I No Longer Want To Fling The Volkswagen Golf R’s Infotainment System Into The Nearest Lake

I love a properly fast hot hatch, but the first iteration of the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf R was a conflicting machine. Compared to the Mk7.5 that came before it, the new-for-2022 model featured a seriously upgraded all-wheel-drive system, but it also ushered in a round of irritating cost-cutting. The volume and climate knobs were replaced with capacitive-touch sliders that weren’t even illuminated at night, stuff you’d want to use was all seemingly buried two menus deep in the occasionally lethargic infotainment screen, and the result was a more irritating car to use than the old one. Well, Volkswagen had a mulligan for 2025.

While the Mk8.5 Golf R went automatic-only, it also brought more power, more options, and revised tech that promises increased user-friendliness. So, after spending a week with a 2026 model, have the changes worked? Is the Golf R once again a sensational one-car solution? Let’s find out.

[Full disclosure: Volkswagen Canada let me borrow this Golf R for a week so long as I kept the shiny side up, returned it clean with a full tank of premium fuel, and reviewed it.]

The Basics

Engine: Two-liter twin-cam 16-valve turbocharged intercooled inline-four.

Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

Drive: Full-time all-wheel-drive with a clutched torque-vectoring rear differential.

Output: 328 horsepower at 6,500 RPM, 295 lb.-ft. of torque at 2,000 RPM.

Fuel Economy: 22 MPG city, 31 MPG highway, 25 MPG combined (10.5 L/100km city, 7.7 L/100km highway, 9.3 L/100km combined).

Base Price: $50,730 including freight ($54,145 in Canada).

Price As-Tested: $55,375 including freight ($60,245 in Canada).

Why Does It Exist?

There’s something about the human spirit that just makes us want to go faster. While the Mk2 Volkswagen Golf GTI was a fitting continuation of an automotive sensation, Volkswagen knew there was much more in the tank. The result was the supercharged homologation special Rallye Golf, the first fast all-wheel-drive Golf. It’s a cult classic, but Wolfsburg ultimately paused on weapons-grade Golf, aside from the A59 prototype, until 2003 with the R32. Even though the numbers after the R have been dropped since then, Volkswagen has had a long string of all-wheel-drive high-output Golfs for people who think the GTI is a bit too ordinary. The latest Golf R is no exception.

How Does It Look?

In full rude-boy spec of grey with black accents, the Golf R carries a subtle sort of menace. It doesn’t have gills or wildly flared nostrils, but you just get the sense that it’s up to no good. Sadly, there’s still only one way of dodging the German rainbow, a solitary shade of blue. Come on, Volkswagen. Wouldn’t this look tremendous in Great Falls Green or Merlin Purple or Ginster Yellow?

For the Mk8.5 facelift, the Golf R toned down its flics along the bottom of the front bumper, but brought in a more elaborate lattice of grillework. It’s definitely aggressive, although much of it is solid black plastic modelled simply for show. New lights feature sleeker elements, new wheels come with slimmer spokes, and that’s about it. By selecting a few choice aggro ingredients, the Golf R still flies under the radar. It’s generally a handsome hatchback, light bar inserted between the headlights notwithstanding. You could park it at a respectable office job and your judgiest co-workers would be none the wiser, and there’s something pleasing about that.

What About The Interior?

A few years ago, Volkswagen announced that it was moving back to buttons from capacitive touch controls. The updated Golf R missed out on that. The only real button on the face of the dashboard is the hazard warning lamp switch; everything else is virtual, including the steering wheel controls. Understandably, this is a bit of a faff. Feedback isn’t that great and sometimes doesn’t exist at all, which is a shame because the window switches and mirror controls show that Volkswagen still does buttons well.

If you can live with sliders for volume and temperature (they’re finally illuminated now), at least the cabin of the Golf R is still practical. Think huge door bins that can swallow even the largest water bottles, a center armrests that adjusts for height and slides back and forth, cup holders that swivel out in a large storage bin, and solid space both front and rear.

Those with keen eyes probably spied that this Golf R is equipped with cloth seats, and guess what? They whip an incredible amount of ass. With manual sliders, lumbar adjustment, height adjustment, and power backrest adjustment, durable-feeling inserts in an outrageous blue pattern, velour on the bolsters, and solid seat heaters, they’re just about perfect for daily use. Quick to adjust in the ways you want, cool after being parked in the sun, supple yet supportive, and eager to hold you in place. It all makes you wonder why on earth we ever decided that leather was the way to go.

How Does It Drive?

The Golf R’s 2025 facelift was something of a game of give-and-take. While the familiar two-liter turbocharged inline-four gained 13 extra horsepower to total 328 and a rorty-yet-tasteful Akrapovič exhaust joined the options list, the offering of a manual gearbox left the chat. Blame it on falling take rates in the rest of the world and emissions homologation, the only way to get a new Golf R is with a dual-clutch automatic gearbox. Has the sky crashed through the pavement? Not quite. While the old Golf R’s manual gearbox ensured you were always doing something, the shifter itself felt rental-grade. In contrast, the seven-speed DSG transaxle is as sharp as ever, and maintaining boost through shifts really helps with forward progress. Flick it into race mode, relax the stability control, mash the brake with your left foot and the throttle with the right, and you’ll be primed for a launch control start that rips you from zero-to-60 mph in a shade over four seconds with nary a trace of wheelspin. That’s diabolically quick for a hatchback, but perhaps the most amazing thing is the sense of complete control.

Thanks to a clever all-wheel-drive system, accurate steering with adequate feedback, and adaptive dampers that still breathe with the road even in their stiffest mode, the Golf R serves up an immense feeling of “I’ve got you, bro.” It shrugs off mid-corner bumps beautifully and is wonderfully intuitive to place on the road. The brakes are both strong and easy to modulate, and while peak cornering limits are nigh-on sports car-high, the Golf R tells you when you’re reaching the limits of adhesion. In the real world, with potholes and dips and crests and rain, anything faster than this feels like a game of diminishing returns.

Of course, if you’re aiming to be in your local tire dealer’s will, you’ll be reaching for this car’s party piece: Drift mode. Basically, the all-wheel-drive system can send up to half the engine’s torque to the rear axle, then a clever torque-vectoring differential can distribute up to 100 percent of the rear axle torque to either rear wheel. As such, drift mode works to overdrive the inside rear wheel, kicking the back end out on power and letting you pull hilariously immature slides. You do really need to provoke the Golf R to break traction at the back, but when that happens, you’ll experience a flavor of joy that’s exceptionally rare in hot hatch land.

Then, when you’re done being the sort of person your parents warned you about, you can simmer down, kick the Golf R back into comfort mode, and marvel at its sheer duality. Not only is this all-wheel-drive hyper-hatch much quicker than a Toyota GR Corolla and capable of actual power oversteer, but it’s also comfortable, quiet, and simply easy to drive. At the press of a capacitive-touch switch, it simply becomes a normal hatchback with prodigal passing power and impressive wet-weather grip. That’s this car’s USP: two fistfuls of fun when you want it, total ease when you need it.

Does It Have The Electronic Crap I Want?

As you’d probably expect for a range-topping hot hatch, the Golf R comes rather well-equipped. Beyond the enormous 12.9-inch infotainment screen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, you get a digital instrument cluster, a heated steering wheel, ambient lighting, LED headlamps and taillamps, a full suite of advanced driver assistance systems, tri-zone automatic climate control, power-folding heated mirrors, and a wireless charger for your phone. It even comes with Chat GPT-4 integration, which, as far as I can tell, doesn’t work. Perfect. What don’t you get? A 360-degree camera system, along with an actual volume knob. Boo.

Mind you, the infotainment in the Mk8.5 Golf R is so much better than on the pre-facelift model. Top-level icons for heated seats, illuminated sliders, quicker response, and a more cohesive menu structure. It still doesn’t beat actual physical controls, but I don’t want to go full Office Space on it anymore. It’s tolerable, which certainly beats the old infotainment setup’s wet-socks sort of unpleasantness.

Plus, the Golf R’s Harman/Kardon sound system is definitely one of the better setups in the genre. With a few equalizer tweaks, you can bump grime both loud and clear. Low-end extension isn’t anything crazy, but for a stock system in a hot hatch, this system will likely beat your expectations.

Three Things To Know About The Mk8.5 Golf R

1. You can’t row your own gears anymore.
2. The infotainment is much better than before.
3. The available cloth seats are 100 percent worth it.

Does The Golf R Fulfil Its Purpose?

Absolutely. It’s not as livewire as the party-time Hyundai Elantra N, or as nerdy as the rally-influenced Toyota GR Corolla, or as scalpel-sharp as the track-attack Honda Civic Type R, but the Volkswagen Golf R fills a slightly different niche. Think of it as the one-car solution at this echelon of sport compact performance. It does the grocery run or lunch with your parents well, but it can still lay black streaks down a McDonalds car park and surprise pony cars. The tweaks to the infotainment system worked, resulting in a car you can enjoy for its mechanical aptitude.

However, the value proposition of a Golf R depends a lot on which side of the Detroit River you’re on, for a variety of reasons. Different trade agreements, different tariff situations, different market strategies, possibly even the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow. In America, a base Golf R is $3,270 more than a GR Corolla Premium Plus and $2,140 more than a Honda Civic Type R. We’re talking $50,730 before options. That’s a lot of dosh for a sport compact car, but it’s justifiable on the Volkswagen’s balance of capabilities.

However, in the Great White North, a standard Golf R is 4,232 loonies cheaper than a GR Corolla Premium and more than $1,500 cheaper than a Civic Type R. At $54,145 Canadian, the Golf R feels like a remarkably good deal, especially for this much performance and refinement. That’s about what a fully-loaded compact crossover costs, and I know exactly what I’d rather have.

What’s The Punctum Of The Golf R?

A seriously quick hot hatch for proper grown-ups, now with infotainment that doesn’t double-suck.

Top graphic image: Thomas Hundal