Mjh_056: It's a different way of driving (vs a highish output diesel) if you want to feel like you're driving with 300ps under your right foot, milking the car right to the red line.
I doubt you'll 100% have your mind up after a test drive - you might not have the opportunity to open it right up with the salesperson sitting next to you, and you certainly won't feel the pinch in your pocket to fill up twice as often if you're used to a diesel.
It's a lot easier to be wowed on a test drive and not get a feeling of how it will be to live with every day. It is a great car, but so is a GTD with a DTUK box on.
I had a slightly less restrained drive home today, meaning that I drove like a bit of a b'stard. Tearing away from a stadstill at 2 traffic lights, shot past a Vauxhall Insignia BiTurbo. He did well to 75mph, i'm sure he just came in a lane to see how it would go beyond 75. I took it up to a ton as soon as he moved over and drifted straight back down to 80 (there was nothing ahead of me).
I suppose mpg aside, that's the difference between the GTD and the R is - the GTD has lots of ingear grunt and it feels fastest accelerating between 50 and 80mph. The R is blazingly quick from a standstill and feels as quick going 70-100 as the GTD does going 50-80. You have to push the R a lot harder to get that buzz, be prepared to knock the R down maybe 3 gears when you want to make the most of what it has when overtaking.
It is quite a buzz letting loose in the R, but for some, will it be worth an extra grand on their fuel bill?
When you look at the 2.0TDI BiTurbo Passat 4-motion (240ps) as the R's closest TDI stablemate (yes it's a little heavier, so not an absolute comparison), it's 53.3mpg combined figure is smack between the R and the GTD, so getting a TDI close to an R's performance will always cost you, as will the 4WD system. Knowing what my GTD did vs published figures, i'd likely get 40mpg out of that Passat in the Summer and 36mpg in the Winter. So the R has 20% more power and is only 17% thirstier - just shows how much progress has been made in TSI fuel economy. The way the R can drive so smoothly at the low end, imagine what it could be capable of with cylinder deactivation tech, it would probably match the TDI.
