One thing that has surprised me again is the number of 7.5 owners I have met who appear to favour the dash layout of the Mk7?
Ive had 4 mk7's, the latest being a 7.5, thought Id love the techie dash, but to be honest I hate it, i hate the touch screen head unit even more though. The head unit looks good but I find it a pain in the arse to use compared to good old fasioned buttons.
As per the other page when I jumped from a TCR back into my Ed40 I found the analogue gauges so much more pleasing to the eye in daylight and I love their simplicity. The Ed40 gauges are quite plain though with the merest hint of red piping. The pre-FL R gauges are truly beautiful. The normal GTI and GTD analogue gauges are a bit too plain though in mk7 guise IMO
I don’t treat my car like a mobile gadget, I was weened on old skool hot hatches and although I love the tech of modern cars and definitely don’t wear rose tinted specs I do think dashboards should be simple and clear so one can focus on driving not buggering about with menus and pointless driver profiles.
It’s a sports hatch, the only profile it needs is a sports profile! Oh, and it’s a Golf so the sports profile should reflect that fact - sporty but not OTT.
The one exception I’ll say is if the dash is to be a riot of colour and graphics then a HUD should be offered with the bare bones info in a position that you don’t even need to take your eyes off the road.
I don't want to be too harsh. I was the one who was more enthusiastic about the R 
The interior, was mostly monotone with the cloth seats.
The drive just felt sluggish as you could feel the mass of the car. We were surprised how eager the CS felt at lower speeds and upward with way more feedback as you steer.
The R went well once you were on it, the roads were dry, so no additional bonus points for the R.
Both cars manual, by the way and one gearchange was judged to be more direct and smoother (not the R!)
The R owner has come from an M3 and was disappointed with the feel and lack of occasion with the R, happy that it was such a good motorway car.
The R is very functional and a weapon, it is a bit like a mainstream Porsche in that it gets the job done, in a teutonic manner without too much emotion. I can see the appeal of that.
One thing that has surprised me again is the number of 7.5 owners I have met who appear to favour the dash layout of the Mk7?
I thought it was me, I didn't particularly like the digital dash at first, but thought it was progress when it arrived.
Maybe I am just used to the old set up, but it is clear and just works without much thought required?
Thanks for that. Really interesting reading.
Your friend reminds me of a lot of VWROC members, coming from more expensive bigger machinery and expecting things of the R it doesn’t have (or missing aspects of their previous cars) but appreciating the R for what it is at the same time.
What these people don’t tend to have is a background of FWD hot hatches (although some may have had them in their long lost youth) but they expect the R to deliver certain characteristics that only the GTI models possess but still want the 4WD invincibility and 4.5 sec 0-60 bragging rights.
I’m glad the two cars you drove are manuals as I can relate to those!
I agree 100% with your own feelings about the driving dynamics and the relative merits of the different dashboards.
The R is a lovely car to waft around in just like the VR6 forebears and like those too you really need to take it by the scruff to get thrills from it.
Push it and it delivers in spades as it’s an amazing car and I’m a massive R fan.
But it’s not a GTI!
The CS definitely lighter on it’s feet and picks up more keenly.
Once fitted with a pedalbox I find the CS has puppy like enthusiasm, it’s such a nice car to drive.
The interior is really nice even without buckets in the CS in my opinion.
I used to moan about VW cheaping out with the deletion of the ambient lighting but now I find it actually beneficial driving dark country lanes with no reflections from inside.
I must admit to really loving the R’s blue ambient lights though.
As an aside, the leather equipped Ed40’s have the ambient lighting but don’t have the unique honeycomb door and dash inserts, they have regular GTI “carbon look” inserts with the red door LED’s (or at least the ones I’ve seen)
I very nearly bought a TCR recently via Evo1986 but for the cost to change I have too many other financial commitments right now.
Reason I mention it is when asking a few dealers to gauge the best deals available including talking to specialists, although there are great headline discounts on Golfs right now the Clubsport isn’t a model they’re busting themselves to take off your hands. I think they’re too much of an uncertainty to the trade and buyers being so recent and so close in price to the ever popular R but lacking the R’s status.
Getting top book price for my incredibly pampered ultra low mileage car was nigh on impossible even from trade specialists so the money just wasn’t in it to do a deal.
I’ll maybe look into a base spec TCR Ex-demo if the deal is right but most have lots of spec and if I can’t get near top book for mine then it’s stupidly expensive to change up to the newer model even with discounts as the list prices of cars have got so expensive. No company car allowance for me.
To be honest I’m really fond of my CS and would happily keep it until the mk8 models become more affordable and early car glitches are sorted.
If the mk8 is too full of pointless tech (for my uses) then the CS will stay or I’ll get a modern classic of some description.
