Golf R 7/7.5 in 2024

[FifthGear]

Hello PH

I have a budget of £12K to buy my first “nice” car, I want a combo of performance without costing a lot to run so looking at a Golf R (or it’s S3 TT counterparts etc). The 7.5 seems nearer £20K which is definitely out of budget. As far as the power difference wouldn’t make a difference to me as above this would be my first quick car. Don’t want a GTI would have to be an R or awd Audi. I know my budget is at the lower range so can’t be too picky with spec I bet but i’d keep the car at least 3 years so feel like getting a manual for example might grow old. Plus the pre facelift interiors on them look dated though I like the TT inside. Part of me feels it’s a lot of money for cars nearly 10 years old and not sure if the value is good. And as above if it’s a poverty spec then I don’t know if i’ll be underwhelmed.



I do sub 10K miles maybe even half that but when I get a nicer car i’m intending to make use of it.

Can I buy a decent condition awd VAG 2.0T car for my budget? Would be open to other makes but I want awd and think the equivalent cars are newer so 20K+

Edited by FifthGear on Tuesday 28th May 13:39

Edited by FifthGear on Tuesday 28th May 13:45

[FifthGear]

Grumbler said:

Was in a similar situation recently. For your budget you can get a 2015 Golf R with about 60k miles. That’d be a nice car.

Chris_91 said:

You can get them cheap if you know where to look i.e. not in the classifieds.

Also very easy to modernise the interior e.g. I fitted a screen out of a Mk7.5 into my Mk7 (8" I think, there's also a 9.2" unit). Only cost me £90 on eBay. With that and the leather seats I wouldn't say mine looks outdated.

There's also the virtual dash but these don't offer much over the analogue clocks.

Also very important - if you test drive one check for a coolant smell after taking it for a drive. Worth a look in the boot for any bottles of coolant. It leaks around the water pump/thermostat housing and is £££ to sort - make sure you get VW extended warranty.

Edited by Chris_91 on Tuesday 28th May 16:57

Other than the classifieds i’ve been checking facebook and gumtree but a lot of them look very rough or have dubious owners. I’ve heard of the thermostat issue so is the warranty something you can buy after for privately sold cars? Would they cover anything like DSG, i think it would be compromising if I got a manual since I want an “upgrade” so to speak but nervous in case it blew up.

I do like the virtual cockpit but the facelift golf s3 are still out of reach I think, TT had it from the start so i’d be open to that too. Have also seen some sub 10K Audi S1 which to be honest I don’t like the A1 nor that size of car but if I got better value? with one of them maybe i’d go for it.

[FifthGear]

pb8g09 said:

FifthGear said:

Other than the classifieds i’ve been checking facebook and gumtree but a lot of them look very rough or have dubious owners. I’ve heard of the thermostat issue so is the warranty something you can buy after for privately sold cars? Would they cover anything like DSG, i think it would be compromising if I got a manual since I want an “upgrade” so to speak but nervous in case it blew up.

I do like the virtual cockpit but the facelift golf s3 are still out of reach I think, TT had it from the start so i’d be open to that too. Have also seen some sub 10K Audi S1 which to be honest I don’t like the A1 nor that size of car but if I got better value? with one of them maybe i’d go for it.

Audi S1 is a blast and I regret selling mine. It feels faster than the stats say and it’s definitely not boring to drive like many other of these VAG offerings.

I’m looking into them, only thing putting me off is it doesn’t seem much of a difference price wise vs golf or s3. Obviously it’s a different sort of drive but I feel like if DSG and better platform is only a couple grand more then might aswell go for that, cause the S1 around my budget are similar age and miles 2015 60K plus. Just want to get the best car for my money really

Edited by FifthGear on Wednesday 29th May 10:25

[FifthGear]

ZX10R NIN said:

AWD but only 211bhp, these are a A250 (that are listed below, these also have a nicer interior) in all but the skin:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405270...

S4:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301233...

A7:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405250...

R36:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405099...

Golf R:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403147...

CLA250 AMG Engineered:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405039...

A250:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202311033...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202401195...

Superb 280 Sportline:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202308010...

I've been lurking for years but always like seeing your lists of suggestions!

I'm in my 20s and sticking to four pot turbos for insurance purposes though pretty much anything is minimum four figures anyway. Plus anything meatier would be overkill. Practicality wise I know the Octavia is the go to alternative for the golf but I really don't need any space at all.

The Infiniti looks smart and I'd consider it but I'd want it cheaper than my budget to be honest, there's a couple local but all diesel or the 1.6T.
The A and CLA class are obviously priced more for the same thing, interestingly for not much more i've seen the 45 AMG variants advertised. But I hear the maintenance on them is more inline with a sports car?
The Golf Rs in this bracket do look a bit tired, the manuals are about for around 10K but after some thinking as I'd want this car to "feel" modern and last me a while I think the auto is what i'm after. Something like a 2.0 TFSI DSG TT appeals as far as being an awd gti or baby s3 with the virtual cockpit that the golf didn't get for a few years. I don't know if it's poor (or good?) value to buy something without the GTI/R badge or could potentially be a bargain.

On that note I thought of sacrificing the awd for a better condition/newer gti or leon cupra but it would be compromising and I rather just do it right first time.

Edited by FifthGear on Friday 7th June 15:00

Edited by FifthGear on Friday 7th June 15:01

[FifthGear]

ZX10R NIN said:

FifthGear said:

I've been lurking for years but always like seeing your lists of suggestions!

I'm in my 20s and sticking to four pot turbos for insurance purposes though pretty much anything is minimum four figures anyway. Plus anything meatier would be overkill. Practicality wise I know the Octavia is the go to alternative for the golf but I really don't need any space at all.

The Infiniti looks smart and I'd consider it but I'd want it cheaper than my budget to be honest, there's a couple local but all diesel or the 1.6T.
The A and CLA class are obviously priced more for the same thing, interestingly for not much more i've seen the 45 AMG variants advertised. But I hear the maintenance on them is more inline with a sports car?
The Golf Rs in this bracket do look a bit tired, the manuals are about for around 10K but after some thinking as I'd want this car to "feel" modern and last me a while I think the auto is what i'm after. Something like a 2.0 TFSI DSG TT appeals as far as being an awd gti or baby s3 with the virtual cockpit that the golf didn't get for a few years. I don't know if it's poor (or good?) value to buy something without the GTI/R badge or could potentially be a bargain.

On that note I thought of sacrificing the awd for a better condition/newer gti or leon cupra but it would be compromising and I rather just do it right first time.

You can get the Q30 Sport for less but that particular one was AWD & loaded with (pano roof/boseAMG Seats etc) spec, so when you compare it to other options it's actually a very good deal & ticks all of your boxes.

Get the car you want, if you want AWD then get it, buy on condition do your checks & make sure YOU'RE happy with what you buy.

I’ve been keeping an eye on S3 Golf R groups on facebook some DSG have came up for circa £12K. Also in the groups are stories of how people had engine or gearbox failure which would be catastrophic £££. This would be my newest and most complex car idea of it sh*tting itself without warning is a bit scary. I know people say that most warrantys are worthless and will omit numerous things, maybe better to keep a couple grand by for it instead. Though in the case of DSG going or similar seems it would be at least like £3000

[FifthGear]

I was specifically not looking for bmws as all the awd options are over my budget plus wouldn’t want a 4 pot one. However i’ve seen some m235i around my budget, which on paper to me feels like more car for the money vs the hot hatches? Definitely prefer the 2 or even 3/4 bodyshape compared to 1 series. However my mostly urban usage won’t get much use or economy out of the 6 cylinder think it’d be wasted. Plus I definitely wouldn’t be able to exploit the performance in rwd cars.

But if there wasn’t much in it running cost wise from a golf r vs a 435i for example feels like latter is more car to me.

[FifthGear]

Doesn’t take long after searching for S3 for Japan Imported cars to show up. Usually lower mileage 60K miles 100KM got better spec and meant to be clean underneath. I think landed I could get one for around 12 or 13K through an agent but happy to be corrected on this? I obviously haven’t done it before so don’t think doing it on my own is sensible. I’ve seen mention of insurance but quotes i’ve checked show minimal or slightly less with import.

Thing is if I chose to go that route it’d be probably least 3 months by time it’s landed and registered tested etc. I’m thinking it could be a viable option to at least get a better condition car than the ones largely in my price bracket. But obviously I rather buy a car sooner than later. I see plenty of JDM 8P S3 for sale as I guess over 10 year old car don’t need IVA test. I looked at those a while ago but thought they’d be tired now and if the new car is not much more then that would be better option.

Edited by FifthGear on Sunday 30th June 22:32

[FifthGear]

Tony_T said:

I'm looking at doing the same thing but sticking to 2013/2014 to avoid the IVA test (although not really looked into how much of hassle this would be). Think the pound is pretty good against the Yen at the moment too.

Logistically for me I stay other end of the country from the ports so I do need to rely on someone to take care of it for me. But I think if you had an idea of what to do it wouldn’t be that complicated.

What websites do you look on, i’ve came across JDMAW. I spoke to someone who says he runs an import site says a sportback with 50K miles would be around £12K or Saloon couple grand more. As far as options I wouldn’t ever use magride and just something else to go wrong for me, only thing I’m after is the upgraded sound system a nice colour would be a bonus

[FifthGear]

blueovercream said:

I may have missed this but I presume there's a specific reason you want AWD, however, I'd really recommend a Mk 7 GTI. I put winter tyres on mine and it's great. Living in Scotland they get put to good use.

For your budget you'll get a bigger choice of cars in better condition, and the interior, with tartan seats, looks great vs the R which I think looks a bit bland. I'd guess a GTI might also be cheaper to insure.

Various reviews comment on the GTI being a better drive dynamically and while I've not driven an R, I can't imagine I'd use or really notice the slight performance advantage on public roads.

I live there too and aware that good tyres>awd. For my use case it doesn’t really need to be an interesting drive so would sacrifice the playfulness of the GTI.

I’ve only ever drove fwd or rwd and wanting to try awd this time of course I know it comes at a cost. I know a GTI or similar is better value but AWD is a big want for me this time after a spin in an A45 a couple year ago

Edited by FifthGear on Tuesday 2nd July 18:43

Edited by FifthGear on Tuesday 2nd July 18:45

[FifthGear]

So in contrary to above, without really thinking much into it I placed a bid (on a binding platform) on a 2018 Manual GTI 7.5 don’t think it has any options excluding the white paint lol.

Think I just got excited in the moment to be honest and ideally i’d not go through with it, not so much because it’s a bad car more it wasn’t exactly i’m after and i’ve spent more now. I can probably pay the sum then get it relisted but will be an expensive lesson nonetheless. It’s sub 50K mileage but looks like the thermostat going to need done.

By time it’s delivered will cost me about £15K definitely was a rash decision but facelift and lower mileage caught my eye. Anyone here to tell me how i’ve done?

Edited by FifthGear on Wednesday 3rd July 14:24

Edited by FifthGear on Wednesday 3rd July 14:25