squoval

My R was on long life servicing and only ask for first oil change at 15000 miles. Car ran great with 2 services in 2 years with 36000 miles when I changed. A couple of little top ups in between.

I got the S5 Coupe after my R and would choose it over any of the above. Different car to the Golf. Stunning looking car. Still get compliments from the neighbors after a year. My next car will be another S5 but with some exclusive paint! 😎

I've got a set of 19" Borbet LW with Michelin Pilot Supersport (5mm) on them if you're interested.

Same all round.

Do it through your insurance (if you can) but get your insurance to accept you are not at fault and it won't affect your no claims. However if your insurance insist you pay the excess - get that off him! I had 2 big claims before. One for hitting a deer and one when my car was keyed. My insurance accepted both as not at fault and I've never incurred any penalties on my insurance premium when I acknowledge them. I was insured with LV and Direct Line.

Hot hatch was always my choice of car contributed with the fact I lived town centre for 10 years. The S5 is lovely and it'll be another dilemma when it's time to replace again. But for me the Golf R is still the perfect all round car even taking the S5 into consideration. The S5 is lovely, but I think you would be a little disappointed (like me) with anything else other than an R.

The 8 speed auto took a little bit of time to get used to. Its apparenty the same box that's used in the RS7 and possibly the same one in the new RS5? Now that I've had it a while I prefer it over the S-Tronic/DSG, more so in manual. Although I love the way you can blip the accelerator and it will change down and hold a gear without having to kickdown in auto and sport. From launch, with all traction switched off, the gear changes are neck snapping brutal. It's definitely quicker than the standard R with everything switched off - but not as poised. Definitely feels more GT car that hot hatch.

I have the S5 Coupe and love it. It's a different car to 7R. More grown up.

I've had 54mpg on a 32 miles round trip to work in eco and costing at every opportunity I could. I don't think anywhere near that would be possible on the motorway though. Never tried. 30 is achievable and high 30's are doable in the R. I get 36mpg most days in my B9 S5, although this is efficiency/eco mode. 30mpg in dynamic/sport/race. Pretty much the same mpg as the R but probably due to the 8 speed gearbox.

It's 4 wheel drive and not 'set up' for a wider track on the rear. Some mods are great to enhance the look of the car but don't enhance performance at the same time. The 'electronics' of the R are set up for the factory track width with a wheel offset of 50. A car is guaranteed to go wrong at some point if you change this. This video sort of illustrates what can go wrong. https://youtu.be/EFpRLjmAicc

Without a doubt 19" with the right offset and good rubber i.e. ET50 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport.

Forgive me for boring you with this post... but, correct tyres and setup is absolutely paramount on a car like the R - and arguably any car for that matter! I never compromise on tyres. They are the only contact the car has with the road. As soon as my tyres hit 3mm they are off and a new 'set' replaces them. To mix and match different tyres of different tread levels is bonkers on a 300+bhp all wheel drive car. I rotate every 3000 which sounds a bit bonkers in itself but I deep clean the alloys at the same time. This ensures my tyres don't wear unevenly and don't go over 2mm difference in tread depth. Trying to save or not spend money on tyres is something you definitely should not do in my opinion. My father had a bad car accident some years ago now due to poor tyre choice (winters only on the front in winter) and I lost a friend a few years back arguably due to the tyres - using different tyres with low tread on the rear. The Golf R can only provide excellent all wheel drive grip with the same quality and brand/pattern of tyres with good levels of even tread. A tyre fitter (or main dealer for that matter) will probably never recommend this but VW insist on this on their maintenance package. That's says it all!

Audi have the phone app for keyless so you can lock/unlock with phone. Why does VW not have this??... or do they?

If you're happy to pay extra consider the 240 R line (if you want something quicker) or maybe the new Q5?

Buy a European drivers side visor??