^Nope, Had 18" S001 on my GTD and it was tramptastic with lots of tyre noise. Then I got my R on 19" wheels (RE050A) and although no initial traction issues due to the haldex, the grip going slowly around roundabouts in very mild winter weather (9C ambient temp, morning dew, not wet) was poor, the ride was poor as the compound is rock hard too. Switched to Michelin PSS after 6k miles and the diffrrence is night and day in all conditions grip. Bridgestones sat in my shed to go back on when I sell the car.
235 35 19 91Y XL prices from Mytyres.com
£184 for PPS vs £140 for RE050A
Not really going for the same market with that price difference and the bean counters at VW will never spend the extra.
Durable tyres could be more important for VW than ultimate grip especially now tyre maintenance is included frequently with finance deals (and if you crash because of low grip tyres, VW will either sell you a new car, or sell you very profitable repair parts, either way they win!).
Ford allow you to specify the tyres you want from a limited range on the lowly Transit van - surely VW could do something similar and make a bit of money out of their customers at the same time. I'd rather have paid VW an extra £100 for them to have fitted PSS than have to pay £600 for 4 and have a £500 set of Bridgestones sat in my shed.
Some people here lavish a lot of money on their performance Golf initially (kit and options) and frequently, that's not me - if not for my strongly perceived ugliness of the Cadiz wheel design i'd have happily stuck with 18" wheels and saved £900 as I am of the opinion that options are dead money and generally not worth the money lost over a 2 or 3 year term of ownership.
You can imagine then that I wouldn't have spent £600 on new tyres without a second thought if the Bridgestones weren't so poor at their job (grip) on the R. The Haldex flatters the tyres on initial traction, but that can't save poor grip. As they are hard as nails, my Bridgestones have hardly any wear on them.
Considering how much better my R is on both grip and ride comfort on PSS, it's a huge shame that VW didn't consider better rubber at the time. Recent owners are often seeing factory orders come through on better tyres.