I blame you lot...

[am1w]

Loads of money left here in Corfu am1w. Sail your private yacht over and help yourself LoL

Thanks p3asa for the rescue attempt!
But, we have a problem: I don't have a yacht, let alone a private one. 
Can you pop over in your private jet?

[Exonian]

Athens is probably a lovely place to visit and indulge in any remaining niceties but you wouldn't want to live there.

A bit like the R. Probably a lovely car for a long test drive but not something to live with for three years owing to noisy tyres and wonky panels.

    

[am1w]

Athens is probably a lovely place to visit and indulge in any remaining niceties but you wouldn't want to live there.

A bit like the R. Probably a lovely car for a long test drive but not something to live with for three years owing to noisy tyres and wonky panels.
   

You teasing tart!

I love Athens and Greece.

My family is in the UK but all my closest friends are Greek and live in Athens. And I increasingly feel about Athens: 'Home is where the heart is'.

I will move to Athens in 3-4 years as I am sick and tired of the miserable weather in the UK, the morose attitude of the people, the horrible quality of food and the rip off nature of the country. And I am also ashamed to say that the latter has stood me in good stead. The British islanders sadly lack the generosity of spirit which the Greeks have in abundance.

The R is a wonderful car and there is nothing as good at its price point, and especially because I obtained one at the very best 1p lease for 3 years. If I did not care for the car, I would not try and address the road roar issue.

So both Athens and the R are right up there in my estimation.

ATMs in my area have run out of money for today. Will try again tomorrow, but if they are still dry, I am not too worried as I came with plenty of Euro trash cash. 

[Booth11]

I am sick and tired of the miserable weather in the UK, the morose attitude of the people, the horrible quality of food and the rip off nature of the country. And I am also ashamed to say that the latter has stood me in good stead. The British islanders sadly lack the generosity of spirit which the Greeks have in abundance.

The R is a wonderful car and there is nothing as good at its price point, and especially because I obtained one at the very best 1p lease for 3 years. If I did not care for the car, I would not try and address the road roar issue.

So both Athens and the R are right up there in my estimation.

ATMs in my area have run out of money for today. Will try again tomorrow, but if they are still dry, I am not too worried as I came with plenty of Euro trash cash. 

It's the miserable weather, poor quality food and rip off society that makes us UK islanders morose, lol.  Seriously we are not all like that, well not all the time anyway! 

Good luck with your mission to source some extra cash funds.  I think when you have an deep seated affinity with a country and it's people, you stick with them through good and bad times. 

Your burgeoning R love affair aside (only cos you got it for pennies  ), the R is a little short of hugs on here at the moment, but better a bit of honesty, than the blinkered rose-tinted specs approach.  Between now and whenever mine shows up, I think I may lower my expectations of it, then, if it arrives with perfectly aligned doors and panels, untarnished paint and, I can actually hear the Dynaudio and the £££ I splashed out (wasted?) on it, I'll be pleasantly surprised.     (until I see the tyres that is)

[Wo-Wo]

if you fancy some blue highlights on the R

http://www.badgeskins.com/mk7.html

not cheap but great quality and well thought out so easy to apply

i've gone black to de bling

Liking the fender blades Andy!

[am1w]

The R is a wonderful car and there is nothing as good at its price point, and especially because I obtained one at the very best 1p lease for 3 years. If I did not care for the car, I would not try and address the road roar issue.

Your burgeoning R love affair aside (only cos you got it for pennies  ), the R is a little short of hugs on here at the moment, but better a bit of honesty, than the blinkered rose-tinted specs approach.  Between now and whenever mine shows up, I think I may lower my expectations of it, then, if it arrives with perfectly aligned doors and panels, untarnished paint and, I can actually hear the Dynaudio and the £££ I splashed out (wasted?) on it, I'll be pleasantly surprised.     (until I see the tyres that is)

The R is a grown up hot hatch with none of the wheel spin that FWD hot hatches suffer with or RWD ones. When I compared the GTI and the R, the R immediately felt a perfectly honed fast car without the histrionics on damp surfaces which even a GTI PP suffers with.

You will love your R. Give it a few hundred miles and everything will fall into place beautifully. Mine went completely on song after 200 miles. It is a terrific car and we should sue VW for foisting Bridgestones on us UK buyers. The Germans get Contis. Don't we deserve the same or even better?

The Dynaudio is definitely worth having, noisy car or not. The bass is terrific and so is the rest of the frequency range. It has wonderful headroom and never runs out of puff (within reason). I would be most unhappy without it.

[monkeyhanger]

A very candid and thoughtful write up Mr Ex.  Doesn't sound like you are overly enamoured with your new car.  Perhaps the GTI was your definitive Golf?

Does anyone on here like their R?   

I'm just a bit taken aback by how hard you have to milk it for it to actually feel quick. If you're not redlining it all the time (like you will in your test drive if the salesman will allow), it doesn't feel quick at all. I suppose it's the Jekyll and Hyde character of the car, but it seems like half of it's power is only accessible above 3500 revs and even then it only feels properly quick over 5000 revs.

Coming from a Diesel that seems a bit weird. I'm used to having all the torque and most of the power from 35% to 80% of the rev range and then seeing it tail off. I need to re-educate myself driving the R - i'm getting there. 

When you tear away from a standstill, milking 1st, second and third (I sometimes do that on a stretch at the end of my mundane commute) the R is ridiculously quick. When You drop a few cogs to overtake something between 50 and 80mph, it doesn't feel any quicker than my DTUK'd GTD, I need to fight the urge to drop from 6th to 4th and go 6th to 3rd instead to be keeping the revs at a minimum of 4000revs when I want to feel a bit of self-induced whiplash.

[am1w]

MH:

You have to get over low rev Diesel torque which is addictive. It takes a month or so to wean yourself off the juice of the devil. Enjoy the freedom of a higher revving engine running on the juice of the gods. The R is more car and less tractor!     

[monkeyhanger]

I will move to Athens in 3-4 years as I am sick and tired of the miserable weather in the UK, the morose attitude of the people, the horrible quality of food and the rip off nature of the country. And I am also ashamed to say that the latter has stood me in good stead. The British islanders sadly lack the generosity of spirit which the Greeks have in abundance.

Well the weather is a common denominator all over the country, but the morose attitude and lack of generosity of spirit is likely more abundant in London than many parts of the country - you'll generally find the northerners very friendly, but also more blunt and less willing to let someone take a lend of them.

Food is all relative - I went to Milan once to see Newcastle play in the Champions league (I have a long memory!  ) and ate my worst and most expensive italian meal there in a posh restaurant. The following day we went to a canteen style restaurant that was pennies and had some of the best italian food ever. The cost of living - again relative, London is expensive, Amsterdam and Paris are expensive. Over in Berlin though you can eat and drink very cheaply (relative to the fact it is a capital city of Europe) - value for money is ingrained into the German people, they don't like being ripped off.

[Booth11]

The R is a grown up hot hatch with none of the wheel spin that FWD hot hatches suffer with or RWD ones. When I compared the GTI and the R, the R immediately felt a perfectly honed fast car without the histrionics on damp surfaces which even a GTI PP suffers with.

You will love your R. Give it a few hundred miles and everything will fall into place beautifully. Mine went completely on song after 200 miles. It is a terrific car and we should sue VW for foisting Bridgestones on us UK buyers. The Germans get Contis. Don't we deserve the same or even better?

The Dynaudio is definitely worth having, noisy car or not. The bass is terrific and so is the rest of the frequency range. It has wonderful headroom and never runs out of puff (within reason). I would be most unhappy without it.

Maybe it's a slow burner (as opposed to an oil burner  ) and takes a while to truly fall for the R.  All will be revealed in time I guess??

The Germans stuff us on the tyre front, and take the best for themselves.  They are not stupid.  They probably think the good rubber is wasted on our dreadful roads.  Of course, for that very reason we need it all the more.