Edition 30 vs R32
Discussion
I’m still trying to hunt down the illusive non rusty, low miles, good history, non modded 3 door grey/red edition 30 however I’ve had a passing glance at a Mk5 R32 which generally come up unmodified and many with sub 100k miles. The full leather interior in some is questionable, looking like a well used old leather suite but generally the cars seem to appear to hold up well.
Obviously they are quite different beasts and no doubt a different drive
Has anyone been down this route and can offer any constructive advice.
It seems with both I’m likely to have to spend on wings and a paint if not already done, for some reason the headlining seems to suffer from a sagging problem and I can’t get to the bottom of how much of an easy fix that is
I’m guessing mechanically the R32 has the potential to throw up a number of transmission problems if not maintained
Obviously they are quite different beasts and no doubt a different drive
Has anyone been down this route and can offer any constructive advice.
It seems with both I’m likely to have to spend on wings and a paint if not already done, for some reason the headlining seems to suffer from a sagging problem and I can’t get to the bottom of how much of an easy fix that is
I’m guessing mechanically the R32 has the potential to throw up a number of transmission problems if not maintained
I had an R32 DSG a cou-le of years ago for nearly 20k miles. Thread here if you fancy looking at my detailing hobby:
https://www.detailingworld.co.uk/threads/vw-r32-mk...
Are you looking at a DSG? I believe they can be problematic. Mine had had the mechatronic unit replaced by VW under the previous ownership.
I loved the car, the noise, even as standard is sublime, the drive and torque availability was excellent, it would be in 6th gear quite happily at 30 mph and I regularly returned 30_36mpg. When pressing on, it was quick but not too quick for the roads, you could happily rev it out in a couple of gears without being in licence loosing territory and the throttle blip on downshift from the DSG was great too.
You’re quite right about wings if they’re not already taken care of. I believe the wings come painted from VW though.
Headlining, that may just be able to be adhered again with some spray adhesive perhaps? I imagine you’d want to remove it and perhaps at that point a retrim is not a terrible option?
All the best, a nice ED30 is a lovely thing, with potential for far better performance if that’s your thing, but I found the R32 really had a soul.
https://www.detailingworld.co.uk/threads/vw-r32-mk...
Are you looking at a DSG? I believe they can be problematic. Mine had had the mechatronic unit replaced by VW under the previous ownership.
I loved the car, the noise, even as standard is sublime, the drive and torque availability was excellent, it would be in 6th gear quite happily at 30 mph and I regularly returned 30_36mpg. When pressing on, it was quick but not too quick for the roads, you could happily rev it out in a couple of gears without being in licence loosing territory and the throttle blip on downshift from the DSG was great too.
You’re quite right about wings if they’re not already taken care of. I believe the wings come painted from VW though.
Headlining, that may just be able to be adhered again with some spray adhesive perhaps? I imagine you’d want to remove it and perhaps at that point a retrim is not a terrible option?
All the best, a nice ED30 is a lovely thing, with potential for far better performance if that’s your thing, but I found the R32 really had a soul.
Muska_ said:
I had an R32 DSG a cou-le of years ago for nearly 20k miles. Thread here if you fancy looking at my detailing hobby:
https://www.detailingworld.co.uk/threads/vw-r32-mk...
Are you looking at a DSG? I believe they can be problematic. Mine had had the mechatronic unit replaced by VW under the previous ownership.
I loved the car, the noise, even as standard is sublime, the drive and torque availability was excellent, it would be in 6th gear quite happily at 30 mph and I regularly returned 30_36mpg. When pressing on, it was quick but not too quick for the roads, you could happily rev it out in a couple of gears without being in licence loosing territory and the throttle blip on downshift from the DSG was great too.
You’re quite right about wings if they’re not already taken care of. I believe the wings come painted from VW though.
Headlining, that may just be able to be adhered again with some spray adhesive perhaps? I imagine you’d want to remove it and perhaps at that point a retrim is not a terrible option?
All the best, a nice ED30 is a lovely thing, with potential for far better performance if that’s your thing, but I found the R32 really had a soul.
Thanks for that and I will have a look at your link. https://www.detailingworld.co.uk/threads/vw-r32-mk...
Are you looking at a DSG? I believe they can be problematic. Mine had had the mechatronic unit replaced by VW under the previous ownership.
I loved the car, the noise, even as standard is sublime, the drive and torque availability was excellent, it would be in 6th gear quite happily at 30 mph and I regularly returned 30_36mpg. When pressing on, it was quick but not too quick for the roads, you could happily rev it out in a couple of gears without being in licence loosing territory and the throttle blip on downshift from the DSG was great too.
You’re quite right about wings if they’re not already taken care of. I believe the wings come painted from VW though.
Headlining, that may just be able to be adhered again with some spray adhesive perhaps? I imagine you’d want to remove it and perhaps at that point a retrim is not a terrible option?
All the best, a nice ED30 is a lovely thing, with potential for far better performance if that’s your thing, but I found the R32 really had a soul.
I have a Mk7.5 Gti TCR which in all honesty I have detailed that much I’m reluctant to use it. I’ve always liked the idea of the R32 but always wondered how they are to live with maintenance wise. I’m just wondering whether I’m more likely to get the sort of car I’m wanting in an R32
Had a standard MY08 manual mk 5 gti and did 60k miles in 3 years, and 3 mk 5 R32s 1 dsg and on 2nd manual. 2 x MY09 and 1 x MY58. Prob done 50k combined miles in all 3 R32s.
How are you intending to use the car, daily or weekend, town driving or motorway A roads? Found dsg brilliant in traffic but prefer manuals and more reliable at higher mileages. Standard gti was a great car, very reliable but a bit boring. Suspect Ed 30 would improve the latter and they do tune well, but you'd end up with something similar to what you have.
R32s a little more complex, plenty fast enough, don't believe the old heavy understeer nonsense, if you get one with decent tyres and fresh suspension and bushes, they're still nimble. Fantastic noise. Tax a bit hard to swallow. Great mtorway cruiser and fun on A roads. Standard brakes good. Sure footed in wet. Headliner sagging is £400 for pro to do it or if you are handy it can be done DIY but have to track down right colour headliner which I don't think vw suppy anymore.
Most front wings have been replaced by now, couple hundred per wing for part, painted, plus bit on top for blending into the doors. All will be outside 12 year vw corrosion warranty now. Would suggest trying both.
How are you intending to use the car, daily or weekend, town driving or motorway A roads? Found dsg brilliant in traffic but prefer manuals and more reliable at higher mileages. Standard gti was a great car, very reliable but a bit boring. Suspect Ed 30 would improve the latter and they do tune well, but you'd end up with something similar to what you have.
R32s a little more complex, plenty fast enough, don't believe the old heavy understeer nonsense, if you get one with decent tyres and fresh suspension and bushes, they're still nimble. Fantastic noise. Tax a bit hard to swallow. Great mtorway cruiser and fun on A roads. Standard brakes good. Sure footed in wet. Headliner sagging is £400 for pro to do it or if you are handy it can be done DIY but have to track down right colour headliner which I don't think vw suppy anymore.
Most front wings have been replaced by now, couple hundred per wing for part, painted, plus bit on top for blending into the doors. All will be outside 12 year vw corrosion warranty now. Would suggest trying both.
Depends what you want I think. Personally I see the R32 as more of a “GT” style hatch than the GTi/Ed30. That’s not intended to disrespect the R32 in any way!
We went for an Ed30 as it’s a second car for some fun and occasional track use. Whilst looking standard it is around 380bhp now, which would also have been much more costly to achieve in an R32. I did want a manual though.
I wouldn’t necessarily look past a slightly engine modded Ed30 - they were so detuned from the factory so as to not step on the R32’s toes, that 300bhp is easily obtainable with a simple remap. Putting them back to standard would be relatively easy even for anything up to a stage 2+ car like mine. If you found one that was perfect otherwise it’s worth bearing in mind.
Ours is on 72k and I’ve recently had new wings. Headliner is also starting to sag a little around the overhead console so will need sorting shortly. Unfortunately it is a complete rip and replace as it’s the foam back that disintegrates, not just failing adhesive.
Edit - I have been quoted ~£500 for a full headliner retrim. You can pick complete headliners up off eBay for a full swap, but it will go the same way eventually
In your shoes having the TCR I’d probably look at the R32 for something a tad different
We went for an Ed30 as it’s a second car for some fun and occasional track use. Whilst looking standard it is around 380bhp now, which would also have been much more costly to achieve in an R32. I did want a manual though.
I wouldn’t necessarily look past a slightly engine modded Ed30 - they were so detuned from the factory so as to not step on the R32’s toes, that 300bhp is easily obtainable with a simple remap. Putting them back to standard would be relatively easy even for anything up to a stage 2+ car like mine. If you found one that was perfect otherwise it’s worth bearing in mind.
Ours is on 72k and I’ve recently had new wings. Headliner is also starting to sag a little around the overhead console so will need sorting shortly. Unfortunately it is a complete rip and replace as it’s the foam back that disintegrates, not just failing adhesive.
Edit - I have been quoted ~£500 for a full headliner retrim. You can pick complete headliners up off eBay for a full swap, but it will go the same way eventually
In your shoes having the TCR I’d probably look at the R32 for something a tad different
Edited by a7x88 on Tuesday 3rd January 23:03
Edited by a7x88 on Tuesday 3rd January 23:04
Definitely worth driving both because I believe if you drive both back to back you'll want the R32 everytime. It's just more of a special car.
The ED30 is cool and of course you can get more power from it because it's FI - but it's nowhere near as special as the R32, nor does it sound a fraction as good.
The fact that you own a TCR says to me you aren't looking for all out power in the MK5 anyway as you kinda have that from the TCR, neither will be as quick as it.
If you've already got a turbo golf then even more reason to get the N/A VR6 IMO. Plus they'll never put a VR6 in a Golf again so they will only appreciate in value. The MK4 is already big money and good, clean MK5's will hold their money too.
I've owned mine for 10 years and covered 80k in it, no big issues at all in that ownership. As long as it has been well maintained and has regular services with good oil (including Haldex servicing), you should be fine. The engines are notoriously undertuned so they are pretty bulletproof. I've seen R32's with 250-300k miles on them. I love the way they drive, so much low down torque that you can be in 6th doing 20mph and not need to change down a gear to get to the power band like in a turbo car. They also love (and need) to be driven hard all the way to the redline.
I recently bought an RS4 and I still can't let the R32 go, just shows how high I regard it. Set of coilovers and uprated ARBs and it handles like it's on rails.
The ED30 is cool and of course you can get more power from it because it's FI - but it's nowhere near as special as the R32, nor does it sound a fraction as good.
The fact that you own a TCR says to me you aren't looking for all out power in the MK5 anyway as you kinda have that from the TCR, neither will be as quick as it.
If you've already got a turbo golf then even more reason to get the N/A VR6 IMO. Plus they'll never put a VR6 in a Golf again so they will only appreciate in value. The MK4 is already big money and good, clean MK5's will hold their money too.
I've owned mine for 10 years and covered 80k in it, no big issues at all in that ownership. As long as it has been well maintained and has regular services with good oil (including Haldex servicing), you should be fine. The engines are notoriously undertuned so they are pretty bulletproof. I've seen R32's with 250-300k miles on them. I love the way they drive, so much low down torque that you can be in 6th doing 20mph and not need to change down a gear to get to the power band like in a turbo car. They also love (and need) to be driven hard all the way to the redline.
I recently bought an RS4 and I still can't let the R32 go, just shows how high I regard it. Set of coilovers and uprated ARBs and it handles like it's on rails.
JRC1 said:
Definitely worth driving both because I believe if you drive both back to back you'll want the R32 everytime. It's just more of a special car.
The ED30 is cool and of course you can get more power from it because it's FI - but it's nowhere near as special as the R32, nor does it sound a fraction as good.
The fact that you own a TCR says to me you aren't looking for all out power in the MK5 anyway as you kinda have that from the TCR, neither will be as quick as it.
If you've already got a turbo golf then even more reason to get the N/A VR6 IMO. Plus they'll never put a VR6 in a Golf again so they will only appreciate in value. The MK4 is already big money and good, clean MK5's will hold their money too.
I've owned mine for 10 years and covered 80k in it, no big issues at all in that ownership. As long as it has been well maintained and has regular services with good oil (including Haldex servicing), you should be fine. The engines are notoriously undertuned so they are pretty bulletproof. I've seen R32's with 250-300k miles on them. I love the way they drive, so much low down torque that you can be in 6th doing 20mph and not need to change down a gear to get to the power band like in a turbo car. They also love (and need) to be driven hard all the way to the redline.
I recently bought an RS4 and I still can't let the R32 go, just shows how high I regard it. Set of coilovers and uprated ARBs and it handles like it's on rails.
Thanks for your info. Can you or anyone give me a clue around the spec on the Mk5. There seems to be a variety of interiors, cloth, part cloth, full leather, wingbacks also the multi spoke wheels etc The ED30 is cool and of course you can get more power from it because it's FI - but it's nowhere near as special as the R32, nor does it sound a fraction as good.
The fact that you own a TCR says to me you aren't looking for all out power in the MK5 anyway as you kinda have that from the TCR, neither will be as quick as it.
If you've already got a turbo golf then even more reason to get the N/A VR6 IMO. Plus they'll never put a VR6 in a Golf again so they will only appreciate in value. The MK4 is already big money and good, clean MK5's will hold their money too.
I've owned mine for 10 years and covered 80k in it, no big issues at all in that ownership. As long as it has been well maintained and has regular services with good oil (including Haldex servicing), you should be fine. The engines are notoriously undertuned so they are pretty bulletproof. I've seen R32's with 250-300k miles on them. I love the way they drive, so much low down torque that you can be in 6th doing 20mph and not need to change down a gear to get to the power band like in a turbo car. They also love (and need) to be driven hard all the way to the redline.
I recently bought an RS4 and I still can't let the R32 go, just shows how high I regard it. Set of coilovers and uprated ARBs and it handles like it's on rails.
On R32 Standard seats were the same as mk5 gti and came in cloth, or vienna leather as an option. Mostly charcoal although there are a few early cars knocking about with the cream which looks a bit odd on the type of car. The wingback recaros were a £2.5k option and could be specified in leather or cloth, latter are really rare. They look good but the hard backing can scratch easily and some say they aren't actually as comfortable as standard R32 chairs.
The edition 30 came with half leather half cloth in the trademark tartan.
If you mean alloys, the 10 spoke zolders as seen on the car above came in from launch 55plate to around 07 and were then replaced by the later ormanynt style from 57 to 09 plate. These where diamond cut on the edges and a bit of a pain to repair to factory finish if you kerb them.
Multi function steering wheel controls came with sat nav cars with phone prep and dsg equipped cars, from memory.
The edition 30 came with half leather half cloth in the trademark tartan.
If you mean alloys, the 10 spoke zolders as seen on the car above came in from launch 55plate to around 07 and were then replaced by the later ormanynt style from 57 to 09 plate. These where diamond cut on the edges and a bit of a pain to repair to factory finish if you kerb them.
Multi function steering wheel controls came with sat nav cars with phone prep and dsg equipped cars, from memory.
Edited by si_xsi on Wednesday 4th January 19:45
aea730 said:
Thanks for your info. Can you or anyone give me a clue around the spec on the Mk5. There seems to be a variety of interiors, cloth, part cloth, full leather, wingbacks also the multi spoke wheels etc
Si has summed up the options well in his post above.All I would add is that because of the age of them now, I'd buy on history/# of owners/overall condition over any of the above options. I'm fortunate enough to have the cloth recaros and the zolder wheels which I prefer but I bought it on 18k miles back in the early 2010's so could be fussy. If I was in the market now I think these elements wouldn't come into it as much for the right example. Late '55 and early '06 plates mean tax is £3xx rather than £6xx per year which is a nice bonus and something to consider if you have a few that you're weighing up.
Worth having a browse on https://www.r32oc.com/forums/ - a wealth of knowledge on there but also some nice, enthusiast owned ones in the classifieds. Not sure how much you'd be looking to spend but they do vary in price wildly depending on the condition/mileage. There's a lovely Shadow Blue one on there at the moment only 45k miles @ £15k but then you'll find high mileage ones for as low as £6k.
Good luck with your search and if you do end up going for one, report back with your thoughts!
Good comparison from Mr Volkswizard on both Ed 30 and mk 5 R32 here in case you've not already seen, even he struggled to pick a favourite.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7IydVeGv-ck
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7IydVeGv-ck
aea730 said:
I think I’ve settled on hunting for an R32 for something of a different driving experience- just got to find one now !
Good luck, they are quite a rare sight on the roads now. Not that surprised because they cost a few pennies to run! 
I always wanted one but I wimped out and bought a 2.0TSI Leon FR instead at the time.
TonyTony said:
Good luck, they are quite a rare sight on the roads now. Not that surprised because they cost a few pennies to run!
I always wanted one but I wimped out and bought a 2.0TSI Leon FR instead at the time.
I’m ok with the general running costs, fuel, tax etc as I have a few cars so it wouldn’t be a regular user. I just don’t want to face any big rebuild costs so doing my homework around the forums and groups first I always wanted one but I wimped out and bought a 2.0TSI Leon FR instead at the time.
Clarkedontgo said:
The v6 suffers from chain stretching and misfires at anything over 85k miles
Simply not true.Firstly, the chains rarely stretch, but easy enough to measure and check they're within their tolerances using VCDS. Plenty of R32's north of 100k miles, even north of 200k miles on original chains that are within the tolerance levels.
Secondly misfires. Where have you heard that? Any car can misfire if it's running on old plugs or the coilpacks haven't been changed. IIRC VW recalled some R32's with faulty coilpacks, maybe you're thinking of that? But the age/mileage almost all R32's are at now would have either had the re-call or would have changed the coilpacks by now anyway.
JRC1 said:
Clarkedontgo said:
The v6 suffers from chain stretching and misfires at anything over 85k miles
Simply not true.Firstly, the chains rarely stretch, but easy enough to measure and check they're within their tolerances using VCDS. Plenty of R32's north of 100k miles, even north of 200k miles on original chains that are within the tolerance levels.
Secondly misfires. Where have you heard that? Any car can misfire if it's running on old plugs or the coilpacks haven't been changed. IIRC VW recalled some R32's with faulty coilpacks, maybe you're thinking of that? But the age/mileage almost all R32's are at now would have either had the re-call or would have changed the coilpacks by now anyway.
As for other comment, the chains don't spontaneously all destruct after 85k miles! It really depends on how they have been driven and maintained. Good quality oil and regular changes help. The first owner of my car did 96k miles in just under 5 years, had 2 oil changes per year! I strongly believe this is why my car, now on 132k miles is still on 0c and -2c for cam chain readings. If they need doing you may as well do the clutch and flywheel at same time.
They also benefit from a fuel filter every so often as the big v6 likes a drink, found my old one ran a lot smoother and had slightly better mpg after replacing. Not expensive either. Often forgotten but if there's no evidence in service history would do it after 60k miles.
OP how's the search going, have you narrowed down a spec and budget? As has been said R32 OC is a good shout for cherished cars. I wouldn't rule out private sales with well written ads either as you can generally glean more information than a dealer. I was lucky when I found mine, man in his late 60s who'd had it for 6 years.
si_xsi said:
As for other comment, the chains don't spontaneously all destruct after 85k miles! It really depends on how they have been driven and maintained.
I had an Audi A3, 3.2 so the same engine - the timing chain tensioner self-destructed at around 40k miles and the car ran like a bag of s
te but fortunately didn't stop/seize due to valves hitting pistons.It literally happened in an instant, my initial thoughts were a faulty coil pack or 3 but it turned out to be the chain tensioner - low-cost part but big amount of labour as an engine-out job.
Happened about a year out of warranty but car was bought from and fully serviced by main dealer who eventually (after initially quoting me £1,600) covered most of it under goodwill.
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