« Reply #304 on: 25 April 2015, 12:48 »
And it is ridiculous they aren't applying those changes to the R, no logic at all.
It's getting a bit of a mess.
The actual components of the bits they're adding don't cost VW much in ££ terms so it's easy to add them then hike up the price a bit taking full advantage of the exchange rate.
My theory is that after the mk6 R being a bit of a duffer sales wise (also had crap standard spec) the mk7R has become the default performance choice after the cheap leases and rave reviews meaning lots of private buyers too, so is a) selling well and b) not that much dearer than a PP GTI.
What I suspect VW are doing is waiting for the ED40 or other performance niche car to come along to slot in the middle, then they can add extra spec to the R and hike the price up a bit to clear a bit of room in the price list for either a more powerful GTI or one with a few lightweight panels which it will share with the R400/420 costing maybe another £1200 or 1500 over a PP GTI.
They probably also look at the fact that people that lease R's just want a fast Golf and don't bother with options and people that can afford to buy a £30K plus hatchback can afford to spec it up and probably do quite a bit so the actual financial hit to them doesn't hurt much and VW can keep the list base price at a point where the R doesn't look too expensive against competitors.

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‘25 8.5R, ‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten