Mk7 R Running costs. What do you get??

[chris1h]

Currently sitting in a MK6 Golf GTI and curious to whether running costs would change much with a Golf R...


Tyres - sitting on 18 monzas at present around £100 a corner for decent mitchelin pilot sport 3's. Do the standard 18s on the R cost about the same. priced the 19's upgraded alloys on the R yesterday while getting my tyres changed and was a big hike in price!

Oil - They use much? would be looking for DSG.

MPG - Hitting average of 30mpg at present. Whats the R figures averaging "real" for you guys. (yes i know different people have different right foots!)

Breaks - Obviously bigger but less of a running cost and more of a one off i would have thought. (zero track days)

[Exonian]

Are you buying new or used?

What sort of driving do you do?

How long will you keep the car?

If you're sticking with 18's then the tyres will cost the same as you're used to.
19" rubber tends to cost nearly double if you go premium brands.
Allow between £120 and £150 a corner for 235 35 19's.
Rainsports are cheaper but I keep getting told by monkeyhanger they don't last long.

MPG's will be around mid thirties if you're doing motorways at sensible speeds in summer and sub 20 in winter in a traffic jam.
I'm getting similar fuel consumption to my mk5 GTI with 100 bhp extra. Not that it feels like 100 bhp extra but the torque hike is useful.
Mk6 and mk7 GTI's get better fuel mileage, even modified ones, but you have to bear in mind it's a 300bhp car out of the factory with two extra driven wheels so it ain't bad all things considered. Far from it.

Brakes? They won't be hugely more expensive to replace than GTI brakes, especially if you're not heavy braking all the time. Spread the cost over three or four years and there won't be much in it above a GTI.

Yes, it'll cost a bit more to run than a GTI but it has more in its armoury.
Depreciation on a new one will put other running costs into perspective.

[chris1h]

Are you buying new or used?

What sort of driving do you do?

How long will you keep the car?

If you're sticking with 18's then the tyres will cost the same as you're used to.
19" rubber tends to cost nearly double if you go premium brands.
Allow between £120 and £150 a corner for 235 35 19's.
Rainsports are cheaper but I keep getting told by monkeyhanger they don't last long.

MPG's will be around mid thirties if you're doing motorways at sensible speeds in summer and sub 20 in winter in a traffic jam.
I'm getting similar fuel consumption to my mk5 GTI with 100 bhp extra. Not that it feels like 100 bhp extra but the torque hike is useful.
Mk6 and mk7 GTI's get better fuel mileage, even modified ones, but you have to bear in mind it's a 300bhp car out of the factory with two extra driven wheels so it ain't bad all things considered. Far from it.

Brakes? They won't be hugely more expensive to replace than GTI brakes, especially if you're not heavy braking all the time. Spread the cost over three or four years and there won't be much in it above a GTI.

Yes, it'll cost a bit more to run than a GTI but it has more in its armoury.
Depreciation on a new one will put other running costs into perspective.

Would be buying used, probably keeping for 3 years ish.(the idea) not a massive heavy breaker just when the time calls for it . no track days etc. I was guessing i would probably get roughly same mpg as my current mk6. which like you mention isnt bad for a 300hp 4wd motor! so overall doesnt look massive difference

[Exonian]

I've not checked out used prices for a good while now but when I last looked at the end of the summer there wasn't a massive gulf between new and used.
There has never been a better time to buy a new performance Golf than now I reckon. Not since the scrappage scheme of 2009ish (which I just missed out on having binned off an old Polo GT runabout I'd had for years when it's battery tray rusted out meaning it leaked water badly) have there been so many incentives.
With the broker prices (you'd easily sell your mk6 for good money privately so no incentive to part ex like you'd be more likely to do with a newish car) and VW incentives the price of a new one is quite attainable at the moment so long as you don't go batsh!t with the options.

Oh, as for fuel, it won't be as good on fuel as your mk6 but it won't be a million miles away.

And as for oil consumption - I've not checked mine for a few months! In the first few months it didn't use any so I stopped checking. That's going to be my next job later once the engine cools down.

[monkeyhanger]

mpg depends on driving style and gearbox. Like for like driving, the GTD in DSG flavour (my dad's) was around 10% thirstier than mine. In the R, i'm getting at least 10% better than most DSGers here. On my 20 mile each way commute i'm averaging around 33mpg going to work and around 31mpg coming home (when it's a bit busier). I use my right foot when I can, but I also preserve my momentum whenever possible and don't use the brakes as often as I could, preferring to read the road ahead ad let the car slow itself down.

New or used, unless you're wanting one of the very first Rs, with the incentives around at the moment, i'd say buy new if you can, especially if PCPing, as the new cars get a far better APR%.

As far as oil consumption goes, mine has used around 1/3 of a litre in almost 7k miles - I topped it up last week for the first time. At least I think it has used 1/3 of a litre, the car had a new Turbo at around 4500 miles, and i'm guessing they replaced the oil as part of the work, maybe they were a bit tight and only refilled to somewhere around the minimum mark on the dipstick?

If you get the service packages (with a new one, maybe not available with a used one), your running costs (maintenance) won't be any more expensive than a GTI PP, unless you keep it long enough to need a Haldex box oil change (40k miles), and even that isn't silly expensive (about £120). Longest i've kept a VW bought from new (and i've had 8 of them) is 26k miles and the style of driving I use, i've never had to replace any brake pads/discs.

As far as premium tyres go, i've always found that Michelins are the longest lasting, and are good all the way down to 2mm, whereas Pirellis seem to wear really quickly and Contis are reasonable in the wear rate but really fall off in wet performance below 4mm. Uniroyal Rainsport 3s are good in the wet, they're just under 2/3 the price of a Conti 5 or Michelin Pilot Supersport in 19" size, but will last less than 2/3 the mileage - so price per mile for your rubber is about the same. They'll be cheaper but you'll be buying them more often.

[Rhyso]

Just my 2 cents but I found that UniRoyal's outlasted all of the usual suspects

I had Michelin PS3's, Goodyear ASY 2's and then finally the UniRoyals. PS3's did about 12k, Goodyear's barely 10k and the UniRoyal's lasted 15k. I sold the car with the rears having done over 20k and still had approx 2.5mm tread left

Ok my car was an A3 but it was running 205bhp / 320lbs ft torque so not exactly tyre friendly 

[remlapeel]

I have got 18k out of my standard tyres on 19" wheels. Real world MPG for me is a long term combined of 29mpg. I'm also a DSG

[chris1h]

I've not checked out used prices for a good while now but when I last looked at the end of the summer there wasn't a massive gulf between new and used.
There has never been a better time to buy a new performance Golf than now I reckon. Not since the scrappage scheme of 2009ish (which I just missed out on having binned off an old Polo GT runabout I'd had for years when it's battery tray rusted out meaning it leaked water badly) have there been so many incentives.
With the broker prices (you'd easily sell your mk6 for good money privately so no incentive to part ex like you'd be more likely to do with a newish car) and VW incentives the price of a new one is quite attainable at the moment so long as you don't go batsh!t with the options.

Oh, as for fuel, it won't be as good on fuel as your mk6 but it won't be a million miles away.

And as for oil consumption - I've not checked mine for a few months! In the first few months it didn't use any so I stopped checking. That's going to be my next job later once the engine cools down.

yeah, new i think it just that stretch too far at the moment!

[chris1h]

mpg depends on driving style and gearbox. Like for like driving, the GTD in DSG flavour (my dad's) was around 10% thirstier than mine. In the R, i'm getting at least 10% better than most DSGers here. On my 20 mile each way commute i'm averaging around 33mpg going to work and around 31mpg coming home (when it's a bit busier). I use my right foot when I can, but I also preserve my momentum whenever possible and don't use the brakes as often as I could, preferring to read the road ahead ad let the car slow itself down.

New or used, unless you're wanting one of the very first Rs, with the incentives around at the moment, i'd say buy new if you can, especially if PCPing, as the new cars get a far better APR%.

As far as oil consumption goes, mine has used around 1/3 of a litre in almost 7k miles - I topped it up last week for the first time. At least I think it has used 1/3 of a litre, the car had a new Turbo at around 4500 miles, and i'm guessing they replaced the oil as part of the work, maybe they were a bit tight and only refilled to somewhere around the minimum mark on the dipstick?

If you get the service packages (with a new one, maybe not available with a used one), your running costs (maintenance) won't be any more expensive than a GTI PP, unless you keep it long enough to need a Haldex box oil change (40k miles), and even that isn't silly expensive (about £120). Longest i've kept a VW bought from new (and i've had 8 of them) is 26k miles and the style of driving I use, i've never had to replace any brake pads/discs.

As far as premium tyres go, i've always found that Michelins are the longest lasting, and are good all the way down to 2mm, whereas Pirellis seem to wear really quickly and Contis are reasonable in the wear rate but really fall off in wet performance below 4mm. Uniroyal Rainsport 3s are good in the wet, they're just under 2/3 the price of a Conti 5 or Michelin Pilot Supersport in 19" size, but will last less than 2/3 the mileage - so price per mile for your rubber is about the same. They'll be cheaper but you'll be buying them more often.

I like to put foot down but sensible at times to conserve the fuel. i think 30mpg should be quite attainable from the R going off what i have read so far!

So not oil "guslers" then!

Yeah the apr is 4.9% on the new ones but i think its just that bit too far out my reach! havent said that with a orange wheels discount it does bring it down a hell of alot! i will have to sit down a look through both financially to see what will work out best in the long run!

Are the first 14 plate R's okay?

[Exonian]

Yes, the first R's are much like the newer R's. Obviously there are detail differences in spec but mechanically there will be few differences. There was a bit of fuss about dodgy turbos on some early cars but those would have long since had their hardware fixed under warranty. If you read forums you'd be forgiven for thinking there was a huge plague of defective turbos but in reality I don't think that many failed. Monkeyhanger will be the expert on that subject!

I took mine on a semi regular early morning jaunt at 4am today.
40 mile round trip, dual carriageway mostly, up and down hills and round some good bends, keeping more or less right on the speed limit but with occasional bursts of acceleration to test the 4wd grip off a rolling 2nd gear start as traffic lights changed (no traffic about so easy to play about, it was nice and wet and fairly cold too so a good 4wd test) but only up to speed limits.
26mpg. Not great!

Cruise everywhere at 40 -60 mph and it'll do mid to high thirties but as MH says, hit the gas and it'll drop like a stone.
It's a 300bhp car so it'll drink 300bhp fuel.