« Reply #19 on: 29 January 2020, 14:44 »
It was probably down to the huge demand for the R’s during the mk7(7.5) heyday.
VW UK must’ve ordered in loads in the lead up to the WLTP delays and subsequent stockpiling, as Marshall’s in Bridgwater had well over a dozen March 19 registered R’s back in the summer sat on their forecourt that had a few thousand miles on them, nearly all specced with pano roofs and Prets and very well priced which points to them being acquired cheaply from VW.
When I went in the have a nose at the dealer showroom TCR (which I ended up buying a few months later) I was offered a choice of several R’s both unregistered or low mileage Ex-fleet 19 plate cars, and this was in a very small dealership so I’d imagine the big dealers would have many more at their disposal.
I’m not sure how far dealers and VW UK plan ahead but it might possibly be further stockpiling to ease the demand between the 7 ceasing in production and availability of physical mk8 performance models.
There’s probably a lack of GTI’s available due to less demand.
For most of its life the only real competition for the 7R was the unloved, hard riding, dowdy S3 but now there are new kids on the block such as the A35 and M135i which will dilute the market more but there’s still going to be strong demand for used 7R’s due to its cult status.

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‘25 8.5R, ‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten