The BMW M3 and Audi S4 were on my shopping list for my next car. I was about to commit, when along came the former night-mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, with his super congestion charge / tax on anything that emitted over 225 g/ km. I was not prepared to pay the £25 per day so all bets were off. Add the fact that the new M3 is the wrong side of £50K, when the last one was not much more than £39K, and suddenly the cost of running a sports car had become stratospheric. The Audi wasn't much better, with a decent set of options easily pushing up the S4's price close to £50K. Luckily, Red Ken was not re-elected, but then by chance i rode in a friend's R32. Wow! What a car. Then along comes the Mk VI Golf in GTI and now R flavours. GTI is incredible. But the R is on another planet. Fully loaded, it is still substantially cheaper than the M3 and, best of all, it looks like a bog standard Golf, except for the tailpipes, so doesn't attract attention. I like that Q-car style. All Golfs are practical in town with 5 seats, but an R can blitz it across Europe. Add the further benefit of AWD for winter conditions and it has everything.
I am not alone in trading down from a Beemer to a VW. One other benefit: much nicer forum!
