VW Golf R Mk8 – long-term review

The Golf R’s steering wheel is not a qualified success. It’s too thick for my taste, and the haptic buttons simply don’t work well enough. 

However, I can and do appreciate it’s home to two small details that should be fitted to all the hot Golfs – the GTI, the Clubsport and even the GTD – but aren’t. For no reason I can think of. 

The first are the paddles. They’re still fixed to the steering wheel, but in the R you get long bladelike flappy paddles. They’re plastic, which doesn’t feel very expensive, and their action is nothing to write home about. But just the look of them adds a bit of intent, a dash of ‘I’m a serious car’ that’s really missing in the dull, dreary cabins of the GTI and co. 

I find myself using the paddles in the R quite a bit to stubbornly override the seven-speed DSG’s haphazard shift mapping, so it’s nice to be able to grab a proper paddle, rather than the usual ribbed credit card VW normally opts for. 

The second one is the ‘R’ button on the left-hand steering wheel spoke. In a GTI or a Clubsport, this is merely blank glossy plastic. A nothing button. But in the R, this button cycles through the car’s driving modes. 

Useful, as the R has an incredibly annoying habit of defaulting into Sport mode every single time it’s switched on. Used Comfort mode to negotiate a tricky car park festooned with tight turns and nadgety speed bumps? Tough. As soon as you arrive back at the car, it’s decided you want Sport mode again. 

Stopped midway through a Nürburgring mode fang to top up with petrol? Well, now you’re in Sport mode sunshine, and it’s a trip into the rubbish touchscreen for you. 

At least with the ‘R’ button, a few taps (quite a few, since the haptic feedback is quite incredibly useless) shuffles the car back into Individual, where I like it, with an angry engine and softened suspension. Why no other Golfs have this feature – which would cost nothing to add – I can’t imagine. But then I have no idea what the people who designed this interior were thinking half the time anyway.