain practicality needs: seats up to 5, holds a bunch of crap, can ferry children safely, acceptable fuel economy, doesn’t make you look like a moron, that sort of thing, and yet can also really indulge your baser, want-to-go-fast-and-get-really-into-the-feeling-of-driving-so-my-passengers-get-concerned-for-my-well-being urges.
How Much Is It And Some Sort Of Conclusion
The problem with the Golf R is that it’s not cheap: the manual starts at $44,740 and the DSG paddle-shift one is $45,540. This is one of the very rare cases where I also don’t necessarily think you absolutely need the manual one, too. But that’s a lot of money. You do get an awful lot for that money, but are you getting about $15,000 worth, which is the difference between the Golf R and the Golf GTI? That’s what I’m not entirely sure of.
The GTI, in its favor, has plaid seats. The R has AWD with torque vectoring and 74 more horsepower, both pretty damn significant things. But, I’m pretty certain you could still have a blast with the FWD GTI. Is it as remarkably responsive and engaging as the R is to drive? I mean, maybe not exactly, but unless you’re tracking it all the time, maybe that doesn’t matter?
One day I’d love to drive the R and the GTI back-to-back, because I think that’s the only way I could really decide. If money is no object, then, hell, get the R and get some custom plaid seats made, and that’d be the ideal. But money is very much an object for most of us, as it’s what we use to purchase every object we own. My gut says that you can likely get most of the same enjoyment from the GTI, but it’s probably worth at least trying out the R, just to be sure.
Here’s the bigger point, though: hot hatches are, and always were, fantastic. There’s not too many left on the market here in America, but if you need a car to do any of the expected car-related jobs, and you’re only looking at SUVs or crossovers, slap yourself. Make it hurt a little. Then go and try, just try some of the few hot hatch options out there.
The VW Golf R or the GTI are great examples, but there’s the Civic Type R or the GR Corolla, point is, you owe it to yourself to be reminded there are Other Ways. Ways that are practical and fun and even exhilarating, if you let it.
The Way of the Hot Hatch is not yet dead. And neither are you.
I owned and loved a MKIV GTI and I’ve always wanted to step up the R. I’d want a new one though, because I’ve experienced enough used VWs, and the R has always been just a bit out of reach financially unfortunately. Maybe someday!
So, this might be as good place as any to bring this up. I’m looking for advice.
I own a 2007 Rabbit and a 2011 GTI. Both bought brand new. My wife and I enjoy them both, but the GTI in particular is showing its age and the expensive of maintaining it is making us think more and more about getting a new car.
I’d really love to upgrade to an R, but my mechanic (who specializes in VWs), is very down on the idea of getting a new VW. Based on comments around the internet and my own experience with the GTI (among other things, its engine required a complete rebuild – but that was just BARELY in warranty, so it thankfully didn’t cost us anything). He’s also encouraged us to hold on to the Rabbit just as long as we can. And yeah, I see it – it’s been way cheaper to maintain, way more reliable, but the newer GTI has more bells and whistles and is just more fun to drive.
So, we’d like to replace the GTI. In my own fantasy world, what I’d like is a GTI or an R, but reliable. But that’s not really possible, so we’ve been trying to look at comparable hot hatches. There’s a catch, though. My wife wants an automatic. This is completely non-negotiable. That right there seems to cut out many of the limited hot hatches available in the US. Also, while EVs have grown tempting in recent years, this car will probably be taken on loooooong road trips in New Mexico, so that’s not really ideal.
Any suggestions? Basically what I’m after is a hatchback that is just a bit sporty, fun to drive, but also reasonably comfortable and an automatic. I’ve been poking around, but nothing seems to hit quite all the marks. And honestly, I’m not knowledgeable enough about cars to feel confident in these judgments. The best I’ve found at the moment is maybe a Mazda 3 Hatchback Turbo. I know that’s probably not hot enough for a lot of people here, but it seems I’m gonna have to compromise somewhere.
I have the Mazda 3 Hatchback Turbo. It is plenty fast. More than enough to lose my license without trying hard. Find one and take it for a test drive.
Thanks for this! While it’s popped up on my radar, I feel like I NEVER see it mentioned in discussion about hot hatches, so I wondered if I was completely off base. Definitely want to take one for a test drive.
Mazda doesn’t want it compared to hot hatches as it wants people to think of it more as an A3, 228i and A250 competitor. Its demeanor is more along those lines too; just a really nice, competent hatchback. Think of it as a Grand Touring Hatchback
I think that 3 turbo comes with 250hp. I haven’t driven one, but I hear they are plenty fast. It’s high on my list too. I love GTI’s, but I also feel like a new one probably isn’t the right move. Kona N might be worth looking at too, it’s just a slightly lifted hot hatch.
I’ve owned one for 13 months and put 8500 miles on it, AMA
As a data point for you, I’ve got a 19 Golf Alltrack 6MT. The wagon-ness has been quite handy in the year I’ve owned it. Even with Conti DWS06 all-ish seasons, it’s hilarious what sort of snow, ice, and slush on hills I’ve been able to deal with including climbing a hill a Bobcat got stuck on. The tan interior is nice and airy (I hate all-black cave interiors) with not too much piano black nonsense, it has physical controls for everything you actually care about, the shifter and transmission is good (not Miata good, but not much is IMO), and the engine as stock is adequate – but you get the feeling it’s been intentionally sandbagged from the factory. APR can help rectify that… I haven’t yet hit the mileage where I need to worry about carbon-encrusted valves, but that is something to consider on any DI engine apparently. Economy is fine – 35-38 on the highway depending on winds (thanks, midwestern crosswind hell) and 26-30 in the city depending on how you drive it and how terribly your lights are timed. If we got the diesel ROW got, it would be amazing I’m sure. You can find deals on these things if you’re diligent and the blue paint is gorgeous if you can find it. Hope this helps!
Another vote for the Alltrack. I have a 2018 SEL and I adore it. It’s a bit more rolly than a GTI but I love the space, the practicality, and it’s been very reliable so far. Swap for a GTI suspension if you want, get an APR stage 1 tune to wake the car up, and you have a near-unicorn of a car.
> It does have the good kind of baby seat attachment latches, not the shit kind that requires you to dig your fingers into the crack between the rear seat back and the lower cushion, like you’re trying to apply hemorrhoid medication to a baby rhino.
I’m always amazed how Torch can pull anal-ogies like this out of his ass and yet somehow they feel utterly and self-evidently accurate.
I definitely laughed out loud at that one.
The emotions you describe are the same I get from the Fiesta ST. As I’ve described it before it’s kind of like having a little devil on your shoulder prompting you to do ridiculous things and actually delivering on the implied promise: “C’mon, it’ll be FUN!”
Every time I come hammering into the the two-lane cloverleaf and slamming down into third to make the curve while passing three cars I find myself cackling with glee.
It’s probably fortunate my hot hatch has only 197 ponies.
And yet you can do practical things, too. Why, oh why are car companies working so hard to kill the hot hatch? The ones that are still around are getting mighty expensive.
I felt the same about my Fiesta ST. And the nice thing is, with just 197 hp you can wring it out and still be within legalish speeds. Plus I got over 30 mpg no matter how hard I drove. If I drove my more powerful cars as hard I’d be at risk of losing my license. Had a problem fitting a baby seat which is why I regretfully had to sell.
The original R32 was a 2004 model. Having owned one from launch, I can say that even with the nose heavy nature of the VR6 power plant in it, throwing it around was very satisfying. Even in comparison to my current Miata, it was a tour de force in manual transmission driving pleasure.
But ultimately, it was too easy to drive ridiculously fast.
The temptation to take a massaged, naturally-aspirated AWD VR6, weighing only about 3200 lbs, to redline (it was chip flashed and could easily do 160-165 in Houston, close to sea level) over and over, was simply too much. It was too easy.
Which led to frankly antisocial behavior.
Don’t get me wrong. Everyone should have a car like this at least once in their lives. But with great power, comes great responsibility. Some can do it, and others cannot. I survived it, but only because I had small kids at the time, and I couldn’t rationally convince myself to do the next upgrade, to a turbo system from HPA. If I had done that, I probably would have been a statistic. A HAPPY statistic. But still.
If you are young, and have the means, get a new one. They are better than the original in every important way. And much more civilized. Just be careful.
After a few too many disagreements with the Commonwealth about the safe and appropriate speed to be driving on a particular strecth of Interstate, I procurred a Mk7 Golf R. Black. Four doors. Virtually anonymous. Hehe.
Gonzo journalism car reviews eh?
I can dig it.
Maybe take a little more adrenochrome for the next one.
“We can’t stop here. This is bat country.”
I had an 09 GTI from new until someone hit me and totaled it in 2015. Two door, Tornado Red, plaid seats, six speed. Fantastic little car. When the VW CC I bought to replace it died (cylinder 1 lost all compression and I gave up on the damn thing) I seriously considered another GTI. Instead I settled on a 14 Sportwagen TDI…but in the same color as my GTI, and with a manual. It’s built on the same platform as my old GTI, with some lowering springs and a beefed up rear sway bar, it even feels like my old GTI. One year of Dieselgate warranty left and then it’s getting chipped, so I can finally fulfill my dream of a GTI wagon.
As an aside, I tried really hard to get my dad to buy a Golf R, but he got a Porsche Macan GTS instead. I had that car for a weekend and it completely killed off the sensible, efficient driving style I usually have in the JSW or my air-cooled Beetle. That much power is intoxicating.
If the Golf R is the “rich person’s” GTI, then I think the Macan is the “really rich person’s” GTI. The Porsche Macan is a hot hatch.
Agree, if I had the money, I’d skip over these and get a Macan as a “hot hatch” to daily.
I came really close last year to trading in my GTI on a very low mileage 2019 Golf R — I prefer the Mk 7 to the Mk 8. But the dealer was just too opaque on the price and financing so I walked away. Dammit why do I have to be so practical with money.
You know what kills a dying breed? A price its target customer can’t or won’t pay.
The average price of a new car in the US last year was more than $48K. I have no idea why people think of the Golf R – a car you should absolutely daily and which will carry all of the stuff that you ACTUALLY carry over roads on which you ACTUALLY drive and the number of people that you ACTUALLY carry, in a very comfortable car that can also bite – as too expensive at $45K.
The “average price” is distorted by the almost total lack of availability of small and midsized cars to actually buy off the lot. Automakers have been riding consumers like a fat man rides a scooter.
The price is rough but the ADM is what’s killing the hot hatch. The dealer’s near me have the Golf R as high as $60k! There’s so much more you can get for $60k than a hot Golf
The problem with the R is the car is just too good to be a VW. Like you don’t feel like your going to die, either because your 90 hp diesel takes 30 seconds to hit freeway speed or your booster to high hell GTI has a sudden urge to bump steer into some trees. A VW not trying to kill you is called an Audi. Which also use to try to kill you, but apparently that only sells one brand. The R is just too composed, quiet and fast. Nothing with a VW badge should be doing sub 4 60’s from the factory. That’s for you to do at home, and ruin the car and your credit in the process.
The GTI is good car now too! which kinda sucks.
As a mk7 R owner I can confirm this. The R is fast but clinical. I definitely miss some of the lift off oversteer and wheelspin from the GTI. The flaws add character, and the limits are much more accessible on the street. I think the best fun per dollar is probably GTI with a tune. So it goes.
“Like you don’t feel like your going to die, either because your 90 hp diesel takes 30 seconds to hit freeway speed”
Which is ironic since 90 HP is what the original GTI had and it was considered a pocket rocket.
In fairness though the original GTI was like 4 pounds 7 ounces.
I just rolled 85,000 miles on my owned-from-new 2015 Golf GTI SE 6M. It’s lovely. I’ve been waiting for a 2024 Golf R so that the haptic interior is gone, and hopefully the ~$10-15K markups will be gone too. I want to get a Golf R for my next car because I think it’s probably going to be the last brand-new stick-shift car I get. So I’m planning to go all in on the R. Assuming I can get one.
Yoo, high(ish) mile MK7 twin! I’ve got 108k on my owned from new 2015 S 6mt and it’s still kicking even with a non catastrophic EPC light and no A/C lmao. Ahh Volkswagen. Yeah I don’t know about the MK8, if I could afford an R I might consider one, but honestly, I’d probably just get a low mile MK7 R and mod the hell out of it.
Yep, 100K Mk7 here. I, too, am looking for a Mk8.5 that corrects the controls, but I’m thinking it’s going to be the last ICE Golf, and everyone will know it, and it will be stupid expensive off the lot.
The current R’s are stupid expensive off the lot, at least here in Chicago. Markups were as high as $15K, and are down to about $7-10K now. I get supplier pricing, so my wonderful dealership, who we’ve bought 4 cars from, doesn’t really want to sell me one yet either. I just need VW to make enough that the markups come down…
At least once per year, over the last seven or so years, I get the urge to pick up a Golf R. Luckily, I have always been able to save myself the pain of owning a VAG product by getting a rental VW that has innumerable problems with it and only like 12,000 miles on the odometer. Granted, people abuse rentals, but somehow other brands tolerate the abuse far better than VWs.
So I just completed about 1500 miles on my Mk8 GTI S (base) DSG and I still look for excuses to drive it. I’ve never experienced an engine that can seamlessly provide this kind of power and has a turbo. The powerband is jamesmaypointsateverything.gif. It’s insanely well mannered, yet will happily get involved in your hooliganism, while returning high 30’s average MPG, I could probably get 40 average, if I could keep my fingers off the paddles and foot off the giggle pedal.
I went from a Tiguan and an M235i to my Mk8 R and have over 6500 miles in just over 2 months. It is just a blast to drive. A set of winters soon and I doubt I will pick up a winter beater.
My (previous to M235i) Mk8 GTI S 6MT routinely gave me 40+ mpg highway in the ~10k miles I had it prior to the M235i. My one long trip in the R so far averaged 32.4 mpg at 63 mph (819 mi, 13:06 actual drive time on the return leg)
There is lots of VW and Mk8 bashing out there but I really enjoy my R, as I did my Mk8 and Mk7.5 GTIs. YMMV and to each their own!
I trade vehicles pretty frequently but I believe I will keep the R for awhile, at least until the warranty runs out. It’s damn good stock, I don’t even plan to tune it.
Edit: spelling. Dang phone keyboard
I just couldn’t justify the R, even though I wanted to as I was coming from a WRX, I wanted to pay cash, and for an R that would have been older and more used than I wanted.. They’re premium priced it seems, a coworker just paid 15K over for a new one? As expected they have “figured out” FWD in the 30 years since I drove one in anger, so I’m very pleased with the dynamics. I bought it sight unseen (well online) so my faith in VAG paid off..
“Recently I’ve had a good sized chain of press cars to review, and thanks to my near-superhuman procrastination abilities, this is the first one I’ve gotten around to finally writing.”
Hey. I’m proud of you.
Yeah, so many people are just terrible at procrastinating.
“The rear seat actually has plenty of room, too, and I see no reason why this couldn’t be a perfectly fine family car, as long as you’re okay with your kids seeing that mom or dad is sometimes not the most rational adult behind the wheel.”
They gotta learn that lesson at some point. I learned it at a very early age in my dad’s Audi 4000.
Petition to clone Jason so all automotive tomfoolery can be purveyed to us by versions of him
I just cant get over how others are making far more power. That benz 2.0 is now 416hp base and 476hp on the amg. Volvo 2.0 is 400hp. This engine just hasnt kept up.
Do you REALLY want 200+ forced induction German horsepower per liter? Be careful what you wish for….
More to the point, you don’t need 200 horsepower per liter anyway. The point of a hot hatch is not to be a supercar, it’s to make practicality much more fun.
The stage 3 APR tune will bump it north of 500 HP, if that’s your jam. But this is 315 quite reliable horsies that don’t really seem to have any major known issues, and it’s enough to launch it 0-60 in under 4 seconds.
“315 quite reliable horsies”
*Citation Needed*
Inserts Mk7_Odo_Roll_100k.jpg
Benz is using an electric motor to in-spirit compound turbo a bigger turbo hitting a higher boost target. The motors internals are also not cheap. Volvo uses a supercharger/ Turbo and electric motor to get to 4. The 888 handles boost really well, and I’ve had a few 400+ hp unopened blocks/ stock turbo come though the shop. So it’s doable which what’s under the hood, with a boost target that high the lag is sizable and would be unbecoming of a street car.
The GTI has plenty of power. The R has more than enough.
I owned a 2017 MK7 Golf R for about 6 years. Loved it. Practical, awesome road trip car, and so much fun to wring out in the twisties on the back roads at speeds that might just get you arrested. But it went away to make room for a 2018 Porsche 718 Cayman.
I’ll allow it. Different car, for a different stage in life perhaps, but nicely played.
“It does have the good kind of baby seat attachment latches, not the shit kind that requires you to dig your fingers into the crack between the rear seat back and the lower cushion, like you’re trying to apply hemorrhoid medication to a baby rhino.”
Thank you for eloquently describing the past 5 years of parenthood and car ownership. we have 2 kids, but between the 2 kids there are 8 car seats now cause I got very tired of applying hemorrhoid cream to baby rhinos.
Forget hot hatch, that’s a crack hatch. And I’m every bit as stupid as Jason, more so as I’ve had a couple extra decades to refine the crazy.
I daily drive a Mk. VII Golf (not a GTI or R), and I absolutely love how practical it is. The 1.4 turbo has been rock-solid for us the past three years, and the interior space is so damned flexible. I also adore the VW child seat mounts; they make installing and removing a baby seat SO much easier than the buried mounts on most other cars that are akin to checking a cow to see if it’s pregnant. And without a baby on board, the folded seats are indeed as cavernous as Jason wrote. I’ve used mine to carry a load of soggy, smelly, trashed outdoor carpet to the landfill for a friend since he couldn’t drive, and Ikea boxes seem to be designed to fit perfectly in the space between the wheel wells.
My biggest warning when considering a Golf as a family car is that if you have a jogging stroller, it eats up ALL of the cargo room. And if you have a jogging stroller, then you likely have at least one or two baby seats in the back, meaning you can’t fold them down and take advantage of the cavernous space that you could without kiddos on board.
The Mk. VII’s infotainment setup and general button experience is also really, REALLY good. So good that when I saw the Mk. VIII, my first thought was “What penny-pinching MBA decided this was better???” It’s that sort of thinking (and general satisfaction with what we have) that’s kept my spouse and I from looking at another VW in the near future, especially since we’d be most interested in something like an ID.3 (not available in Canada) or the small ID.Buzz (also not available in Canada).
See, having previously had a MkVI, I look to the MKVII and MKVIII and see them as only downgrades in interior layout. Everything from the arm rest, to all of the touchpoints. It was so jarring, to me when shopping for its replacement that it contributed to why I didn’t get another Golf.
Living with it with kids: a roof rack and top box turned camping/long trips into very easy packing affairs. But big strollers are, well, big. They take a monstrous amount of space and assume everyone has a large SUV or minivan.
But for a small car, that you can literally slam into just about any parking spot with abandon, fitting full-size adults into the front and rear seats (or, worse, small kids in rear-facing car seats) – it truly is a great vehicle. The R, however, is just silly – the regular base Golf is, truly, the people’s car we need (but, clearly we’d rather buy SUVs these days).
I have a 2019 S Golf wagon with the 1.4T/6 speed and I’ve had more or less the same experience. I haven’t had the chance to try to baby with it yet (baby incoming early next year), but I’m hoping the extra foot or so of space in the back versus a standard Golf will be sufficient for whatever we need to move the kid around. In the mean time, it’s handled anything that could fit, including a shocking amount of inherited furniture and 500lbs of bagged mulch. It’s also been reliable too, though the 72k mile warranty is reaching it’s expiration. We’ll see how it lasts past that.
Hell, it’s been such a nice car that my father went out and bought a 2019 SE GSW for himself and he’s had no issues beyond the sunroof leaks they all suffer from. The smaller sunroof shown off in this review looks like one of the few genuine improvements of the Mk8 versus the Mk7/7.5. The panoramic roof in my father’s SE is a complete pain in the ass even when it isn’t leaking, so I’m glad it’s gone. I’m hoping our cars hold together long term because I doubt the Mk8.5 will fix the interior completely and the Mk9 might be battery only.
I drove a MK7 Golf R and wasn’t really impressed with it, despite my drive coming before I’d been behind the wheel of legitimate sports cars. You’d think it would be mind blowing to me at that time, but I got out of it and more or less never thought about it again. Yeah it was fast, but it was clinically fast. Fast, but in a German way. Very controlled and above all else it took itself very seriously.
I drove the GTI next and found it to have a little more character. I wound up buying the GTI, and I’ve chronicled what a disaster that car was for me plenty here, so I’ll spare you all another rant. Anyway, when the MK8 was announced I still had my GTI and put a lot of thought into getting one. Unfortunately the horrific UI and the fact that dealerships are selling these for around $60,000 in my parts more or less threw a wrench in it, and further problems with my GTI covered the coffin in dirt.
I’m sure this car is a blast, but between the prohibitive cost of obtaining one, modern VW/EA888 reliability, and the tech hell world interior I’m just not interested personally. I also see absolutely no compelling reason to choose this over its competitors, especially if we’re comparing MSRPs. If you want a luxury interior the Integra Type S is only a couple grand more and will have 0 of the reliability headaches…not to mention the CTR costs the same at MSRP and whoops the R in most track applications. I assume the Integra will be similar since it’s the same car.
The Audi S3 is the same car minus the hatch, has actual buttons, comes in more fun colors, and doesn’t force you to deal with the VW dealership experience. The GR Corolla is more raw and characterful. A comparatively equipped one is roughly the same price, and if you’re willing to sacrifice the nicer interior it can be had for cheaper at MSRP. And of course I’ll mention the Hyundai Ns…that provide 90% of the performance of the CTR/Golf R/etc for $10,000 less and have way more character than anything German that isn’t a Porsche…although you will be compromising when it comes to interior quality, day to day livability, and civility.
I’m personally willing to make those sacrifices to have a harder edged, rowdier car, but I also understand that not everyone is and I respect that. Some of our very own folks here think the Ns are too obnoxious, but I digress. To make a long story short…I mostly get why you’d want this car and why people lust after a “mature” hot hatch. But I also think hot hatches should be a little immature and a little rough. It’s part of their charm. And I also think that this car has some steep, steep competition and for me personally I don’t think the compromises it forces you to make are worth it for me. I’d rather deal with some harshness than deal with a horrendous UI and questionable reliability, but hey…that’s just me.
I know you had a bad experience with the ea888. Real talk though, these engines are pretty damn reliable. The oiling issue is from the Gen 2 not taking well to Audis.There are a ton of these now, been in manufacture since 2008, and pretty well understood at this point. Its true its not a ea113, but those engines were just really good at running like total dog shit after some kid bolted an eBay turbo to it.
It wasn’t just me…my mom had an Audi Allroad with an EA888 that absolutely shit the bed at 60,000 miles, literally within weeks of the extended warranty running out (how convenient!). It grenaded itself and seized. She was looking at new cars at the time too, and her trade in went from being worth 15-20,000 to being worth a couple thousand bucks.
The car wound up being mechanically totaled. At goddamn 60,000 miles after having all of its preventative maintenance no less. To VAG that’s normal. To me it’s unacceptable….and everyone here talks about performance VWs actually being reliable and my family just getting lemons, but the actual statistics still show they’re bottom of the barrel.
To me that’s not worth the price of some added creature comforts that everyone says separates the GTI/Golf R…because lord knows the driving experiences and styling don’t separate them from anything.
Am I biased against Volkswagens? Probably, 3 out of the 5 members of my nuclear family have been put through the ringer by unreliable VW products in the last 18 months. If you love your GTI and your EA888 is all sunshine and rainbows then by all means enjoy it…but as someone who has intimate experience with these products as well as their rivals, I’ll probably never understand the appeal again.
If you buy a gas turbo 4 from vw you are gonna have a bad time. They have never figured out how to make one that doesn’t suck ass, and I have an ea888 powered unicorn sitting in my driveway which has eaten a water pump and a clutch before 40k.
-your resident vw apologist.
It’s much harder to add civility to a brash hot hatch than to add brashness to a civil hot hatch, and that’s where I think the Golf shines.
Off the shelf, it’s a respectable hatchback that, as opposed to the competitors you’ve listed, thoroughly transcends class. And it’s a simple Stage 1 tune away from the same rowdiness as a Hyundai N model. Conversely, you’re can’t give an N the ergonomics and road manners of a GTI or Golf R with just an ECU tweak.
I won’t get into a reliability debate about the EA888 because I frankly don’t know enough about it. What I do know is that it has a massive support network–for both high-quality parts and the know-how to fix or install them. And as someone whose errands include routine oil top-ups for the garbage Theta II engine in his partner’s relatively new Kia, I’m wary of trusting any Hyundai/Kia GDI product.
Having experienced the MK6 and MK7 GTI, I understand why they’re essentially the default choice for “I need a car for commuting and errands that doesn’t kill my soul.” Yes, it’s less raw than its competitors, but for the days when you want to get places quickly but comfortably (so most days), that’s a feature, not a bug.
“if you need a car to do any of the expected car-related jobs, and you’re only looking at SUVs and crossovers, slap yourself. Make it hurt a little.”
This is the way. All hail the hatchback.
Also, this was enjoyable to read. I might have to take back what I said just an hour or two ago about reviews on the Autopian. I’m not going to buy a new car, and I’m not even slightly interested in which trim level of Chevy Colorado has the best interior, but this was enjoyable to read and I like to know about what cool cars are currently for sale. If you write more of these reviews like this, I’ll keep reading them.
I have always loved the Golf since my dad sold ours as kids. We outgrew it, and some lucky guy ended up with a Gen1 GTI.
How did the haptic steering wheel buttons hold up under normal use? I find myself using them more than I thought on my car, but they are also real buttons.
They manage to cram a lot into that! A hot hatch you can easily road trip in. It has more cargo space than my Niro while being a LOT more engaging.
I kind of want one now, but I just put in a Maverick order. Oh, well. I am similarly not to be trusted with something properly quick, so it’s probably for the best.