3 WORST And 8 BEST Things About The 2023 VW Golf R

VW Golf R or Honda Civic Type R or Toyota GR Corolla?
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0:00 - Intro

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BAD:

0:23 - The tech

The issue is mostly around the climate controls

You have these touch-sensitive sliders rather than buttons or dials
And btw they don’t light up at night…wtf
temp sliders are so you don’t need to go into clima, but they’re harder to use
tap slider w/ 2 fingers - turns on heated seats
has cooled seats, need to go into clima

Then there’s the finger sensing proximity thing where the screen isn’t showing you everything UNTIL you’re about to put your fingers on something
why do I need to take my hands off the wheel to see all the information available?!

Ultimately It just feels like they’ve tried to stuff too much into a screen this size

2:45 - Quality

However, it used to be that VW has the interiors that Mazda does today
They were super solid and well built, the materials were better than things you were finding in Hondas
And it just felt like that half step between economy and premium

Today the interior feels much more like Hyundai and Honda level than BMW or Audi

You’ve got more hard plastics, less aluminum, and here the rear seats get worse materials and the passenger seat doesn’t even get power controls


3:46 - The Sliders

We touched on this with the first point, but VW has chosen to go with this new slider control thing and they must be really excited about it because it’s everywhere

The climate and temp controls
The volume on the center console
Btw neither of those light up at night which is a pain
The volume on the steering wheel
And the sunroof controls

This isn’t the end of the world, and actually it’s kind of a fun gimmick in ideal conditions, but try using it with gloves or at night, or in a rush and i feel like you’d be wanting a more conventional dial or button

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GOOD:

4:43 - The drive

6:02 - The engine

Under the hood is the 4th generation of the Ea888 engine we’ve come to know and love

Here it’s dialed up to 315 hp and 310 lbft
Exact same specs as the type r

And if you match that to the DSG then you’ll get to 60 in the low 4 second range
A full second quicker than the little sibling GTI


6:41 - Transmissions

Which then leads us to transmissions and you get a choice of 2 very good transmissions

The one we have here in this car is the 6 speed manual trans
And simply put, it’s great
Your clutch engagement is defined
Your pedal box is spaced well for heel and toe
Your shifter has nice satisfying throws AND you still get the golf ball dimples

The other trans option is the DSG which is also very good - not quite as snappy and dramatic as the N cars’ DCT, but still a very good gearbox

The cool thing, though is tat you can only get a golf R in 2023 with a stick in the US of A - not even in Germany can you get a stick


8:11 - Looks

10:46 - Interior accents

I know we talked about the interior quality not being the same tier as VWs of old, but there are some fun interior accents that make the car feel special

First is the steering wheel - it looks cool, it’s stitched, got loads of buttons
R button
There’s ambient light with a bunch of different colors
The seats look cool and interesting
You’ve got a touch pad on the left of the cluster which makes me feel very iron man for some reason
You get a sunroof which is nice even though it’s not truly pano
Heated and cooled seats and heated steering wheel
And of course your golf ball shifter if you go for the manual car

12:24 - Rear seats

The rear seats aren’t huge, but this is a hatchback, not an SUV - and I will say you still have more room here than in a Kona N

The seats themselves are cool and interesting
You’ve got dedicated climate zone and climate vents
You’ve got heated rear seats, didnt get that in the Tiguan
You’ve got crazy pockets, charges, and cupholders

13:18 - The trunk

There’s not a whole lot to this point, but the trunk is a good size
It has a ski passthrough
And the seats fold 60/40

13:50 - Price/demand

The Golf R is just about 44k which makes it almost exactly the same price as the Type R and more than a Core GR Corolla

But you know who’s not paying anywhere near sticker for their car? Type R and GR buyers

The Golf R has been out for a while, it doesn’t have the ravenous hype and you can actually get it for the proper price

But if you want an AWD spicy hatch something else that might be worth checking out before it’s gone is the MINI Clubman JCW, that thing is a little riot

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14:45 - Outro