Exclusivity

[am1w]

Poor charv94 is not only delusional but is suffering badly from the sour grapes syndrome.

The R400 is a very expensive car in comparison to the R(300) whereas the R(300) is not that much more expensive than the slow coach (sales and performance), wheel spinning GTI.

The R(300) increasingly appears to be the sweet spot in the Performance Golf range.

[charv94]

Well thanks for your opinion.

I won't take it to heart. you can keep your tape measure too, I'm perfectly happy not comparing size

[RobS23GTI]

The R should be better as it's more expensive, the pp GTI is a fantastic car (some of the car mag long termers loved it) in its own right, the problem is the pricing. £3k difference for more bhp and AWD isn't that much more on the monthlies, coupled with the flavour of the month bit going on and the 50p lease deals - I'm not surprised there are so many more around.
I saw 6 in an hour journey a few weeks back and no GTI's.

Will be interesting to see how the clubsport is priced.

[Snooze]

Gd point well made JB. Buy what you want cos you like it, not for any other reason.

[Booth11]

Gd point well made JB. Buy what you want cos you like it, not for any other reason.

+1.  I would hope that's a given for most people on here, but maybe not 

IMO, the Golf GTD, GTI and the R are very nice cars, but hardly status symbol's by today's standards.  If that's what you want your car to be?

[monkeyhanger]

Anyone buying a Golf for exclusivity is going to be disappointed, it's a VW, not a hand built supercar. Unless the Clubsport or R400/420 come with a small and fixed number of examples hitting these shores, you will always need to be looking outside VAG and spending a lot more money for the privilege.

Give it a year for the R to catch up with the 1 year headstart the GTI had and the GTI will arguably be the more exclusive car (although still not very exclusive) because many people believe that the R is worth paying that little bit more for. There weren't many 6Rs made, but I believe that was due to a lack of demand rather than VW's intentions to make it exclusive. The 6R was only a smidge more powerful than the R32 and the gap between GTI and R wasn't as pronounced as it is now. With the introduction of the MK6, the Golf became a very expensive proposition (20% more than the outgoing MK5).

Whether you get a GTD, GTI or R, you're not exactly slumming it - but now the GTI is just sitting in the middle, not the most frugal nor the most powerful, most people will be buying a performance Golf for one or the other of those things.

For 95% of your time behind the wheel, it will not matter whether it is either of those 3, but for that other 5% of the time when you're mashing the accelerator, you will either be looking for great acceleration at the expense of mpg or decent in gear acceleration without the fuel penalty, and the GTI isn't quite as good at either as the other 2.

If you're looking for exclusivity then the R400 might be the way to go - there will be people for whom the car is beyond their means, and others who will scoff at paying that much for a Golf. I can't see many R owners chopping in theirs for an R400 for one of the reasons above, unless the GFVs are such that it becomes not much on a monthly basis.

Given that the current GFVs are around 48% for a GTI, and 50% for GTD/R, you'd have to see GFVs of around 60% RRP for the R400 to only be £40 per month more  over 36 months on a PCP if it were £8k more, assuming similar discounts can be achieved on the R400 as can be found on the R. Will that be the case? If the numbers are low and the demand high, I doubt you'll get a 12% discount on an R400.

[Gnasher]

If you want your GTI to be exclusive, then move to Cyprus.

I know I had the first here and I am reliably told there is only one other on the island!

[am1w]

Anyone buying a Golf for exclusivity is going to be disappointed, it's a VW, not a hand built supercar. Unless the Clubsport or R400/420 come with a small and fixed number of examples hitting these shores, you will always need to be looking outside VAG and spending a lot more money for the privilege. - I agree

Whether you get a GTD, GTI or R, you're not exactly slumming it - but now the GTI is just sitting in the middle, not the most frugal nor the most powerful, most people will be buying a performance Golf for one or the other of those things. - Yes, piggy in the middle as I have already said. Thus neither fish nor fowl.

For 95% of your time behind the wheel, it will not matter whether it is either of those 3, but for that other 5% of the time when you're mashing the accelerator, you will either be looking for great acceleration at the expense of mpg or decent in gear acceleration without the fuel penalty, and the GTI isn't quite as good at either as the other 2. - With the GTD, much of the time one will have to put up with Diesel rattle. With the GTI, one will always know it is piggy in the middle and a car which is a slow coach. Overpriced for what it is.

If you're looking for exclusivity then the R400 might be the way to go - there will be people for whom the car is beyond their means, and others who will scoff at paying that much for a Golf. I can't see many R owners chopping in theirs for an R400 for one of the reasons above, unless the GFVs are such that it becomes not much on a monthly basis. - I am afraid not. It is a VW Golf and will always be viewed as such.

My comments in blue in response to some parts of your excellent post.

[fletchcx]

When there's a car on my mind I usually see loads of them, but whilst I waited for my GTI to arrive I think I saw two or three others. The rest nearly all seemed to be GTD or R, I don't even think I've seen that many regular MK7s or perhaps they just don't catch my eye.

For me the GTi PP was the one to get in the real world, it won over the R purely on styling. I really disliked the quad pipes, silver mirrors, R logo'd seats, blue LED interior.. There was a lot of talk about it being a real sleeper car, but I never understood that with four massive pipes and big shiny mirrors like an S3.

Each to their own clearly! I respect the R for the beast that it is and it's phenomenally capable, but for me it's the model in the lineup that doesn't really know what it is.

[am1w]

When there's a car on my mind I usually see loads of them, but whilst I waited for my GTI to arrive I think I saw two or three others. The rest nearly all seemed to be GTD or R, I don't even think I've seen that many regular MK7s or perhaps they just don't catch my eye.

For me the GTi PP was the one to get in the real world, it won over the R purely on styling. I really disliked the quad pipes, silver mirrors, R logo'd seats, blue LED interior.. There was a lot of talk about it being a real sleeper car, but I never understood that with four massive pipes and big shiny mirrors like an S3.

Each to their own clearly! I respect the R for the beast that it is and it's phenomenally capable, but for me it's the model in the lineup that doesn't really know what it is.

Utter bilge and tosh.

The poor GTI is a has been, a slow coach and a non-seller as it is not good enough anymore and the buying public recognise this as do VW.

The front is also horrid with that stupid red lipstick going through the headlights. How crass is that? Not to mention those stupid Ferrari Testarossa veins along the front bumper edges covering the fogs. What a pathetic wannabe attachment is that and so overdone, eh? Plus, those horrid plaid seats now look so last Tuesday and chav. (Sorry, but same for the GTD regarding the seat fabric. Though in that car they have got rid of the red so it looks less irritating and much more pleasant to the eye).

Sour grapes again.