Mk8.5 VW Golf R Review: Sensible And Sensational

If you had to pick one car for the rest of your life to do absolutely everything with, you could never really go wrong with a Volkswagen Golf R.

Here is a car that has always done the regular Volkswagen Golf things – decent practicality, easy to live with and pleasant enough to drive civilly in – yet with the performance of a proper sports car just a stab of the throttle away. Oh, and if you needed a bigger boot, there’s always the estate.

None of that really changed with the introduction of the Mk8 a few years ago, save for some complaints with interior and tech. It has remained a jack of all trades, and inarguably the most well-rounded hot hatch on the market right now.

It’d be really hard for Volkswagen to go wrong with the Mk8.5 Golf R, right? Well, yeah. I’m not going to offer you any shock takes here – it’s much the same as before, just slightly better in some areas and with room for improvement in others.

Changes are not what you would call drastic. The biggest comes in the form of a power boost with the refreshed car now producing 328bhp and 310lb ft from its 2.0-litre turbocharged EA888 four-pot. That’s new to us in the UK, but it matches a state of tune seen on a seldom-known R 333 Edition sold in Europe previously.

That’s still sent exclusively through a seven-speed DSG gearbox to an all-wheel drive system and is still quoted as offering a 4.6 second 0-62mph time.

On paper, no quicker but the reality is the already-punchy R feels even stronger than before. The pin-you-back sensation it offers is still a little perplexing for a Golf, and the versatility of the engine is impressive. Throttle response is sharp, the gearbox is quick with its changes and has a good knack for being in the right ratio at the right time.

It takes some dialling in to get the best out of on UK roads. If you’re feeling like an absolute helm, you could opt for the new ‘Special’ mode that sets everything up for the Nürburgring but doing so on our roads is something you’ll try once and then never again. At that point, it just becomes too bone-shaking to be worthwhile.

The sweet spot is to dial everything into the raciest setting except for the suspension, which is best left in comfort. Doing so leaves you with a car that’s mightily quick, yet compliant. It’s still not exactly what you’d call engaging – there’s a numbness to the steering and a sense of disconnect you won’t get with a Honda Civic Type R – but the tradeoff is a car you can access the performance of more often, largely thanks to the ultra-grippy 4Motion all-wheel drive system.

If you want to up the theatrics, make sure you tick the box for the Akrapovic exhaust system. Again, it’s not new, but it still sounds brilliant – consider this a public service announcement.

When you are just trying to do normal car things rather than drive like an utter tit, the Golf R is brilliant at that too. It rides well, there’s all the assistance tech you could really need and space in the back continues to be plenty enough for your statistical 1.74 children. Oh, and if you do need more space, there’s still the Estate.

Beyond more power, the ‘Special’ and a ‘Drift’ mode (which I cannot officially confirm works surprisingly well), the Volkswagen Golf R’s new tricks are largely the same as the rest of the range which we’ve covered in reviews recently. Which is to say pretty good, and better than the original Mk8. Aside from one small thing.

You see, as we found out speaking with its engineering team earlier this year, the R remains the only Golf to still use silly touch-sensitive steering wheel buttons. That’s because the engineering costs of making the R mode button work with a physical switch would’ve cut too much into profit margins. Boo and hiss.

That does bring me neatly onto the cost of the VW Golf R. It starts at a fiver shy of £44,000, which seems reasonable in a modern context of a Toyota GR Yaris costing just as much and an FL5 Honda Civic Type R commanding a touch over £50,000. A no-brainer then, right?

Once you begin ticking the options though, things get a little more complex. The Civic comes as a one-price package, whereas this particular Golf R – with the must-have exhaust, 19-inch alloys and upgraded speakers among other bits – commands £52,450.

Now at that, you have a decision to make. If it was a purchase with my heart, the more exciting Civic would be hard to pass on but with my head, the Golf makes more sense. It’s sensible, yet sensational.