2022 VW Golf GTI vs Golf R Review // Thrifty Meets Drifty

this is the new golf r james james what did you just what did you say the golf what golf ah the golf oh go oh what is that a hhh no call it's the golf r that's why that's what i say go what are you saying r yeah golf r say say the golf r is what's called r r g man i need to sound like a hurt dog it's golf r the golf r you know what i'll take the gti [Music] you're watching throttle house i'm thomas and i'm james and this is the new golf r and this is the new gti for 2022 the golf r and the gti have a fresh face more power they're a little bit longer and they have a new interior that everybody loves yeah we'll get to that this year the gti is lighter and it starts at thirty one thousand four hundred and ninety five dollars canadian it gets a bunch of new stuff as standard like a heated steering wheel and a limited slip differential and as an option we even get adaptive dampers which in its top trim this one has so it has all the potential to be the best gti yet the golf r on the other hand is now a bit fatter and more expensive and has less buttons yeah we'll get to that but it does have more power at 315 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque assuming you get the dsg transmission but it also has a few tricks up its sleeve to fix some of the shortcomings of the previous car when you really drove it hard so let's see if the golf r and gti are still the all-around kings we do car reviews track tests and quite a lot of messing around so subscribe and hit the bell [Music] all right in the gti big name big boots to fill now it is a frigid day here in canada and i have heated seats which is lovely i don't have ventilated seats that's reserved for the golf r but this has something going for it that the golf r doesn't have they make them right here in mexico no vacation james thanks for that but that's not true anymore the gti and the r are all made in wolfsburg germany now which is a lovely thing to know no what i was going to say was that this has a six-speed manual thomas has got the dsg in the r in north america we're very lucky because the golf r gets a manual option as well my english brethren unfortunately are stuck with only the dsg option for the r but yes this is the six speed and you know what great shifter we've lost the golf ball we've got some golfy ball feeling on it but i'm not happy about that but the shifts are purposeful they're satisfying the clutch is it's not obvious where the biting point is but it's perfectly weighted for that daily drive and connection the ride right now is quite stiff i'm in sport mode but because this is a higher trim i have adaptive dampers so in comfort mode it's even more comfortable than it was before and the gti has always towed that line really well between not too harsh and not too soft now we have a choice and having driven it around the city i don't think there is one that's too harsh to be honest it's tackled that perfectly also in sport mode we've got some aggressive sounds happening and it will pop and bang when you come off of the throttle in high reps so that's kind of a bit fun and this year we've got more power 13 more horsepower 241 horsepower in total which is a lot for a little daily driver that starts at 30 grand but the gti's problem was always that it couldn't put the power down because of the front wheel drive which is why i found myself often recommending the r so what happens now when i launch this from a stop you hear that bang that's not a nice bang will spins one thing but that will hop is really really aggressive it feels like i'm breaking the car so immediately if you have plans to autocross this nay planes to tune it that will probably get more aggressive and that might be specific to this 19-inch setup with the adaptive dampers but there is no mode that we've tried where that changes so hopefully on a bass trim it doesn't do that but at least it has a limited slip differential as standard this year even on the bass trip so i can plant my foot going around the corner so to sum up the way this drives it still feels like that inoffensively good hatchback it's predictable you can toss it around the corner it's light the front end is sharp it's a very satisfying drive and it's got plenty of power [Applause] [Music] for daily driving i still don't think this can be beat in terms of excitement it might not be the top and i wish it didn't do that judder trying to hunt for traction but i guess on some level they've got to leave some room for the r all right the golf r [Music] it's quick it's definitely quick listen i've always liked the golf r it's great on the road but when you push one of these they've always kind of fallen apart especially on a track that's because it's a front-wheel drive car with some power going to the rear but this year they've tried to fix that problem you see this is a front-wheel drive based car and front-wheel drive based cars tend to lose grip of the front wheels before the rear wheels in a corner so when you want to go that way you just keep going straight not fun the only way to fix that other than taking the engine and physically turning it 90 degrees and driving the rear wheels first is to add a differential in the rear that can make those wheels turn faster than those wheels and that will actually push the rear out of line that's what the ford focus rs does now my understanding of this car is that it doesn't do that it can still same as last year only put 50 percent of the torque to the rear axle the difference now is that it can put a hundred percent of 50 to one of the two rear wheels which should push the rear out of line a bit so when i get on the power now [Music] kind of pushes that rear end out a little bit that's cool it makes it feel out here like it's a sporty little rear-wheel drive car which is what you want because understeer is boring i want that rear end play that james always likes to talk about i'm gonna test that more in a minute but the rest of the car more power this year and this is the dsg everyone raves about the dsg they love the dsg yes it's very fast the shifts are very good but i find them kind of void of excitement especially when you're in sport automatic mode you can listen there's no kind of [Music] there's no drama to that upshift it literally just changes instantaneously it's cool makes a kind of a fart noise out back and since i'm in nurburgring mode how cool is that the exhaust is really loud and it does pops and bangs on the downshift it is a very quick car what this car does better than almost any other car that i've driven is it crushes city commutes it's all-wheel drive traction control systems are very advanced the ride is soft and it's a fairly responsive little four cylinder engine you can just kind of rip it through traffic you get from a to b very quickly in one of these and it's easy to park except for the backup camera it's weird and distorted and warped so in the world of how this car drives on a road not much is different honestly it's still very good really comfortable honestly even in the sportiest settings the steering is better in this than it is in the gti it's heavier and i find a little bit sharper this year there's actually more negative camber they've adjusted the suspension but when you really start to push a golf r is when it all falls apart for me tossing it into a corner i wouldn't dare have it in drift mode because it says that specifically for race tracks but now on the throttle you can start to feel that rear start to push around a little bit more you can turn this now with your right foot that makes this more of an engaging car on a road like this it's playful it's better than the previous golf r on the road track is a different story i'll try that in a second all right okay on the road fine improved uh yeah as long as you don't really push it especially this one i have i have driven this and yeah the wheel hop is a thing it's a bit of a judder yeah anyway aesthetically these have actually been more controversial than i think they ever deserved to be i think standing in front of them now they look great here's the thing is that if you compare them to the previous one they look kind of like weird and squashed but in a vacuum they actually look really good they do look good i mean i didn't expect to see it in pomelo yellow which is the real name of the color yeah it's the real name it's more of a green and i just like when i think gti i don't think green you know that's like if you got served an empanada and instead of being you know like yellow and whitish it was green that's very you don't have another cutaway do you no that's way too specific i would never but why are they green thanks for that james uh anyway um i like mexico you like mexico i like this little blue line here i think it's neat i i like it i really like the look of this it's got the new volkswagen badge yeah i like the way it says r on the alloy i like the way it says volkswagen on the on the beep the heart does look a little bit like a paper clip falling down a hill yeah but or that game line rider where you i don't know if you haven't played it i have not played that did you draw the line no okay no i talked to girls in high school so i know what those were this is an issue okay open that trunk for me really quick that's not a big issue this is a big issue to me that opens quickly but if you flick this one it goes back down because you've got your boss ass spoiler it's too heavy it shows you a boy race it's too heavy i don't because you can't flick it look it goes like it stops or you actually have to force your way through the piston to get it to go up so what you're saying is you can't get up anyway yes aesthetically we've got the cord exhaust going on and the aggressive diffuser on the r yeah we've got the two exhausts on the back of the gti wheels look good on both of them oh and also the gti gets these funky new lights right the fog lights yeah i actually really like those does look good okay so since the interiors are so similar yes why don't we just pick one and then we'll just talk about the differences okay well let's look at the r and i'll i'll tell you about the gti while we're in it okay okay all right now for the most contentious part of the market yeah so do we want to start with this no no we'll get to it we'll get to that okay i want some other things i like so yeah there's some there's a lot actually the seats are brilliant they are really cool and since this is the golf r you get the napa leather option which is very nice right you can get leather in the gti that you have but that one has been de-leathered yeah that has zero cost the the the plaid seats in it yeah it has the plastics in it which the germans are quite funny now because it's it's i don't know if you noticed it's a different design it is looks like yeah it's it's now um it's scale paper tartan pattern oh is that like a weird german word for it no it's no scale paper tartan pattern oh like the like that does yeah scale paper tartan pattern yes it's hard to say it's a new it's a new thing i don't know are they afraid to use the word plaid is that what's going on maybe yeah okay anyway um those are incredibly comfortable they're very cool very comfortable and one more thing about the interior that otherwise it's the same as this it doesn't have this golf ball shifter anymore no it's only like halfway it's a shape why would you change that change that and that was a really cool part about it so they've changed the style of the plaid yeah they've changed the style of the shifter yes so yeah anyway it's still fine i still like it the this has the dsg so we have this little tiny nub to select the gears which i'm totally getting along with it's fine it's a microphone micro shifter it is a microscope anyway the rest of this uh where do we start okay first of all the id4 yes similar technology to this but someone had a brain fart and put haptic feedback window switches witness which is what you had to choose with haptic feedback whether you were doing the front or the back right that was that is probably the most asinined piece of design in any car in history thankfully we don't have that no this has actual window switches however here we go should we start at the left to move over sure gauge cluster very actually very cool it has a whole bunch of different views which are all kind of cool looking yeah i like people people were quite upset that it didn't get the classic analog dials but i think this is no well executed version of it my favorite is this one right here i think that's the cleanest and the coolest looking and then these little buttons on the steering wheel here you can like select what you want on each side or you can get rid of them entirely it's actually very intuitive very simple and i quite like it but i don't like these buttons yeah i i think i like them more than you do but they are not as good as physical buttons i find that when i go to select the heated steering i scroll actually i just go to the next track yeah and then you can't feel anything so it adds a vibrator and it all hits too close to home it's [Laughter] and then there's no knobs no attention's paid to a knob either you know i don't like it don't need to be reminded triggering okay but on top of that i also find myself clicking random things i don't know he's gonna say those things beforehand however the steering wheel okay it's brilliant it's like great audi level i have a complaint i want to go back there's nothing to do with filing complaints no one's listening there's a mode button which is also happy feedback down here but the problem is is that when you select oh sorry r mode on the steering wheel cool you go into our mode right right race and then under race there's drift and special mode special mode is the nurburgring mode which is for like the actually says it here gives you a full explanation right the exhaust gets louder way louder yeah the entire vehicles are for optimal on the north loop of the nurburgring very specifically basically the suspension's softer because the number is bumpy everything else is really sharp anyway we'll turn that off for a second go back to comfort but the thing is is that when you click this r mode button it forces you into that gauge cluster right which i don't like at all and i want to be able to and i got to go back through five different gauge clusters every time to get to my favorite which is that one and now there's lag so i'm now back to the beginning again i can't seem to find a way to fit that gauge cluster to the arm anyway and then this the other crime is this is not illuminated okay yeah that's well that's the biggest crime of them all there's i went on the forums there's fingers crossed that's going to be the first fix for the next year like even a light shining on it would be fine you get your iphone like for those of you who don't know what we mean basically at night these things down here which is your volume and your temperature control they're not illuminated at all so you have this little dark ledge here of nothingness where you can accidentally turn the volume up and down volumes also should be a knob but that's a different conversation i this is i can get along with it but it's not perfect the biggest issue is since this is a touch screen which is a little bit laggy you have to you generally will rest your hand to use apple carplay whatever and then you'll accidentally make it too hot or too cold in here or turn the volume up or down accidentally and all the climate is in the in infotainment that said and the traction control is also in the infotainment from a drop-down menu which you accidentally well i end up i end up using just carplay for this so i actually don't engage with this much apart from volume and which i can do on the steering wheel which is annoying but yeah it is not a deal breaker no that all that said it's not yeah i would still own this car and be like this is the stupidest piece of design exactly but it's not i would still own the car yeah it's everything it's definitely a step backwards for them i don't know why they didn't do a volume knob cross saving i don't know but it's not a deal breaker no otherwise i think very comfortable in here i really like this car i think and and we get a sunroof canada didn't get a sunroof in the previous channel sunroof that's cost well this is a it's an extra option you don't need it i wouldn't i know you wouldn't but you're stupid you can't i can't see it it's behind me no it's just now i can't wear a helmet it's just bright i bet you could i bet you could but it's just bright it's just happy it's just happy it's nice to have the option fine and i think in canada we're lucky because we get this car out a bit of a steal to be honest because yes we get it basically in canadian dollars for what the us get it in us dollars yeah so that's like a 10 10 if you did the actual exchange which is not a fair way to do it it would be like a 10 000 saving so in canada it makes no sense to get that because of the few things that we it doesn't make it doesn't make as much time to get fully loaded but the gti starts it starts cheap yeah and if you don't miss out much you lose the dynamic chassis control you lose the harman kardon but you still get plaid seats or scale pattern type scale paper tartan pattern and yeah yeah basically it looks like that for 31 grand i don't know i it's a tough decision i think that they're still kings in their segment i think that you know the something like the velociram will be more fun but the the best metaphor i can think of it is you know that when you only get table tennis a ping pong um yeah paddle paddle you know the cheap thin ones yes and they're like really fun they clink and then and then one day you're like okay i'm gonna get into this and you buy that thick heavy one yeah that's what these are they're a little bit they're less they're not as rough around the edges they're not as carefree not as fun but they're just quality and there has been complaints that the quality of this interior doesn't match the mark 7.5 i don't think that's true i don't think it's if it is true it's not significant enough to bother you and the ambient lighting by the way is amazing can i go try and drift this now yeah go on then okay okay we're on our track i know that i'm wearing different clothes and my hair is a little bit longer but it's definitely the same day all right so i've tried all the different modes in my favorite mode is drift mode but then the traction control turned all the way off obviously and guess what this is a really good car i can't believe the difference just like in track driving compared to the previous gen golf r i can use the throttle and steer it around the corner no problem that diff just breaks the rear loose and from a much more serious perspective when it comes to track driving and lap times and i would set a lap time if it was drier but such as living in canada it feels more balanced as you enter a corner go in at crazy speeds yep rear comes around in a predictable fashion this is a golf r that i would do a track day with and the front end a little bit more negative camber as i said is is better it turns in sharper there's there's almost no understeer and it's slick out this is a significantly better car and then and then it'll do this and weirdly in a slide the steering becomes very heavy but very communicative the biggest problem is the fundamental issue that is only 50 of the power can go to the rear so in a slide like that you start off everything's great and then all of a sudden it starts to pull itself straight because you know it's putting power to the front obviously and if you want to keep it in a slide you kind of have to kick it in again and give it another boot full of throttle so you're kind of doing a drift and then doing a drift and then doing a drift to do one drift it's not to say it isn't fun i'm having a great time this is a golf in fact this is the most fun i've had in a golf since i drove a mark one kick it into a slide just like a rear-wheel drive car crazy angle because of the all-wheel drive it's not you can't do a smooth smoky exit like you could in a rear-wheel drive car but for just some rear-end play it does that perfectly i am phenomenally impressed forget about the weird infotainment forget about the haptic feedback who cares about the lack of a volume knob if you're looking for an all-wheel drive car that's comfortable efficient practical small affordable look no further than the new golf r that sounded like a sales pitch it wasn't i'm not selling these i'm just telling you that if you want one of these buy one because it's good really good [Music] okay it's not often that something gets such a glowing review from us especially given the crimes made in the interior but as thomas said the car makes up for it in every other way and for the money nothing comes close especially in canada the gti while still a likely leader in its price range isn't the slam dunk that the r is because unlike the previous generation this time we found the r to be the more fun and energetic of the two add to that the all-wheel drive capabilities and you have an all year round winner and you're probably thinking what about the civic type r or the veloster n the golf r after all has always represented the more refined but perhaps more boring choice that's simply not the case anymore there is a new incoming civic type r but until we try it this mark 8 golf r with its drift mode added power and increased sharpness is easily my choice

Channel: Throttle House

Views: 1,944,685

Keywords: 2022 gti review, 2022 golf r review, gti vs golf r, golf r drift mode, golf r launch control, golf r drag race, golf r mods, gti drift, gti launch control, gti exhaust, golf r exhaust, 2022 gti vs 2022 golf r, hot hatch, volkswagen, vw hatch, golf r mk8, gti mk8, golf build, vw golf, fastest hot hatch, golf r track test, best hatchback, mk 7 golf, mk 8 golf, r32 golf, golf r wheels, gti wheels, vw vs audi, vw vs mercedes, vw vs bmw, vw vs gtr, vw vs tesla

Id: zC2fS-6NYFQ

Length: 24min 17sec (1457 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 28 2021