NEW VW Golf R Review: Has The Golf Reached Its Peak? | 4K

[Music] [Applause] this is it the ultimate golf everybody appreciates the standard model everybody knows and respects the gti but this is the golf r and this version on paper at least is the best yet so let's get the obvious question out the way is it fast yes it uses basically the same engine as you get in the top spec golf gti clubs 4s but in this case it's been tickled slightly so now it makes even more power 320 ps and 420 newton meters of torque so it's rapid nor to 62 in 4.7 seconds and if we get the limiter removed it will do damn near 170. honestly i can't overstate how fast this car feels it is the most powerful series production golf ever the way it puts his power down is just something else all of that power goes through a seven speed dsg gearbox it just feels stupidly quick all of the time all right now we've got that out of the way let's go and have a proper look at this car so we're all familiar with the standard golf link down below if you haven't seen that review we've also seen the entry-level gti again there's a link down below i put that head-to-head with the focus st the mercedes a35 and the hyundai i30n it fared quite well but i want to show you the star of the show for the golf r and that is this two-liter engine it's actually the same one you get in the previous golf r except here they've managed to squeeze extra power and torque out of it 320 horsepower and 420 newton meters of torque it's a beastly thing although you wouldn't think so to look at it because it's covered in this squidgy little plastic cover very cute apparently that's there for pedestrian safety if you get hit by the car and the metal doesn't hurt you then that squishy little cover will apparently help to save your life maybe they expect the driver to go around with the bonnet up and maybe make contact with people like this and that will save their lives who knows i'm not an expert but now you know in terms of looks looks like a standard golf really except it's an r and you can tell it's an r by the fact it's got an r just there on the front end it's also got this little blue mono brow section just here and a slightly different front section in terms of colors we don't have an awful lot of choice really it comes in white as standard but if you pay between six and seven hundred pounds you can upgrade to black or this lovely blue color if you want a different color well you're out of luck wheels 18s as standard you can upgrade to 19s though and check out this little side skirt here this has a little flicked up section towards the rear which is actually reminiscent of the old golf r32 one for my golf geeks there's also a b pillar with a volkswagen written on the side in case you've forgotten what type of car you've bought and there are even more changes around the back this is probably this car's most interesting angle i think there's a lot going on back here i love the fact that it hasn't got golf written anywhere you've only got this centralized italicized r logo which is a nice touch i also like the fact that these rear lights are animated so when you're indicating it looks pretty modern pretty cool you also get really big quad exhaust down below they sound pretty decent as well and you also get this funky little diffuser section and you even get this little wing up at the top but if you spend an extra 2 000 pounds you can get the golf r performance pack which includes an even bigger wing a raised top speed from 155 to 168 19 inch wheels and a couple of extra driving modes nurburgring mode which is even more hardcore than the standard modes and drift mode which does exactly what it says on the tin sadly vw haven't provided me with the performance back they've given me the standard car so there won't be any nurburgring or big winging or sliding today so inside the golf r it's pretty nice it's what you'd expect from a golf to be honest with you in terms of changes specific to this car you get these really nice golf r seats with r embroidered into the headrests you also get this lovely blue tartan blue piping around the mats and blue ambient lights plus a golf r specific steering wheel with r written on the lower spoke you also get this cheeky little r button down here to cycle between different driving modes you also get slightly bigger shift paddles than you get in a golf gti for example which makes them much more involving to use the steering wheel is not perfect though because you get these buttons on these spokes and it's very easy to accidentally press the buttons while you're driving especially when you're doing reversing maneuvers and that can cause the reversing camera to turn on or off and it's all very confusing speaking of confusing i am not the world's biggest fan of the infotainment system in this car my initial concern was the lack of the physical volume knob but it goes much deeper than that and one of the things i despise the most is the fact that the climate control buttons aren't illuminated so you can be driving along at night and you can't see what buttons to press to adjust the temperature it's weird because every other car that i've been in in my life has illuminated climate control buttons for some reason the golf doesn't as if that wasn't bad enough sometimes the system doesn't work at all i was driving here to location this morning for example and for the first hour all it said on the screen was loading settings and there was nothing that i could use i couldn't use the navigation i couldn't use the telephone it was just stuck on this weird screen i pulled over turned the car off turned it on again and it was just still stuck in that mode which meant that i couldn't use the nav i had to use the nav on my phone but then i found another problem you try and charge your phone using the wireless phone charger and that doesn't work either you put it in the charger and it thinks you're doing a contactless payment and then it just says phone charging phone not charging phone charging phone not charging and then it says there might be some obstacle getting in the way of the phone and the charging pad so you have to look in there to figure out whether there's something in the way there's nothing in the way it just doesn't really work that fault isn't unique to volkswagen i'll be fair but when you're spending 40 000 pounds on a car you expect little things like this to not infuriate you and in this car they infuriate me luckily the rest of the golf r's interior is difficult to fault the materials are of a high quality especially in the front there are plenty of cubbies rear storage is generous for both leg and headroom there are three icifix points including one on the front passenger seat and several usb ports let's talk about some of the stuff that we know the golf r is going to be good at first and foremost these seats are massively comfortable really supportive and it's a lovely driving experience sitting inside this thing even when you're just puttering around it's not the quietest car in the world i can hear a fair bit of road noise coming up off those 18 inch wheels and i dare say that if you went for the 19 inch wheels then that situation might be made slightly worse but honestly this is a car you can daily and be completely happy with one of the most impressive things about it is the ride it's so comfortable to drive around even on potholed roads here in the uk this car doesn't have the standard suspension instead it has the optional dcc even though it costs 785 pounds i definitely recommend it because it allows you to set up this car's ride exactly how you want it if you go into the dcc customization menu you can choose from 18 different levels of chassis comfort and yeah that's overkill but the fact you can choose your own setting is reassuring [Music] there are three basic driving modes in the golf r there's comfort there's sport and there's race in comfort everything feels fine that's the mode you're gonna use when you pop into the shops or just quartering around sport and race i'd say are less convincing for me and the reason for that is that the steering doesn't feel completely natural in either of those modes volkswagen have installed a new variable ratio steering rack in this car and the end result is that the steering wheel feels really light around the dead center but when you start to apply some lock either on the left or right hand side it waits up artificially it feels unnaturally stiff when you're in the middle of a corner and that's made worse in sport and race modes luckily there is an individual setting where you can choose the comfort steering feel as well as crank up the other aspects of the car to more sporty or racy levels and basically have the car feel exactly how you want it to feel when you're driving another thing that's slightly annoying in this car is the lane assist feature which is on by default you have to turn it off manually what it does is it scans the road ahead for lane markings and then tries to keep the car in the lane ahead of you and it works fairly well but when you're trying to drive the car and take control of the situation it just feels again a bit unnatural once you get to grips with the steering though i've got to say the chassis in this car is an absolute peach it just feels tremendous to thread through a set of back roads throw it into a corner and it's just so composed so tidy almost telepathic in a way there's a little bit of body roll but it settles into that really quickly and gives you superb amounts of confidence to pick your speed up trim your line through the bend it's actually quite adjustable in the corners the previous golf r felt a bit like it was on rails and didn't really want to play but this there's an element of playfulness there an element of fun then when you get on the power the new all-wheel drive system comes into its own the car has a torque vectoring rear diff that can send power to the outside wheel during a bend to help push it through corners the result is that it's supremely effective at using all of its power if i was being overly critical i'd say that the chassis could still handle even more power one of the criticisms i had with the golf gti was that the 250 or so horsepower that it had wasn't enough to travel the chassis so i wanted more but with this i've now got 320 horsepower and i still feel the same way you could dump another 100 horsepower into the gold bar and the chassis would be able to coat no problem whatsoever it's that good what an engine though it is magnificent it feels significantly quicker than rival hot hatches it is devastatingly fast keep your foot pinned and you will be in another county before you even realize and the power delivery is actually really good as well you get most of the power up towards 6 000 or so rpm so it pays to keep your foot pinned and keep the engine revving the seven speed gearbox very impressive as well shifts gears so quickly up and down the box gives you exactly the gear you need when you need it right piling into a corner now second gear no hesitation at all a lot of cars would have said nope you need third gear here but in this i wanted second and the car gave it to me one criticism of the gearbox is that it has a manual mode but it's not a true manual i knock it into second i'll floor it and it changes up automatically i want the car to bounce off the rev limiter and let me know that i got it wrong i want to be in charge of those gear shifts this is the standard exhaust and it sounds pretty decent there are some pops and bangs and actually they don't sound quite as artificial as you get on some rivals for example the hyundai i30n is always popping and banging constantly and i love the sound of it but in this you earn your noise the brakes are phenomenal too 357 millimeter discs on the front and the stopping power is genuinely as good as the acceleration you have confidence on the brakes all the time except i will say that the brake pedal just feels weirdly slippery it's easy for your foot to slip off the pedal and onto the accelerator but once you get your head around that it's not a big deal honestly i'm not completely happy though i'm just guided this car doesn't have the performance pack why doesn't the press car have the performance pack i mean i like this thing but there's a very real danger of me loving it if it had the performance pack nurburgring mode drift mode that would have been the icing on the cake i think you can probably tell that i am quite impressed with the golf r to think you can spend around 300 pounds a month and get a car that is good looking practical commands a fair bit of respect in the supermarket car park and on the high street and then is as quick as this it kind of beggars belief really how does it compare to mercedes 835 well obviously the mercedes interior is much easier to get on with better looking better infotainment and even though the mercedes is down on power the mercedes is actually arguably more playful than the golf r so whether you want to buy it is going to come down to personal choice but if you do buy it there's a strong chance you're gonna love it [Music] is it the best golf ever well get rid of all of this stuff here sort this lot out and yeah absolutely it's properly mega [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: AutoTrader

Views: 220,170

Rating: 4.9311051 out of 5

Keywords: new golf r, golf r review, new golf r review, golf r acceleration, golf r test, golf r launch, golf r vs, new golf r vs, new golf, golf 8 r, golf r drag race, golf r interior, golf r seats, golf r boot, golf r track pack, golf r performance pack, new golf r performance, golf r dcc, golf review, new golf review

Id: nGUGqIn3Gcw

Length: 14min 18sec (858 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021