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Before the new Golf/GTI (MKVII) arrives in this country, VW is offering the MKVI Golf R for enthusiast who’d like a hotter GTI with AWD. They’ve done this before with the two prior generations of the R32. Except with this release Volkswagen has specifically called out the Subaru WRX STI and Mitsubishi Evo X, two AWD heroes, as the Golf R’s primary competition.
We took one look at the stat sheet for the Golf R and realized it seems far closer to the standard WRX and Ralliart than the bigger boys. But, as we always say “you can’t drive a spec sheet”, so we rounded up a representative from each category to see where the Golf R actually belongs.
The result is this threesome: a Golf R vs. a standard Subaru WRX and a tricked out Mitsubishi Evo. Of course the WRX and Evo aren’t direct competitors, but they represent a great range of price and performance to measure the R against.
So, here we are on a sunny day, with a great empty road, and three cars aimed right at enthusiasts. Sure, you can watch any of these cars by themselves, but this is the only way to watch the full comparison!
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What car would you put in this comparison? And what enthusiast car would you get for around $35k? Tells us your thoughts below!
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2 Responses to “Golf R versus the Competition”
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Hi, I always like your videos.
If I had to spend $35k for a new VW Golf (R) and I could afford the running costs of an EVO.
Then I would seriously go for a used V10 with less than 30k miles.
Maybe an Audi S6 or a BMW M5/M6.
Happy New Year!
Nice piece, guys – as always the point and counterpoint keeps it interesting and informative. Of those exact three I’d do the Subaru as well but the sedan body is just a big pile of meh to my eyes. My own $35k is in my modified ’07 WRX hatchback, which adds up to just a little less than that. It came with the factory short-throw shifter which makes a huge difference and I’ve added my own Recaros because you’re right; the stock seats look the part but have no bolstering to speak of. (Funny enough the stock seats in my previous ’02 WRX were excellent.) I’ve got Cobb Tuning front and rear sway bars to fix the understeer, STI Brembos to stop it and Cobb’s exhaust and Accessport to make proper use of the swapped STI turbo. Power comes in below 2,000rpm and it really flies by 3,000. My dealer did all the work and the car’s rock solid reliable at 127,000 miles and counting. Out of the box the WRX does need some help but the problems are easily rectified and then you’ve got an all-rounder second to none, including a new STI.