Volkswagen Golf R review

• Overview
• What is it?
• And so were the VW accountants, right?
• What if I want to go even faster than this?
• What are the alternatives?
• Our choice from the range
• What's the verdict?
• Audi S3
• Mercedes-Benz AMG A35
• BMW 1 Series
• Driving
• What is it like to drive?
• So how does the standard Mk8 R drive?
• How does it compare to rivals?
• How’s the engine?
• And the gearbox?
• Interior
• What is it like on the inside?
• Buying
• What should I be paying?

Overview

What is it?

The new ultimate Golf. Four exhaust pipes, four-wheel drive, and more blue cabin highlights than a British Airways jet. The Golf R formula hasn’t changed much on the face of it. But you can hardly blame Volkswagen for that.

Perhaps you’ve forgotten the outgoing king was a smash hit out of nowhere: the first 4×4 Golf that had more than raw horsepower in hand over the cheaper GTI. Suddenly the R wasn’t just a speed merchant. It had finesse and balance. Audi no longer had an excuse for a history of lacklustre S3s. AMG’s OTT A45 suddenly looked a bit silly. Forums erupted. The purists were happy.

And so were the VW accountants, right?

Because you could bag one for less than three hundred quid a month, everyone else wanted one too. Even pirates. Overnight the Golf R became one of Britain’s most desirable, commonly-pinched cars. The price crept up from sub-£30k to £37k during its reign, and VW quietly ditched the less popular three-door bodystyle and manual gearbox. So, this Mk8 (yep, we’re coming to it, promise) sticks with five doors, a twin-clutch seven-speed gearbox, and the same basic chassis and engine.

Torque now matches the massively brawny Ford Focus ST at 310lb ft, maintained from 2,100rpm right up to 5,350rpm, where 316bhp takes over. VW claims 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds and a top whack limited to 155mph. It might interest you to know we timed an old Golf R DSG from 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds. Expect this one to go quicker than the brochure says.

What if I want to go even faster than this?

Just because there’s only one engine and gearbox choice, doesn’t mean there isn’t stuff to mull over here. For £2,000 VW would sell you a Showoff Pack. Sorry, Performance Pack, adding handsome 19-inch rims in place of these fussy 18s, a taller rear wing from the GTI Clubsport, and two extra modes on top of the standard Comfort, Sport, Track and Individual settings. They are Drift mode, and Special mode, emblazoned with a Nürburgring logo on the tile. Guess where that was fine-tuned?

But hang on, why the past tense? Because at the time of writing in late 2022, VW has taken the Performance Pack off the options list, meaning you need to fork out £48,095 for the anniversary special ‘20 Years’ edition to get the above upgrades. Ouch. Click here for more on that car.

Prices for the standard R now kick off at £42,695 too, and just adding the trademark Lapiz Blue paint will tip the cash price beyond £43,000. This looks like an inexcusably greedy leap from VW, but the Mk7 cost £37k at the end of its life, and there’s more new tech here than meets the eye, justifying the big money being asked in the eyes of VW.

What are the alternatives?

In case you weren’t convinced the last Golf R was a landmark, check out the rivals. Besides the predictable, parts-sharing Audi S3, Mercedes has entered a whole new niche below the manic AMG A45 to take on the Golf R, in the shape of the feisty AMG A35.

Meanwhile, BMW ditched its rear-drive, straight-six M140i and morphed the new M135i into a shameless Golf-clone complete with four-wheel drive and a 2.0-litre turbo engine. The Germans know a good idea when their rivals are onto one. But Volkswagen had the head-start, and it’s running with it.

Our choice from the range

Volkswagen

2.0 TSI 320 R 4Motion 5dr DSG

£39,075

It was unlikely Volkswagen’s R division would crack the AWD 300bhp hot hatch code then immediately forget to do it all over again. They’re not Audi. VW knows how to be consistent with its quick stuff.

This R is an impressive evolution over the Mk7. Should you leap to upgrade if you’ve got one of those? Probably not – you’ve got a better interior, nicer noise and the Mk8’s improvements are only going to reveal themselves over many hundreds of miles of growing on you.

But if you want a new all-rounder, this new Golf R is one of the very best. We have our gripes, but they’re from the regular Golf, not the ‘R’ bits.

The haptic steering wheel buttons here remain horrid, but at least one of them is now a shortcut to the driving mode menu, defaulting to Defcon ‘R’. You’ll be pressing it often. This is a seriously sorted bit of kit: quick, rewarding, practical and beautifully rounded. All things to all people in all weathers.

Audi S3

Mercedes-Benz AMG A35

BMW 1 Series

£22,835 – £42,185

Continue reading: Driving

Driving

What is it like to drive?

We’ve been driving a standard Golf R, without the Performance Pack but fitted with £850 of DCC ‘dynamic chassis control’ – or adaptive suspension to you and us. Don’t be disappointed. Could be the sweet spot, this.

Just because this particular Golf R can’t pull off a powerslide that’ll fast-track you into a roundabout flowerbed and TikTok infamy, doesn’t mean it’s the poor relation. All the Performance Pack really buys you, beyond bigger wings and wheels, is code. The hardware is exactly the same, torque-vectoring rear diff and all. And even though the 20 Years gets that extra 12bhp and harsher gear changes, it’s so expensive that it’s unlikely many will go for it.

So how does the standard Mk8 R drive?

Stab the throttle on the apex of the corner and you can feel the car tense and pivot, as the torrent of power surges like a white-water current to the rear axle, punching the car forward and simultaneously helping it rotate as the torque is juggled side-to-side. You actually gain momentum as it grips, instead of traction control nipping the brakes to achieve the same ends. Meanwhile, the electronic front diff takes care of leading the car out of the corner, dragging immense purchase out of the surface.

Like the latest GTI, the R has VW’s latest microchip mothership: the VDM, or Vehicle Dynamics Manager. Sounds like the worst strategy game since Microsoft Supermarket Trolley Simulator, but in fact it’s a rapid-acting ghost in the machine listening to steering angle, roll rate, stability control, changing G-forces and where the power’s being sent at any given millisecond, doing the arithmetic and keeping each system harmonised.

That’s why there’s no torque-steer, no wheelspin, and the car shrugs off ridges and crowns dextrously. It just deals with everything, while feeling keener – a little less stodgy – than the last R did when you really gave it a pasting. The steering’s fast and ideally weighted. Spec the adaptive suspension (which really spreads the Golf R’s repertoire of sublime ride comfort and body control) and you’ve got a sublime all weather, all-surface weapon.

How does it compare to rivals?

Some will crave a less baby-proofed, sharper character. Might we recommend the AMG A35, or if your badge snobbery can stand it, the Hyundai i30N or Renault Megane RS? The Golf R remains the only hot hatch that you can mooch along in totally oblivious to it being the 300bhp+ flagship. That’s its superpower, the genius of it… but for some it’ll also be its biggest flaw.

How’s the engine?

Unsurprisingly, 2.0-litre turbo is a good unit, picking up strongly. It’s pretty much the same four-cylinder that you got in the last R, and in the GTI and Clubsport, this was never a motor that suffered from turbo narcolepsy.

The coast function which decouples the engine to save fuel only works in Comfort mode, but the car defaults into Sport, so you won’t see big fuel savings unless you go looking for them. Sounds much less warbly than before though, even with the expensive optional Akrapovic exhaust. Pity VW had to muffle the exhaust note by stuffing chip paper and old socks up the pipes, but we all know why it’s necessary.

And the gearbox?

Stupidly, the DSG auto-upshifts at the redline in every mode and delights in a pointless ‘fancy second gear… NOW?’ kickdown panic. It’s really crisp at flat-out upshifts and the downchange blips are pretty good, but only if you’ve specced that darn Performance Pack or 20 Years do you have the honour of choosing when you change gear without computer interference. Seems very petty to us.

So we’ll be petty in return. The extended gearshift paddles exclusive to the R look like they’ve been ripped off a toddler’s Fisher-Price ride-on Lamborghini. They should be metal. This is now a £40k interior, after all.

Previous: Overview

Continue reading: Interior

Interior

What is it like on the inside?

Hope you like blue. There’s shades of blue on the steering wheel, in the multi-colour ambient lighting menu, and spat all over the slightly ‘1990s Ford RS’ seats, which appear to be upholstered in old mousemats. Nice and grippy though, and more supportive than the old R’s chairs. The driving position’s pretty spot on. Want a more purposeful, touring car vibe? You want a Honda Civic Type R, friend.

Besides the perforated leather wheel (when BMW finally gives up on overstuffed black pudding steering wheels, this slender rim would be the one to copy) with its XXL paddles, and a few R logos on the twin 10-inch screens, this is all regular Mk8 Golf. For better, and for much, much worse.

That means vast seas of glossy black plastic, touch-sensitive heater and volume controls that don’t light up at night, and truly risible haptic feedback steering wheel controls. Look, having a heated steering wheel is jolly nice. Accidentally switching it on with your palm every time you turn left is a pain. Why Volkswagen, why?

Standard kit in the UK includes a wireless charging mat under a clever anti-distraction cover, and your device can connect to Apple and Android screen mirroring without the need for an untidy cable. Handy, given this is a USB-C only zone. We found the connection glitches and crashes a couple of times a week, leaving you with a black screen of doom until the car is switched off and on again. Hurry up with that software update, Wolfsburg – other Golf 8s we’ve tested have been afflicted with the same bugs.

There’s lots of stowage, and VW thoughtfully carpets the inside of the door bins so your spare change and hand sanitiser don’t rattle or buzz around. Build quality feels like it’ll outlast a Norman cathedral and the slightly dour materials chosen have a less tinny feel than an A-Class, if not as mature as BMW’s class-leading 1 Series cabin.

Obviously Volkswagen has been building hot hatchbacks for a little while now, so it knows these things need to work every day. Swing open the back doors and you’ll discover that unlike some rivals from the likes of Renault and Ford, the bulkier sports seats haven’t been allowed to eat into rear legroom, so there’s still space for adults in the cheap seats. And while four-wheel drive does eat into potential under-boot stowage the 374-litre cargo bay is perfectly adequate for a car this size.
Need more space? See if you can get a deal on one of those handsome Arteon Shooting Brakes instead.

Previous: Driving

Continue reading: Buying

Buying

What should I be paying?

Clever touches like hiding the reversing camera under the pop-out VW badge are a godsend in winter – but then again, you’ve got to pay extra for the back-up camera in the first place. And heated seats. And a head-up display. Seems a bit stingy, right? Volkswagen is saving billions on manufacturing all those useful little buttons these days…

Standard kit includes tri-zone climate control, keyless entry and start, heated auto-dimming mirrors, VW’s ‘travel assist’ semi-autonomous driving aid, adaptive cruise control, the 10-inch touchscreen with DAB radio, parking sensors, connected car services, and all-LED lights.

The R rides 20mm lower than a regular Golf, and you get bigger brakes with lighter calipers than the old car, to reduce unsprung mass. They remain blue, whether you stick with the standard white paint or shell out for black (£690) or blue (£835).

Of course, as an extension (literally) to the range, there is the Golf R Estate for all you junior Audi RS6 fans. Or if you want to sit a little higher and have more buttons on hand, don’t forget the oddball T-Roc R is now a thing, for some reason.

Be aware too that if you fancy the Performance Pack (when it eventually returns and the 20 Years goes off sale), that’s not a shortcut to all of the Golf R’s juiciest options. DCC adaptive suspension still costs an extra £850, and you need £3,500 for the lightweight Akrapovic exhaust. Given the previous car’s reputation, maybe set aside a few quid for a steering lock, GPS tracker, driveway floodlights and a particularly hungry Doberman too.

Previous: Interior

Continue reading: Specs & Prices

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