2023 VW Golf R Review.. Which Transmission Is Best?

welcome friends to the 2023 VW Golf R in this video I want to answer the question of which transmission option should you go with if you are lucky enough to get an allocation or able to purchase this car at MSRP should you go with the manual or should you go with this seven-speed dual clutch transmission but before that I will quickly just get this out of the way for 2023 there are no changes with the golf R aside from a 20th anniversary edition that's the only thing that they have introduced the automatic version of The Golf R is going to cost an additional eight hundred dollars more to purchase but other than that there are no other packages or features that you have to select with the golf R these cards pretty much come fully equipped and fully loaded so you pay 800 more for the auto or the Dual clutch one benefit of that is you are going to get slightly better fuel economy this model is rated to get 23 MPG in the city and 30 out on the highway when you go with the six-speed manual your MPG drops to 20 MPG in the city and 28 out of the highway fuel economy sort of kind of matters with a car like this after all this is like that Swiss army knife the car that does it all it's the perfect daily it's refined it's smooth it's fast and having great fuel economy on top of that helps so that's definitely one benefit of going with the automatic the second benefit is you do get more torque the horsepower Remains the Same at 315 horsepower but the torque is 310 pounds feet for this dual clutch and it's 280 for the manual now I'm gonna have to stop this right here because various car outlets for whatever reason they are using that 310 pound-feeded torque number for the Dual clutch models but on the official VW North American website it says that the Dual clutch models of the Golf R produces 295 pounds feet of torque and the manuals produce 280 pounds feet of torque I'm gonna go with those numbers so yes the Dual clutch does produce more torque still but it's maybe not as much as some of these other car outlets and even some authorized VW dealership blogs are suggesting with that 310 pounds inventory if somebody in the comments section knows where that number came from let us know in the comment section but for right now I am going to go based off of the VW website and I'm going to say that the Dual clutches produce 15 more pounds feet of torque compared to the manuals Car and Driver did a 0-60 test on these dual clutch golf RS this thing did 0 to 60 and 3.9 seconds and I think the manual was around four and a half seconds fuel economy specs that's all nice it's cool that this is better on paper but the main highlight the main reason why one would go after one of these top spec top trim level golf products or Civic type bars or a Focus RS I know they don't make that anymore but you get the idea the point of all these cars is to do what is to drive them and which transmission option is the most satisfactory to drive well I spent a week in both vehicles and in my honest opinion I prefer this dual clutch to drive more air hybrid in sport mode right now let's put into race [Music] that is awesome [Music] no that's really awesome this thing is fast very fast this dual clutch responds extremely well the thing makes satisfactory upshifting noises that little farting effect right I I love that it sounds cool and I totally understand why people buy these things and they just totally void the warranty by putting a stage three tune on it and down pipes and all sorts of crazy stuff because this sounds pretty great from the factory but you can enhance this more with the aftermarket and I get why people go nuts with it it's such a small cool darty go-kart like driving experience and you put the extra power and the extra sound effects in it it's such a crazy cool automobile to drive there is a bit of Turbo lag off the line especially in the comfort mode but that pretty much goes away when you have it in race mode like this and that's what I prefer and it's just so effortless so sharp so precise this automatic transmission or this dual clutch whatever the manual transmission when I experienced it it had a long saggy throws and it just wasn't that enjoyable for me in a performance car my preference in a manual transmission is those short shifters those short Snappy shifters that's what I prefer okay some of my all-time favorite manual transmissions I personally experienced it's the new Acura Integra Hayes spec model that I recently tested I also really like the Tremec manuals found in things like The Challengers and the Camaros and I also like the the Miata manual transmission so this is what I prefer when I drove that Golf R I mean that manual was more like a casual Driving Experience I mean it's okay for daily driving it was very easy very smooth you know nice long shifts it's satisfactory in its own way but in a high performance car like this I just felt like it didn't match the character of The Golf R to have a shifter like that if you've driven the Golf R if you know what I'm talking about if you resonate with this leave your thoughts Below in the comments or if I'm just completely wrong you can also let me know as well in the comment section that's just what I felt regarding the the manual transmission I do love manuals going through your own Gears it is great but this thing is just such a rocket that it is it is fun to have it in an automatic version like this I feel like it's easier to get those Pops from the exhaust and the and the upshift noises when you have this uh this dual clutch here but if you are purchasing these products getting the manual could make it more desirable in the used car market that's definitely a benefit of the manual cars like this are going away for the most part so getting it in a manual could help it's a lot like the Porsche products you know everybody wants like a manual GT3 Porsche or GT4 the reality is with a lot of those Porsche products for Street driving at least they have really tall gearing when you're driving it on the street only it's not really that satisfactory the Porsches I'm talking about it's kind of set up for track driving and you know that's the thing it depends on what you're doing with these cars as well I personally think if you're Street driving the gulf which I think most people are I think getting this automatic is pretty awesome perhaps in the GTI trim I think the manual will be a little bit better I feel like I enjoy manuals in slower cars more than I do really fast ones I would rather have an automatic Hellcat than a manual one you know like they make a manual Hellcat that's cool that's special they'll probably have pretty good residual value in the future it'll be like a classic car but personally as I think to drive I would just prefer an automatic back in the day like early 2000s and the 90s and even before that automatics just sucked really bad so the default that everybody wanted especially if you're a driver was a manual transmission if you knew how to drive one going through your own Gears that was the only way to have any form of satisfaction with those early generation automatics nowadays these Transmissions they've come so far you know you have stuff like this your pdks your eight-speed ZFS and they're just so quick so Snappy and satisfactory to use especially for Street driving that it's kind of what I prefer again some of you might see that as blasphemy um some of you might say things like oh he's not a real car Enthusiast and all that well the reality is I am an Enthusiast I do love to drive and these thoughts and opinions they're not just rooted in nothing like a lot of the internet trolls everything I'm seeing here comes from the experience I've had driving hundreds of vehicles okay I'm not some idolater that worships cards or anything like that or sits at home and looks at pictures of these things all day no I've driven a lot of these vehicles and I've owned a lot of vehicles myself personally and all these thoughts and observations are the result of you know years of driving and spending a lot of seed time in different Vehicles if you tried or if you're an owner of the manual let us know your thoughts okay I'm sure people are going to spread this on their forums and they're gonna you know Gaslight me and that's fine you know let them do their thing but just to summarize here with the Dual clutch automatic you are paying 800 more which is a con but the pros are better fuel economy and in my personal opinion a little bit more fun I think you can get this thing to crackle and pop and make those farting effects a little bit easier with this dual clutch as well the pros of the manual transmission well it's a free option that's just what the vehicle comes with and your resale value will most likely be better it'll be a more desirable product in the used Market if you ever decide to sell it and I suppose if you haven't seen my review of the golf 4 I guess quickly I'll let you know about this it drives amazing I love the handling of it this four motion all-wheel drive I mean it sticks to the road like glue the capabilities of this product is very high these golf R's they're just fully loaded they come with every feature that you could ever want you got heated and cooled seats in the front you got heated seats in the back you also have vents to play with back there you have a lot of the features that you would typically find in a luxury car honestly the seats are amazing I like the carbon fiber design of them they're extremely comfortable and supportive the visibility is perfect this Fender audio or I'm sorry this is a Harman Kardon audio system it's probably all the same junk that does not sound that great and this infotainment and its over Reliance on all the touch haptics and the touch screen in general means that you have to rely on the screen for all your climate and that's really the only thing I don't like so a subtle lag in the comfort mode the climate control being embedded completely into the touch screen and the not so great sound system those are the only true cons I can come up with other than that really a Sublime Driving Experience and now that we are stopped rear seating space you can definitely fit adults back there they're not stretching out back there like it's a Maybach or anything trunk size is huge there is no spare tire with this car it's just something to note we just have regular Bridgestone summer Tires here they do a good job in gripping you but they're not run floods I guess you could just buy a good spare tire for this and fit it in the back it's not a big deal and it is a little bit more low slung in here but I don't have too much of an issue getting in and out of it I like the size it's nice to be back in a car that's not an SUV that has a much smaller footprint it is cool to be in this and just Dart around traffic easy to park really enjoyed living with this product I think most of you will be as well it's a little bit on the stiffer side but nothing that takes away from the daily drivability of this car in fact you prefer this car to be a bit on the stiffer side it it adds to the character and it's the character that fits a goal are the most anyway hopefully this answered some of your questions on if you were confused about getting the Dual clutch or the manual transmission as always I would still like to hear your thoughts in the comment section below and all the other people that are going to slander me on the on the forums that's fine too I'd like to hear your thoughts as well thank you so much for watching I'll have my next video on the end screen here click on it and I will see you there

Channel: Meyn Motor Group

Views: 13,460

Keywords: 2023 VW Golf R, 2023 Volkswagen Golf R, 2023 VW Golf R Manual, 2023 VW Golf R DSG, 2023 VW Golf R DCT, 2023 VW Golf R Automatic, 2022 VW Golf R, 2022 Volkswagen Golf R, 2023 VW Golf GTI, 2023 Volkswagen Golf GTI, 2023 VW Golf R Manual vs Automatic, 2023 VW Golf R Manual vs DSG, 2023 VW Golf R Manual vs DCT, DSG vs Manual, Meyn Motor Group, Meyn Motor Group VW, 2023 VW Golf R Review

Id: IQoeYAmKvMM

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023