I've been waiting over 6 months but finally today my perfect car arrived and it is every bit as good as I hoped it would be; very quick, a plush auto box, traction everywhere and loads of space.
The interior seems to be of higher quality than my 1 Series (F20). Sport R seats, gloss black fascia, carbon door trims and felt lined door bins
The reason I went for the estate version; the boot has over 600 litres of space, it's larger than a 5 Series Touring and Audi A6 Avant. There is also a handy load through middle section which saves dropping the seats for longer items.
Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG) - The Eco, Normal and Race driving modes determine when it auto shifts and there are paddle shifters for manual changing behind the steering wheel.
Four wheel drive was another reason I wanted a Golf R. Hopefully no more embarrassing, getting stuck moments, when the grass is damp or there is a light frost, which happens to render my road impassable in my BMW.
Standard kit is pretty good – adaptive cruise, power fold door mirrors with puddle lights, auto lights/wipers, dual climate, DAB, F & R visual parking sensors, xenon lights with unique to the R double U-shaped DRL’s and ambient blue lighting. Most of this list are options on the other considered cars listed below.
Quad exhausts – the only obvious visual separating it from a standard TDi Golf. In Race Mode flaps in the outer pipes open up for more noise.
The engine – not much to see. Just a 2 litre, 4 cylinder petrol turbo delivering 300 PS (296bhp) and 280 ft/lb torque @ 1,800rpm.
For a Golf the price is quite high (RRP £33.5k, discounted £27.2k), but there is no other car on the market which offers similar levels of performance, traction and luggage capacity in one package any cheaper. Also, the amazing lease deal offered on the R made the final decision very easy.
The other options I considered:
Lease vs Purchase Cost comparison (2 years, 10k miles pa)
To buy the car would have cost me £800+ more and I would have had the hassle and cost of selling it on.
Some arty photos
The interior seems to be of higher quality than my 1 Series (F20). Sport R seats, gloss black fascia, carbon door trims and felt lined door bins
The reason I went for the estate version; the boot has over 600 litres of space, it's larger than a 5 Series Touring and Audi A6 Avant. There is also a handy load through middle section which saves dropping the seats for longer items.
Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG) - The Eco, Normal and Race driving modes determine when it auto shifts and there are paddle shifters for manual changing behind the steering wheel.
Four wheel drive was another reason I wanted a Golf R. Hopefully no more embarrassing, getting stuck moments, when the grass is damp or there is a light frost, which happens to render my road impassable in my BMW.
Standard kit is pretty good – adaptive cruise, power fold door mirrors with puddle lights, auto lights/wipers, dual climate, DAB, F & R visual parking sensors, xenon lights with unique to the R double U-shaped DRL’s and ambient blue lighting. Most of this list are options on the other considered cars listed below.
Quad exhausts – the only obvious visual separating it from a standard TDi Golf. In Race Mode flaps in the outer pipes open up for more noise.
The engine – not much to see. Just a 2 litre, 4 cylinder petrol turbo delivering 300 PS (296bhp) and 280 ft/lb torque @ 1,800rpm.
For a Golf the price is quite high (RRP £33.5k, discounted £27.2k), but there is no other car on the market which offers similar levels of performance, traction and luggage capacity in one package any cheaper. Also, the amazing lease deal offered on the R made the final decision very easy.
The other options I considered:
- Seat Leon Cupra Estate DSG: £31k, (no AWD and less power)
- Focus ST3: £27k (much smaller boot, no AWD, no auto and slower)
- BMW 3 Touring 335D X-Drive: £42k, (much smaller boot)
- Audi S4 Avant: £45k (much smaller boot)
- Audi S6 Avant: £58k (smaller boot)
- Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 4MATIC: £43k (much smaller boot)
- Jaguar F-Pace 3.0 S: £52k (pretty much identical package but not available until April 2016)
Lease vs Purchase Cost comparison (2 years, 10k miles pa)
To buy the car would have cost me £800+ more and I would have had the hassle and cost of selling it on.
- Lease : £4.2k per year. Total rental cost £8.4k
- Purchase: Finance at 6%, £13.6k per year. Total purchase cost £27.2k. GFV after 2 years: £18k. Total ownership cost: £9.2k
Some arty photos
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