Better with both I guess, but for sure if your into dangerous winter sports and terrain , the R with nice winters would be fantastic fun.
When I was looking at geting my car in summer 2014 I knew about the R estate as saw the ring test pictures. Was going to hold off & get one.
Then I found out that it was DSG only (which I hate & yes I have driven several versions), then I found the even more restricted colour choice..Tungsten silver is N/A in R estate..& to top it all off to get the same spec for spec as a loaded GT (how I speced mine) would cost me £7K more so around the £36k mark....
Plus I hate the stupid four fake exhaust tips & the ring test car had just two, much better. So that's a job to sort right there.
I looked at costing a DSG to manual gearbox swap as can do wiring & coding easy (its my thing), but swapping a new DSG out & fitting a new costly manual or lightly used from a crashed car....insurance costs...even more £££...
I even looked at a crashed manual hatch R with undamaged powertrain & engine £6k....& swapping onto my estate...would still need new 4WD estate fuel tank from dealers...& a cheap run-around car whilst I did the swap....& again insurance.."any modifications to declare".....er 1.4lt 2wd to 2lt AWD swap...
So basically happy with my current choice....I'll be a manual guy until my left leg knackers, which it will do one day due to sciatica...
Anyway the car is on winters...Michelin Alpin A5 225/45R17 using TD ProRace "3", five spoke alloys...