Golf R in the flesh

[JoeGTI]

Can't you hop on the ferry and come and buy one in Liverpool (when the current situation has improved obviously...)?!

No, not that simple I'm afraid. You'd have to pay a very hefty tax on importing it (VRT - Vehicle Registration Tax).

Used UK imports have been very popular here, especially in recent years, but changes to the import tax / VAT, etc following Brexit has also made that very expensive and has possibly killed off used UK importing here.

[JoeGTI]

You guys in the UK don't realise how good you have it.

Here in Ireland, the GTI CS is 52.5k. The R is another 11k. Spec either of those up and you're into pretty crazy money. Oh to have the 40k "luxury car tax" problem!

Discounts here are small. You'll need to deal directly with individual main dealers. If you manage a discount of 2.5 - 3k you'd be doing well. There's no concept of a "broker" here in the car buying game. I guess our market is much too small for a Carwow type of model.

Road tax - the CS just about sneaks into €420 per annum. The R is €600 p/a. If you're feeling flush, a Tiguan R costs €2,400 p/a to tax.

On the plus side, I think our finance rates and deposit contributions tend to be better than you guys typically get. The GTI / R is currently at 1.9% APR. It has been available at 0% on and off in the past.

How does the price of the Performance Golfs compare with something like a top spec ID3?

Over here the range topping ID3 is about £3k more than a Golf R.

Thats interesting. Just looking now and the top spec ID3 is €42K on the road (after grants/rebates). So its significantly cheaper than it's petrol powered cousins! Essentially, our current taxation system is very heavily penalising ICE cars, particularly performance petrols.

[fredgroves]

Yes for all of the UK government banging on about carbon dioxide and green this that and the other they so far have tried to avoid the backlash from the motor trade...

If they had actually wanted to see change they should have taxed one and subsidised the other heavily. Make it either too expensive one way or so staggeringly cheap the other.

[Jim_mk7.5]

And you still get the luxury tax on EV/hybrid cars over £40k. So they are hardly enticing people to go green or than the company car drivers/directors.

[mcmaddy]

And you still get the luxury tax on EV/hybrid cars over £40k. So they are hardly enticing people to go green or than the company car drivers/directors.

you don't pay luxury tax on fully Electric cars.

[king monkey]

twilight sparkle angry

[davyk31]

And you still get the luxury tax on EV/hybrid cars over £40k. So they are hardly enticing people to go green or than the company car drivers/directors.

you don't pay luxury tax on fully Electric cars.

As above, you don’t pay any VED on full electric no matter what price they are. And if below a certain value the plug in car grant reduces the list price by £3k.

[Aidey]

Full Monty on that Black R .... Looks pretty ....

[SRGTD]

Full Monty on that Black R .... Looks pretty ....

Looks very stealth-like. I wouldn’t buy a black one though - I’ve owned more than my fair share of black cars and with my car OCD, they’re too much like hard work to keep them looking good.

I’m not normally a fan of black wheels, but those black Estoril alloys look the business , and no issues with white worm either.

[Exonian]

Wow, the all black R looks proper badass!

We have full Stormtrooper white on the previous page and now Darth Vader spec!

Be interesting to see what the UK take up of R colours will be considering the huge colour palette available 
Can see it being mostly a split of white for the company car benefit lease brigade and blue for the £50k R Home Counties set.
Maybe a few 1st division footballers will make up the deficit in Pearl black orders but they’ll only get them wrapped in lurid colours anyway... 


How the hell is anyone even able to afford a sporty Golf in Ireland with those horrific car taxes?
Kind of makes the £475 a year ‘luxury tax’ look like peanuts.