Could The Mk7/7.5 Golf R Be Remembered As The Greatest "Normal" Golf of All?

[Music] hello everybody today i am revisiting a car i've driven a number of times before one that i believe is the definitive hot hatch of the last decade but now it's out of production a much more important question needs to be answered how are we going to remember the mark 7 and 7.5 volkswagen golf r [Music] the golf r story and truth begins with the r32 a car introduced a number of generations earlier that was powered by a 3.2 litre vr6 engine that produced just about enough power to make it marginally quicker than its smaller four-cylinder sibling the gti though the r32 certainly has a cult following all of its own and i consider myself a fan i can understand why for many it's just a car too far for the sixth generation of the venerable golf the r32 was ditched and replaced with the car simply called the golf r however for whatever reason i don't think the sixth generation r received anywhere near the attention of the seventh there are a few reasons this could be first off when that car came out i was at a stage in life where a golf gti may as well have been a bugatti veyron i had no chance at all of being able to afford one new or used it is also possible that people weren't so impressed with the mark 6 overall and felt that the r was perhaps a step down from the very characterful if slower r32 the mark vi itself was essentially a heavy facelift of the mark v for the seventh generation car there were a few big changes first off it was genuinely an all-new car based on the vw group's new mqb platform it was also the first production golf to make 300 horsepower sure that wasn't masses more than the old mark vi made which developed about 270 horsepower but 300 horses is something of a psychological barrier that's a lot i'm sure many of the potential buyers for this kind of car remembered a time when 911s and supercars made only a little bit more or in some cases a little bit less in truth though i suspect the real reason behind the r's meteoric rise was one as old as time money the way vw structured the finance deal on these you could get yourself into an r for something like 15 quid a month more than a gti and that was for a car that had some 80 horsepower more and all-wheel drive versus two-wheel drive it felt like almost overnight the golf gti became a distant memory as everybody ran to get themselves an r it was the default choice for anybody that wanted a car that could get you from a to b quickly in all seasons though other hot hatches on the right day in the right conditions on a track were faster the truth was in the real world it was pretty hard to beat the r's devastating cross-country pace the seventh generation car was introduced in 2013 then in 2017 it was face lifted this is one of the later cars often known as a mark 7.5 there were a number of changes between the 7 and 7.5 externally the car received a mild visual makeover but in truth it's kind of hard to tell the difference for me inside you had things like the new digital dash which is okay if not brilliant a much improved infotainment here which is a big step forward and you also got a seventh speed for the dsg gearbox both generations of the mark 7 were also available as a six-speed manual torque figures remain the same between the two 280 pound foot that's about 380 newton meters and power rows ever so slightly for the 7.5 to 310 horses i'm sure there are other detail changes too today's video though is not a buyer's guide on the golf r instead this is a look at the car now it's done and we know what's replaced it i have yet to drive the mark 8 r but i have driven a market gti and my major criticism is the same as pretty much everybody else's the interior is horrible the exterior i don't mind and there's much about the car that i love the fact that vw have kept it the same size indeed the mark 5 6 7 and 8 are all basically the same dimensions and they are perfect for any british road they are exactly the right size they've got just enough space inside to be useful for a small family but they're not so big as to be a little bit daunting on a narrow lane now that we know what the market is actually like and it seems highly unlikely vw are going to take a backwards step i think this is going to be forever in the eyes of many peak golf let's be honest here the next generation of car may be faster but it's going to be quieter it's still going to be packed with lots and lots of annoying tech where this certainly in terms of the interior is pretty much perfect it may be somewhat bland but this really is an ergonomic masterpiece the display here has all you need android auto apple carplay but navigation of its own a selection of apps your radio dab am fm your bluetooth as well phone voice car options everything you need is here it's a touch screen yes but it is fairly intuitive easy to use in my opinion all you really needed was android auto and your set that's something bentley don't even have now not sure why bentley you're part of ew group they could do it in 2019 i'm sure you can do it in 2022 but i digress this car belongs to former british auto test champion good friend lotus enthusiast and now my accountant dominic it was a lovely chap even putting little to no effort in i've not put my foot down all the way yet this is actually a very very pleasant car to drive it's effortless you can carry good speed without really having to do much this is one of the reasons i wanted to revisit this car because while the golf certainly enjoyed a reputation for being one of the fastest ways to get you down a road like this it also gained a reputation for being a little bit uninvolving a touch distant very typical vw i would say it never suffered quite the same journalistic bashing as say the audi rs3 which gets the word understeer attached to it at every given opportunity and i think that's a a touch harsh i think it's fair to say for the keen driving enthusiast the person that wants to be involved in every single step of the process the r was always seen as a touch to aloof things like the civic type are certainly more involving likewise the hoendai i30n however having driven now a number of these cars i think that's not entirely true but there are a few things you need to look out for indeed when dominic went to look for this car there were a couple of options he definitely did not want and if you want to buy one of these now i'd say it's still pretty solid advice the least contentious item i would say to avoid is keyless entry you see one of the other things the gulf developed a reputation for was being highly nickable and that was done via the keyless entry system so if you want to be able to hold on to yours for just a little bit longer i would say avoid one with that the other thing which was a constant frustration for me in the golf r was the steering i've driven a number of r's and it's close relatives gti the rs3 s3 so on and so forth and i found the steering to be wildly inconsistent it's never brilliant simply doesn't happen however in some cars it can be what i'd call enjoyable in others simply lackluster it just doesn't talk back to you very very distant and very frustrating what should be a fun car it has taken me a little while to try and work out why it's so inconsistent but the best i've been able to manage so far is that the cars option with dcc simply don't respond as nicely i think there's a possibility the steering itself isn't actually being affected instead what's going on is with any sort of dynamic chassis system you run the risk of this when you go to turn the wheel you're not quite sure what level of resistance you're going to be met with you don't know how much the car is going to roll and pitch that gives it a very very uneven and very unpredictable feeling when you're making progress you really want to know that you can lean on a car and you need to know what it's going to do dynamic chassis systems across the board also have a habit of robbing you of that knowledge of quite how close you are to a car's dynamic limits as i'm sure you could tell from the drive-bys of this car dominic does rather enjoy it he knows the road he knows what he's doing and this is a car that talks to you a reasonable amount it doesn't shout or scream at you in the way that his lotus does but it is also a lot faster than the lotus still would take the elise out if you simply want to put a smile on your face though it has been years since i've been behind the wheel of a golf r so i was really keen to revisit it and see just how much the reality matched my memory i have to say i think the two align fairly closely in this car yeah the steering actually isn't terrible there is a little bit of waiting as you come into a bend you should push the wheel rather than pull it though that is solid advice for any car do that and you do get just a little bit back from it not masses but it does talk to you a whisper not a shout but it's there the engine i would say is actually the weak part of the package even at say four or five thousand rpm it's still got a noticeable amount of lag and doesn't sound particularly brilliant either i've got the car in race mode currently you have several to choose from comfort normal race and individual the steering in race mode is a little bit heavier the gearbox is a little bit sharper the throttle is a touch more aggressive all the usual stuff if this car were fitted with the dynamic chassis control it would also stiffen things up as well truth be told i think the chassis setup is actually pretty bang on around town it's not harsh or crashy once you get a riggle on it's actually pretty compliant too the car carries its one and a half ton curb weight very well these cars have an updated version of the haldex all-wheel drive system as seen in the mark vi and many other vw products it's a computer-controlled system so when the situation calls for it it can either completely disconnect drive to the rear wheels or deliver up to 50 percent of the torque there a top tip for those wishing to save a bit of fuel and economy is actually one of the r strengths because driven carefully it can achieve near 40 to the gallon the car does have several modes and if you put it into eco mode you will get an eco mode for the gearbox engage that and the car will then be able to coast when no power is needed at all going downhills and so forth this does actually make a tangible difference to your economy so it's well worth knowing about many other cars eco doesn't really do anything that you couldn't already achieve in normal here it does i'm going to put it back into manual though so then now i've really familiarized myself with the golf r and i find it to be a very very good car how are we going to remember it and is it a car worth buying could it be a future classic there is a good chance that though we may have moaned about it this could be one of the last really driver-focused versions of the golf you can modify them make them quite a bit quicker and they can be very exciting the best of the hours i ever drove was a mildly modified one which had about 370 horsepower that to me is about right for these cars and it had a different anti-roll bar slightly different suspension setup and that was pretty much it that car was a joy for maneuvering and stuff like that i also appreciate the smaller details like the little reverse camera that's hidden behind the vw badge why more brands don't do that i do not know the number of cars or the reversing cameras that are put in stupid places that get muddy the moment you go through a puddle and are therefore useless is countless on the flip side i'm also frustrated by the fact that even in manual mode if i put my foot all the way down the car will still kick down a gear for me that i don't want bad vw dominic's ownership of the car has also been pretty good the only real fault it had was a horn that failed and was fixed under warranty with no quibbles unfortunately the buying process was a little bit tricky because dominic lives in scotland the only vw dealer accessible to him is arnold clark and if you're not familiar with that name count yourself lucky because it is a byword for just about everything you probably hate about car dealers it is for that reason he went all the way into deepest darkest england shire to get it even so he still wasn't immune from the trouble of dealing with arnold's because when this car went in for what should be a routine service he was given the obligatory walk around here's your car sir video and noticed that they had jacked it up using the sill hey anyway i digress once again there are a few things counting against the possibility of this car as a future classic one of them is the fact that um they are very numerous and let's be honest here they all look like this don't they they're pretty much all lapis blue with the same wheels with this pretty boring black fabric interior sure a few have some nice options on them but uh generally speaking they are all the same i cannot really ever recall seeing a golf r that i looked at and went wow that's amazing on the flip side there is a benefit to that because dominic is an accountant he doesn't feel that he can turn up to her clients in something like a civic type r and i know many people who've said much the same thing these cars are also clean and friendly enough that you should be able to drive them most places for some time yet dominic has had this car for three years now and generally speaking he's the sort of person that after you two three years says okay let's move it on let's get something new anyone that bought one of these on finance probably did so on a three or four year term so they're likely to be going through the same thought process and i can't help but wonder if there are a number of people doing the same thing as dominant going yeah actually this kind of does everything i need it normally the new car brings at least something in the way of improvement but doesn't really look much better certainly not an improvement inside isn't really going to be any faster definitely doesn't sound better the gearbox won't really be notably better the dsg is great you can't get a manual one anymore and neither can you even get a three-door r anymore even more incredibly i expected like just about everything on sale right about now you'd be paying the same for one of these as you would about three years ago but it turns out no early examples of a mark 7 r can be had for low teens and even a late low miles mark 7.5 from a dealer is going to set you back about 25 grand which to be quite honest is damn good value for money future classic i don't know maybe but a damn good car worth your time the goal far for me remains the definitive do everything hot hatch it's not the most exciting but get the right one and you know something it's a great car and it's a proper vw anyway i want to say a huge thank you to dominic as ever for lending me his car to you for watching don't forget to hit the like button comment down below subscribe if you haven't already and i'll see you for the next one bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: JayEmm on Cars

Views: 115,430

Keywords: Diary, VLOG, Car, Sound, Test, video, Review, Comparison, JayEmm on Cars

Id: vvZ-4UO_6Ys

Length: 17min 7sec (1027 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 30 2022