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

[dwnshft]

Special thanks to our patrons! Would you take a VW GTI or Golf R?

[cyril]

Says the infotainment isn't as bad as people say. Then goes into a rant about it. I've owned my r for 14k miles and never touched the sliders. The shortcuts literally solve everything. Live with it and it's fine. It's definitely the best hatch on the market 😊

[drhds]

I’ve owned a 22 DSG Golf R for a year now and love the car. I have some corrections for the reviewer. All capacitive buttons on steering wheel and infotainment touch screen work fine with gloves on. In addition to being able to swipe controls they can also be pressed or tapped. Many of the steering wheel buttons have two functions when pressed quickly or firmly such as cruise control speed will increment by 1 mph when quickly pressed but by 5 mph when firmly pressed. R button on steering wheel can be firmly pressed to go straight to Race mode but quickly tapped to rotate through all drive modes. Infotainment and climate controls have many settings to automatically enable seat heat or ventilation and steering wheel heater automatically based on temperature. Voice can also be used to change climate temperature and fan. I have no complaints about VW integrating all climate controls into the screen and appreciate all of the customization options that reviews seem to never mention but understand that there is a little learning curve.

The car reviewed here appears to be a 2022 as the 23 has a piano black center console surround around the gear shift. Thanks for the review.

[rey_de_marte]

Coming from a person who owns a mk8 golf r off you can just tap the slider vs swiping and as well as the heated and ventilated seats, it’s always on the screen so you can tap it vs going through the climate control options

[chrispereira]

You can quick send the heat or cold by holding down your finger on one side. Hold for 3 seconds on the red goes to high heat, blue goes to coolest setting. Worked for VW for a while it’s easy to use once you know what your doing read the OM really helps

[DwainDwight]

Have one. love it. forget most of the useless tech. and drive it. that's what I do. quick, nimble, fun to throw around. practical (it's my daily & family car).

[GenSparks]

I test drove a mk8 gti sliders were fine nothing dangerous in there I don't understand all the hate for the golf R

[yusufibrahim]

U can press instead of slide on ever slider and it will still work lol. Also for the climate u can just tap and hold the red and it will jump to Hi or vice versa for LO

[shaglioni]

Thuh Doug made some helpful comments that you did not know about when making some of your comments.

1. With the manual, it comes with 280 lbs of torque, and even with the DSG it comes with 295 lbs of torque. You're mentioning old data points from when it initially launched in the US.
2. Not just the U.S. market can get the manual R, but also in Canada.
3. Most dealerships have a markup on the Golf R's nationwide. There are some msrp dealers out there but they are few and far in between. Prices can range anywhere from msrp to 30k over msrp. A lot of phone calls need to be made to find the msrp dealerships, and most likely one will need to travel a bit to get to them.

[Nolittlesmirks]

You don’t have to slide the temperature control to raise and lower the temperature. All you have to do is touch the button up or down to get to the temperature.

[RickGTI]

Being old school, it amazes me that electronic controls are of such an issue. My 2019 GTI, with switches, and knobs is going to be my ride for a long time. Great video, thanks. RickGTI….. 🌴

[ericcarson]

I have mixed feelings on the blue stripe. It sends the message that it is an electric or hybrid. I love the big cross-drilled brakes, the thick steering wheel, and that rear wing. I would like to see VW roll out the spektrum program for the R.

[WaveManMike]

0:45 slide your finger slower and it should fix that issue.

[murgero]

@2:00 As a driver of more than 40 years, I can certainly agree with the "reckless and dangerous" commend here. Those stupid "touch" buttons are the absolute worst for safety. I find myself removing my eyes from the road to make adjustments to settings, or select something more often than not. Having actual real buttons was much safer, because we could use them without looking.

[fconway]

The US is not the only place that gets the manual Golf R. You can order one in Canada.

[Xmeromotu]

Increasing the temperature setting of the climate controls does NOT warm the cabin more quickly! Why doesn’t everyone know this already? Set it at a temp in which you are comfortable and don’t touch it again.

[surfrat]

I own and love a 2016 GTI, started eyeballing the new Golf R. Great car and all, but the elimination of the control knobs makes it a hard pass for me.

[alottalogic]

Besides the "gestures" VW truly wanted people to use the voice commands to do everything, as I noticed during a test drive of a golf R, I could get climit to go where I wanted it to as well as set my radio volume

[CarltonYoung]

The interior of the GTI with the plaid seats has more personality than the cold R interior. If there was a 4 Motion GTI, I would buy it. My 2003 GTI was my favorite car I have ever owned.

[zoneapex]

almost same layout as my 08 R32, similar materials and design other than lighting and capacity buttons.

the golf r was always designed with the dsg in mind. the manual is not up to par lol