I had a quick look on Drive the deal today and had a play around with speccing one. I think if I went for the R I would want the DSG. By the time I added on other options I would like such as the DCC, nappa leather, 19 wheels, sat nav and the metallic paint I was over £34k and that was with the discount. Okay I could probably do without most of those options but for me it's that payoff between having the GTI with all the nice extras or having a vanilla R but knowing that it has an extra 70bhp and awd