[00:00] This is our long-term 2026 Golf R. We've had this car for about nine months and put about 13,000 miles on it.
[00:16] And in that time, we've tried to do as much with this car as humanly possible. We road-tripped it. We've used it as a daily commuter. I've also tried to put this car in the hands of as many of our friends and family as humanly possible so I could get their impressions as well.
[00:29] I'll be walking through its pros and cons as a daily driver. Starting with pros. Big surprise. No shock. This is definitely a cliche. It's pretty refined. It's at least on par with an entry-level Audi product. Compared to its really closest competitors, the Launcher and the GR Corolla and the Honda
[00:45] slash Acura twins, it's more refined than probably all those cars, minus maybe the Integra. It has lower NVH. It's a quieter cabin. It has less boom in it. I think it feels more solid in many ways than both the GR Corolla.
[00:59] and the Elantra, and in some ways even the Civic, it's been basically rattle-free. It has excellent interior storage, big door pockets, the seats are very comfortable, not as good as what you find in the Honda.
[01:11] Those Recaro-like red buckets are phenomenal, though this has a heated and cooled function, specifically the cooling that most of its competitors don't have. They are not particularly well-bolstered for track driving,
[01:24] but I would definitely put them above both the Elantra and definitely the GR Corolla. The rear seats also have their own climate controls and their own climate zones. If you have kids, if you have a dog like I do, you can keep them comfortable and cooler or warmer than you want to be in the front occupants.
[01:39] I know that's a very simple feature, but if you're going to use this as a daily driver, it does have a substantial perk for the quality of life of you and your occupants. The last pro, which is sort of obvious and something I definitely should bring up, is the sub-limit driving that this car is capable of doing.
[01:55] like the 7 tenths, the 8 tenths, the 6 tenths of commutes, in bad weather, in inclement weather, or just when you want to have a little bit of fun, this car feels incredibly nimble and confidence-inspiring in a way that all of its front-wheel drive competitors do not.
[02:08] The torque vector and rear diff in this car makes you feel like an absolute superhero in low-mu conditions. Now, what are the cons of this car? Well, quite frankly and very obviously, it's all
[02:20] the touch controls. I'd learn to live with them, but they're definitely not perfect. The safety suite in this car is a plus and a minus. It sometimes works really well, sometimes it doesn't, and all the piano black in this car is absolutely dreadful. The last two cons of this car is really
[02:38] from a gearbox side of things, only having an automatic gearbox is definitely going to be a deal breaker for some. While it is very fast shifting, it is pretty good on track, is good in spirited driving, sometimes clunky around town.
[02:52] The ride quality as well, while I think it's softer than, again, the GR Corolla and the Elantra, and for how refined this car is and how much you give up in an overall track feel,
[03:04] it isn't that soft. It really suffers with large impacts. If you live in an area that gets a lot of snow, and you can live with the explicit cons of this interior space and the price, you will really, really enjoy this as a daily driver.
[03:17] So with that, let's head in the shop. In the shop with our long-term Golf R, let's talk about what everybody is probably interested in is how many times the thing has broken down.
[03:29] It's funny when you talk to a lot of European refs, their perception is VWs make very reliable cars. I have owned two GTIs in my life, a Mark VI and a Mark 7.5,
[03:42] and both of them were in the shop constantly. This Mark VIII for the most part at least 13 miles has been largely dribble dribble It had an ADAS system failure where the ADAS system in the front bumper had to be replaced
[03:55] and reprogrammed more than once, but past that, it has been faultless. For those who don't know a whole lot about this generation Golf R, let me do a quick update or refresher on this vehicle.
[04:07] And again, we've done a deep dive on this car when it first came out. This car is the latest variant of MQB, which is their front-wheel drive modular platform, versus the Mark VII. It now has a lumen front subframe.
[04:19] The latest electromechanical system. It has a torque vectoring rear disc, when the past was more an on-demand Halbeck style. Effectively, it will take up to 50% of all the torque that comes out of this drivetrain, send it to the rear axle, and then distribute that torque to left or right wheel,
[04:34] depending on drive mode, and will send up to 100% of that torque to the left or right. The drive modes in this car go a long way in changing its character. Being an 8.5, it is now a dual clutch only, so it's taking the steering sensor, the body control module,
[04:48] wheel height, sensors, everything, and looking at what you're doing and effectively trying to move the torque around in the back. It has a drift mode. It has special mode, which is a maximum track with a softer damper setting.
[05:01] It's effectively the Nurburgring mode. There are a variety of ways to change the character of this vehicle. It has an EAA-888 Evo IV. This is their latest global higher output variant of their venerable four-cylinder
[05:16] versus the Mark VII Golf R 7.5. The main difference, other than the fueling system where the diverter valve is and some internal changes, is the turbocharger. It moves away from the ISI turbocharger,
[05:28] which you've seen in basically all of the Golfs for a very long time, to a Continental style. It is apparently a little bit more robust. It's better on thermals. It's a physically larger turbo and faster acting. It now makes somewhere in the 328, 324 horsepower range.
[05:44] Now, from a maintenance side of things, if you're going to own this car, its maintenance intervals are pretty straightforward. It's basically every 10,000 miles a year in oil change, which is a long time for oil changes,
[05:56] particularly because this does not have a huge oil capacity. It's like 5 or 6 quarts. And the majors are every 40,000 miles, which is spark plugs and differential fluid. Now, compared to a SL5 or a GR Corolla,
[06:12] typically VW shops seem to charge more for maintenance, and the big thing for this car is you're going to need to do a water pump. Water pumps are a common late pain point. It's about every 60,000, 70,000 miles.
[06:24] They're not that expensive, but it's something you're going to have to do on this car, which you would not have to do when it's Korean or Japanese rivals. When it comes to consumables, it runs 235s. We have Potenza Sport tires on this car.
[06:38] We've changed them out from the older Potenza design. They're fine. However, this car is incredibly hard on tires, and there's no way to get camber out of the front unless you do control arms, which we plan on doing. When it comes to rotors, they're relatively inexpensive.
[06:52] All things considered, the front's about $400. This car is relatively hard on its consumables, being relatively fast and relatively heavy. basically everybody ends up wanting to either operate the pads which you
[07:04] definitely should do the fluid and potentially either the calipers or the rotors we're planning on doing the rotors themselves and then as far as suspension modifications or suspension parts the dampers on this car about 360 bucks for the front a little cheaper for the rear sooner or later the adaptive
[07:18] dampers will go bad however all of the modifications for chassis carry over from 8 to 8.5, which is a good thing. This car is relatively mod friendly.
[07:30] They are very well supported from the aftermarket side of things with FCP Euro and an enormous forum community that knows every single in and out of this platform VW people are nuts for better or for worse and they will help you if you have
[07:45] problems with this car. So with that, I'm going to take you for a quick drive around Audubon Country Club. As a reminder, this car is completely stock other than a set of Bridgestone Potenza sport tires.
[08:06] And sadly, Mark has abandoned me to film a 1980s Acura Integra around Audubon instead of spending time in his gold car.
[08:18] So I'll do my best to channel his cynicism about all things made in this current year. So let's focus on what's good about this car. As a reminder, I've spent over 10,000 miles on this thing.
[08:30] We've had it for nine months. And as a street car, this thing is excellent. Let's start with the drivetrain. This E888 and this Zool Clutch does a very, very good job of banging out the chip.
[08:44] It takes power pretty much everywhere for a four-cylinder. The dual clutch logic in sort of highway driving and spirited driving is very, very good. And of course, here at the end, we leave it in full automatic. I always keep the line the right gear.
[08:57] However, on track, you can sometimes be blind. I'll be honest, and the other thing I'll bring up is outside of drag racing, I still prefer to start with a stick. Yes, not as fast, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[09:10] But as far as an enjoyable experience versus some of the rivals in this class, I do miss having three pedals. So that's basically a proper response. It's very, very quick now. I think compared to a Type R, a Launcher N, and a GR Corolla,
[09:23] you definitely see higher street speeds. It's really a more powerful car. Now when it comes to chassis tuning, now that I've lived with this thing for a long time on the street, it's definitely surprisingly, sort of on the firmer side,
[09:37] for how sort of wobbly it is on track. Not in rubber ring mode, stopping the car up, but even in full track mode, there's a lot of body lean. It doesn't feel necessarily as composed as the Holy Vitals. And then on the Street, it's more punishing than, honestly,
[09:52] I think it probably should be for how soft it is down here, particularly over really bad relative pavement. That's something that everyone who's driven this car definitely notices. However, perhaps the ride, overall, for climbing,
[10:04] it is quieter than, say, an Acura Tigra Type-R or a Civic Type-R or a Block or a Destiny or a GR Corolla. And I think the body of this car does a better job absorbing some of the NTH of the roads in those cars.
[10:16] It feels almost like a price point above. I know this is sort of a cliché about the Golf R, but it feels more Audi-like than VW-like, which is a good thing. And to be honest, despite featuring this in Autobahn style, this car is really best served on a back-roader than a daily commute.
[10:35] You keep it in those confines, you experience bad weather. weather this car got going all wheel drive system does a very good job allowing you to explore let's call it v7 or 8 touch driving on the street at a very pace that's really entertaining way
[10:51] over on track you start to feel some of the deficiencies of this car despite the stickier tire and again the temper support is not a super sticky tire than the stock vehicle
[11:04] You can tell this car has no front camber, and that's not done in the shop. Outside of changing the control arms, which we're going to do, there's no way to get camber out of this car. It's just sort of wallows in the corner,
[11:16] really hard on the front, compared to those GR Corollas and Cambermoles. And then the rear of this vehicle yeah it rotates particularly if you get into say drift mode or if you do a little bit you do a bunch of throttle but it doesn necessarily feel as natural as some of its other cars in the class you can feel it right now It sort of pops around and it might be turning everything off unlike some of the other cars in this class This taking we can still reach it out My first time on track in our long term or almost six months ago the car called the top which was an exciting bump
[11:51] to try to take while driving in an open track session. The brakes just aren't well. They seem to do a reasonable job in bleeding up speed. You're definitely going to want to probably do lines, and you're definitely going to need to do pads.
[12:04] If you go to an extended session or if you do running in-gear tires, they don't necessarily have the most bite. Every so often there is some kind of knockback, probably from the track or a fountain.
[12:16] The car, I wish, from a track side of things, rotated a little bit more naturally. Because basically the way you rotate it is to lift several steps and get it to the ground.
[12:29] Which, again, it doesn't feel as easy to rotate as some of its other cars in the club. I know I'm basically complaining a lot at this point, but what I'm trying to say is
[12:41] This is all cars, a very fast car, very enjoyable daily. But once you get it on track and you try to explore its limits, it's not really that great to drive.
[12:55] It, however, has the flexibility that none of the other cars last days to have. All right, let's wrap up this video.
[13:08] As I've said more than once in this video, this is probably my favorite long-termer we've ever had because it does nearly everything well. And if you can live within the confines of what the Golf R is from a packaging side of things, the fact that it's automatic only, and there are some other quirks that you'll have to deal with,
[13:24] this is a very, very good daily driver. It's refined. It's Audi-like in its refinement. It's relatively quiet for a hatchback. Given what it's trying to do on a back road, on a racetrack, it rides pretty well.
[13:36] It gets a great fuel economy, and it's just very, very easy to live with. And honestly, for most people, what it does well is that daily commute. It's refined when it needs to be. It's fun on a back road. It's fun on an on-ramp.
[13:49] And it gives you the all-weather capability and fun that is lacking from, honestly, its two closest rivals, at least in my mind, the Civic Type R and the Launcher N. And yes, you're going to bring it to GR Corolla.
[14:01] Don't forget, I own one of those cars, and I did not end up enjoying it very much. While that car is potentially more natural to drive on track, the GR Corolla is just a worse car pretty much everywhere else. That's where this thing is a very, very good choice
[14:16] if you're not looking to modify something. You just want an easy mode, particularly if you live in a bad weather climate. Now, what we're going to be doing in the future is trying to demonstrate how to slightly improve this car with very, very simple modifications to help with FCP Euro,
[14:31] alignment, sway bar, brake pads, brake lines, rotors, just to get this car to be a little bit more confidence-inspiring on track, a little easier on its consumables itself, just more engaging to drive. And then to end this series out, FCP Euro's
[14:44] going to be setting up their shop cars. So if you want to spend unlimited money on your Golf R and absolutely max that thing out with money and mods, we'll show you, much like what we did in the GR Corolla, what's possible with this car. So
[14:56] with that, thanks for watching. Hope to see you again soon. Stay on earth with the sea