Gone Golfing
 

After a week of negotiating between six different dealerships from Richmond to DC, I was able to get one to agree to my terms after a fun text battle between the finalists.

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I'll unwrap the details tomorrow when I go to pick it up.

Hmmm focus rs?

nice :)

i thought so at first too, but i don't think ford packages their cars like this. I know Audi vehicles come like this, but didn't think they had a sporty hatch at the moment.

It's a Golf R?

Tons of pictures before the reveal as I was able to unwrap the car before the PDI process:
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These are starting to give it away, so i'll make it easier:

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Now you know, here's one last unwrapping photo:

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After the PDI was completed, I took a photo of the amount of miles on the car:

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Full reveal:

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(No bumpers were harmed in the mounting of the front plate)

2019 Golf R w/ DSG and the 19" split 5-spoke gloss black alloy wheels package in Lapiz Blue (R's heritage color)

This comes with the Digital Cockpit Dash Display, Dynamic Chassis Control, the updated 7-speed DSG, with full Safety Assist functionality- Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Keep Assist, Park Pilot, Pedestrian Detection (All of which can be disabled).

I also opted for the full maintenance plans to save some money out of pocket later. This covers all the oil changes and regular maintenance along with brake rotors, pads, hoses, belts, etc. It's all done through VW so that I can take the car to any VW dealer and be covered. Since I used to work at VWoA, I've already asked about getting some parts from Germany to add the R Performance Pack to it too.

Purpose of this move:
Reduce my car expenditures from 2 cars into 1 thats covered by warranty and isn't inconvenient to drive like the ZL1. Have a better commuter car for the twice a week trips from Richmond to DC for work or the twice a month trips to Raleigh from Richmond. Use active safety features to keep the car moving through traffic and highway driving to lessen fatigue. Have bumper to bumper warranty and maintenance coverage for 6 years, 72k miles.

As a performance platform:
0-60 in 4.6 seconds, traps around 103-104 mph. Can be outdone by a Type R or Focus RS but offers huge tuning potential and large aftermarket support (APR, Bilstein, StopTech, etc.) I won't be modifying this one much (sort of like the ZL1) because I'd like to keep the warranty going for awhile.

My plans: DC-area autocross and a few HPDEs would be nice. Definitely want to go down to the Tail of the Dragon (surrounding roads especially) too. I'm envisioning this car as being the best of both worlds for what I'd like to do, year-round. Frankly, this is the car I should have gotten in the very beginning when I sold off the GTI and 911. I wasn't a huge fan of it's styling at the time, but the refresh in 2018 gave the R a more aggressive look which is more of what I like.

After having two 6th gen Camaros, this is a huge change. There is noticeable throttle lag while the turbo spools up, which I will need to learn to downshift to mitigate. I am already missing having a manual transmission, but the manual trans for the car is severely limited by a poor clutch and for a commuter, the DSG just made more sense.

I can suddenly park a car again...nice benefit to going to something I can see out of :lol: The steering and adaptive suspension are a similar feel around town to the Camaro, although I think the Camaro was definitely stiffer in Sport/Track mode with it's adaptive dampers. Body motions are controlled better in the R for street driving.

In some ways, this feels like I'm coming home a little bit. It's not big, bulky, awkward to get into or hard to see out of. I don't actively avoid trying to park the car in garages or on the street. Plus, the fuel economy is hilariously better, despite what the sticker says. The stereo/infotainment/technology is clearly much better too.

More to come!

VW recently changed over to this method as well to better protect the paint and windows from damage during the transport. They now have to put the car on a lift to remove the wrapping as its secured under the car.

I knew someone would figure it out before I could post. :)

Doing PPF to protect that beautiful blue?

Think I'm going with ceramic after a professional detail...the orange peel on this car is actually a lot worse than I've seen before on a new car. That'll need correction, then ceramic to bring it home.

PPF would provide some additional protection over ceramic?

This car is definitely on my short list. Especially with VW's new warranty. Did you test drive anything else to compare it to?

Great pick up! Never thought they would, but these cars have been a serious search candidate for me. How is the cargo space?

Yes, ceramic doesn't do anything for rock chips, just swirls and small scratches and such.

PPF has a little bit of orange peel to it, but smoother paint helps minimize it. Ceramic over the PPF for best protection.

Awesome! It's hard to go wrong with this kind of warranty.

I test drove the GTI and as much as I love that car, the front end weight bias was a bit too obvious when I leaned into it more.

I started out with a Rabbit since I love how they look, then moved up to an Autobahn to see safety and stereo features. At that point, decided to just pay the extra cash for the R and not settle since I remember when I last had a GTI, how much I wanted an R.


Beyond that, I didn't test drive anything else other than an M2, here's why:
-Worked for VW, have some brand loyalty
-Civic Type R looks horrendous to me, can't get over the garish interior either
-Focus RS has had a lot of quality issues and was discontinued...I don't really trust used turbo cars.
-Subaru has the same old, same old that I had over 10 years ago.
-Had an EVO, wouldn't buy one used...not a very good car despite being performance incredible.
-Looked at the M2, but didn't like the test drive: Shifter was wonky/rubbery, clutch didn't match the long shifter throw, ride quality was very poor, cost was too high for what it is. The engine was a gem though haha
-Considered a GT350 but wanted something more DD friendly....it's probably better than the ZL1 but similar enough that it would have been a hard sell as a family car.
-Looked at SUVs but I'm just not there yet...and they're physically too large for me to deal with as a smaller guy.

Easy to blend the DD need with another performance coupe since we don't have kids, and I had to come back to Earth a few times. (trying to justify a used 911 with a PDK for a DD for example). Golf R was it. The refresh made a large difference to the car inside and out.

Thank you!

It continues to amaze me how flexible it can be as an all in one car. The interior is fantastic, the ride is great, but then you drop it into Race mode (more on that in a sec) and it becomes your favorite boost buggy. It's a split personality car to an extent....it never gets rough around the edges or beat you up.

Cargo space is the same as the last gen Tiguan. 57 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down. With the seats up, it can still fit a ton of stuff due to the height of the "trunk". I'm looking forward to using it with my dog, etc.

This sounds expensive and over my head as a DIY :lol: First mod!:lol:

The R comes with four preset modes: Eco, Comfort, Normal, and Race. There is a fifth mode, however, called Custom.

This is where you get to be your own engineer:

Here are the settings I've decided on after putting the car around it's paces so far:
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Comfort mode for the suspension seems to match the spring rate the best...Race mode seems overdamped and too many body motions for no reason, IMO.

Great looking R!! Love that color. One day I hope to upgrade my GTI to an R. Congratulations!!

Thank you!!

I LOVE the GTI...do you have a journal on here?

I do not as I thought the forum was dead but it seems to keep going because of the build threads. I guess all the new folks use social media now which I don't have.

I have thought about starting one though as now I can't seem to stop wanting more power out of it :). I am stage 1+ now with stage 2 on standby. K04 will be in the future as well. I am loving the Euro life so far. I have always wanted a GTI since high school but have always been scared of the VW reliability rumors which seem to be more from lack of maintenance and ignorance of things that are now known trouble parts like the timing chain tensioner. I don't expect it to be like my Honda's as far as reliability but the smiles per gallon is awesome and it flies under the radar so well.

The Golf R is gorgeous car and very understated which makes it even better IMO.

Yeah, the build threads and like six people are what keep me coming back here :)

Such a fun car, the MK6 was one of my favorites when I had one (Drivers Edition). I still miss the plaid and those seatbelts.

You should definitely do a journal. The Euro life is a lot of fun!

It's only because I have a MK7 so I know from the door and bumper instantly. I got out of my evo to get into the GTI and sometimes I wish I got an R but then I remember the payment and I was like eh...that's okay. Great choice man. VW knocked it out of the park with the infotainment system as mine is somewhat similar but not as many bells and whistles.

Haha, knew it was a new Golf R by the black Pretorias and a few other details. It looks awesome! I'd imagine it's going to be an incredible car for everything you want to do!

:cool::cool::cool:

Thank you! Yeah, the digital dash and display with the new seats in the refresh really make it feel high end inside. I'm honestly not just happy/excited to have this car, i'm also content. That's a rare feeling with a new car for me.

One thing about the 2019's is that the Performance Monitor is missing. VW is aware of it and working on a software fix. I've asked one of the guys thats involved in that team to also correct the boost pressure readout to not include ambient so that the PSI shown is more accurate to what boost gauges read. We'll see if that gets through the teams.

Thank you so much! I waited awhile just to get one with the Black Prets. Was a deal breaker :)

So this is cool: VW put a particulate filter on the exhaust of their gasoline models as well. Unintended side effect of this has been that the exhaust tips are still chrome and shinny after 1k miles of varied driving during break in.

What!?! I want a particulate filter too please! That’s a nice benefit, I was considering painting my tips blackbut they look so nice when they are shinny.

I could be wrong after more forum searching...it's possible US cars don't get this filter after all. I'd need to look under the car.

So I've done some cosmetic mod ordering based off of the Performance Pack that Europe offers for the Golf R:

https://www.evo.co.uk/volkswagen/190...kswagen-golf-r

So far I've gotten the silver brake caliper logo plates and ordered the rear lip spoiler.
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The rear lip spoiler is the same one offered on the Rabbit GTI here in the U.S. but hard to get ahold of right now state-side. I like the nice subtle touch to the rear of the car:
https://cdn1.evo.co.uk/sites/evo/fil...?itok=w2gi6wIo

The front brake rotors and F+R pads included in this Pack are from the ClubSport S GTI. The rear rotors stay the same. The article describes their benefit. I may do those too. That would leave me with just the Akrapovic axle-back and the raised speed limiter as the missing elements from that Euro-only option list. A tune fixes the speed limiter and I could order the Akrapovic but it's awfully expensive.

The good news is that the R has been fantastic to drive and I'm really enjoying not having to worry/stay conscious about the weather conditions, parking lot entrances, parking in general, traction available on the road surface, the power itself at WOT, traffic, and size like I did with the ZL1. Much less anxiety to take the R out for a fun drive, even if it is markedly slower all around.

That spoiler looks great!

You've described a lot of reasons for me to sell the GT350 :) I pretty much agree with all of it, it's just much easier to have an easier car to drive every day. Not that either of our cars were horrible, but just minor things add up overtime.

Thank you! It's going to be very subtle which matches the car well. Gloss black matches the factory aero treatments too.

Yup, exactly :)

Plus, my wife grew to hate the ZL1 after the way GM treated me. We were going to get her a new Blazer, but after that fiasco...

Still grinds my gears. $6k was easily covered with my vehicle purchases. What a SH1T company.

Back to the R...

Spoiler looks dope. I saw so many of these when I was in England last week, mostly driven by dudes 40+

:lol:

Thanks

Is Dave 40+? :-p

:lol: That’s a few years away still

Rear Spoiler finally shipped yesterday. I ordered it on 5/22. :)

Currently looking at chassis braces:
https://www.ecodetuning.com/EC0111-0...sis-brace.html

There's definite movement in the chassis in this car...not as stiff of a platform as the Alpha was by any means.

Does the rear strut bar actually do anything?

I believe so...if you look at the Clubsport S model, VW included one on a car they wanted to be lightweight (hence use of FWD and not AWD).

Going through chassis motions, you can hear the backseat shudder against the trunk cover lid for the hatch. Nothing awful but shouldn't be there, IMO.

Does this one do anything? Reviews seem positive but there are several different braces on the market (it's nice to have a global car again - options!).

The original VW bar gets rid of the backseats entirely(because race car), some aftermarket require drilling new holes (nope), some don't and are $$, another basically blocks off the back of the rear seats (nope), and then there's this one.

Mentally building this car has been fun. There seems to be a conflict with adding weight (braces and swaybars) and removing it (brake options and wheels).