2025 Volkswagen Golf R review: Australian first drive

Finding an accessibly priced performance hatch in 2025 is not an easy task, making something as capable and emotional as the Volkswagen Golf R a tantalising prospect.

Now, the Mk8.5 is here, bringing with it more power and torque, as well as what the car maker says is its “biggest improvement in driving dynamics for the last 10 years”, suggesting there’s even more scope for the R to grow in our market.

New for 2025 is the limited-run Golf R Black Edition, and a specialised option package that includes a titanium Akrapovic exhaust system, returning to the Golf after its departure with the (also limited) 20 Years edition in 2023.

The current Mk8 Golf R arrived in 2022, and has been popular with car enthusiasts young and, shall we say, less young, since then.

Last year, around 850 were sold locally out of a total 3800 Volkswagen R products, with Australia the fourth-biggest market in the world for the performance sub-brand.

But here comes the tricky part. Can you have a performance hatch like the Golf R if you have a family? 

We explore what the updated Golf R has to offer and whether it can fit into your life as a parent.

The 2025 Volkswagen Golf R now costs $70,990, up $400, which is not at all bad considering the particularly performance-focused improvements, with the Black Edition slightly more at $72,490 before on-roads.

In comparison to its closest competitors, which include the likes of the Toyota GR Corolla, Honda Civic Type R and the BMW M135 xDrive, it costs less than most, has more power, is quicker to 100km/h, and has a richer standard list of equipment.

Headlines for the updated Golf R include a refreshed appearance, new interior technology, and more power. 

The infotainment screen is now a larger 12.9-inch unit, with new software that is quicker to respond, and the volume slider underneath is illuminated to make it easier to see. The 10.2-inch digital instrument display offers a range of views.

The system is indeed very responsive and looks fresh, modern and uncluttered. But it’s frustrating that the heating and ventilation controls are still only accessible from within it, making it a fiddly task to do something as simple as change climate settings or switch between drive modes.

It might not seem like a big deal, but trying to do this, or perhaps control music, at speed or along windy roads – such as those we drove between Orange and the Blue Mountains in regional New South Wales – is actually quite hard and distracting. That's because the nature of the driving experience really demands you keep both hands on the wheel at all times.

The screen also sits just a little too far out of reach for me, meaning I have to lean forward to change anything. And the touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel are still there, unlike the remainder of the Golf range, where they are now back to being physical buttons. 

According to Volkswagen, though, they have been adjusted to require more input, so even though they are still touch-sensitive, they do need a firm push (especially the R driving mode button) and are less easily accidentally knocked. However, I did still manage to end up turning on the cruise control unintentionally on one occasion.

The focus of the Mk8 was giving the model a big boost of technology and safety, which the 8.5 now builds on with the addition of a 360-degree ‘Area View’ camera as standard for the first time on the Golf R, as well as Park Assist Plus to help make parking easier.

Standard equipment in the Golf R, although not new for this facelift, includes features such as: wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a wireless phone charger, Harman Kardon eight-speaker sound system, head-up display, DAB radio, heated and ventilated front seats, Matrix LED headlights and LED tail-lights, a sports steering wheel, satellite navigation, and electric front seats with memory on the driver’s side.

The Golf R gets four USB-C ports, two for the front and two for the back.

The sports seats are wrapped in nappa leather, which, though soft to the touch and great to look at, as well as being easy to wipe off if you did let any young kids near the thing, aren’t all that comfortable. 

The bolstering holds you in nicely for periods of spirited driving, and is fine in the short term, but once I’d been on the road a few hours, I really started to feel discomfort in my back and neck.

The trim, for the most part, looks high quality, stopping short of luxury, though, as there are still a lot of hard plastics to be found on the doors and the dash.

The Golf R can be had in three colours, Pure White, Grenadilla Black Metallic, or Lapiz Blue Metallic – all available as standard. The only optional extra is a panoramic sunroof for $1900.

The Black Edition takes all this and adds black 19-inch Warmenau forged alloy wheels (versus the standard R’s Estoril 235/35 R19s), black brake calipers (as opposed to blue), black exhaust outlets, badges and trim. You get the picture, if you like black on black on black, this one is for you.

Volkswagen has also launched a new Warmenau Package for the standard Golf R, which costs an extra $6500, and for that you get the 19-inch Warmenau wheels, genuine carbon fibre featuring on the dashboard and doors, and an Akrapovic titanium exhaust system.

Aside from looking the part, the Warmenau wheels are 20 per cent lighter, weighing 8kg rather than 10kg to bring overall tare weight down to 1517kg, and their lower unsprung mass helps improve handling and brake cooling.

Again, Golfs are known for their practicality, and in a lot of ways the R maintains that reputation with respectable levels of space for a hatch.

The Golf R is 4296mm long, 1467mm high, and 1789mm wide, with a 2630mm wheelbase.

There’s not a whole lot of room in the front, as you’re nestled in by the sports seats with a low driving position to suit the nature of it being a performance vehicle, but it’s not what you’d call tight either.

In the rear, even behind my seating position, leg room is restricted with barely a couple of inches to spare, and I’m not tall, just your average-sized female at around 167cm.

Head room, too, could prove a struggle for someone taller than me, with about a hand’s length (again, hand in the context of my size) above my head.

The boot offers 374 litres of space with the seats up, expanded to 1230L when folded down, which is enough to fit a couple of small suitcases and bags but not much else. 

I didn’t have my child’s pram with me at launch, but I know it would be hard, if not impossible, to fit without taking the parcel shelf out. Adding any other baby or small children's items would not be realistic.

The boot can also be accessed via a ski hatch behind the middle seats, which is handy for transporting larger pieces. 

There are ISOFIX anchors on the two outboard seats, which are easily accessible through little flaps that fold down and out of the way – no hard-to-find bars or plastic pieces that come off and immediately get lost here.

And there are three top-tether points across the back of the rear seats, which are also easy to find, if likely a little fiddly to connect due to the hard cardboard-style parcel shelf getting in the way.

When it comes time to get behind the wheel, though, the Golf R is a pure joy to drive, propelling you back in time to your youth when driving anything other than a hatch was unthinkable.

As before, the Golf R uses the Volkswagen Group’s EA888 2.0-litre turbo-petrol in-line four-cylinder engine, with power sent to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

The updated Golf R, however, ekes 10kW more out of that engine than the previous incarnation, and 20Nm too, boosting outputs to a healthy 245kW/420Nm. The increased power and torque bring down its 0–100km/h time from 4.8 seconds to 4.6.

Vehicle dynamics have been improved, and the engine is more responsive than before. And that’s thanks to the car’s Vehicle Dynamics Manager, which is essentially the brain of the R, helping it to be much more agile than its predecessor, which didn’t have it – it’s quicker and more intuitive. 

The Mk8.5 gets R-tuned steering, adaptive suspension and chassis, and has several drive modes, some of which are unique to the R.

Your average drive modes include Eco and Comfort, which do what they say on the tin. 

In both, the throttle response is softer, and in Comfort, which is the default mode, the suspension and steering are softer too, and one exhaust flap is always closed to make it quieter.

In reality, I found that the road noise did still penetrate the cabin enough to be noticeable, which was an excellent excuse to test the Harman Kardon system that offers excellent, clear and crisp sound.

Stepping up from Comfort is Sport. In this mode, the suspension is still reasonably soft, and the noise is not overly invasive, but it’s a nice balance of feeling sharper yet also chilled enough for everyday journeys.

Then comes the real fun, with Race mode. In Race mode, you can further select two options: special ‘Nürburgring’ or Drift.

In Race, the whole car’s manner changes. The suspension is very firm and the steering much heavier, but the reward is a cacophony of pops and crackles from the exhaust because the valves open early, it sounds louder, and boy is that thrilling.

Specifically in Nürburgring Mode, which I used along the mountain roads as well as on-track at Sydney Motorsport Park, the car is very committed, but the suspension is a bit softer than in the stock Race setting, helping to absorb the bumps better.

The R development team said this setting is perfect for Australian country roads with our variety of often rough terrain, because it’s a hoot to fling through corners but doesn’t feel stiff or hit every ridge or crack with a bang. Equally, it handled sections of gravel on our journey in the wet with ease.

On our trip, the only time I spent in the back was on the bitumen and the ride was pleasant enough, but I would imagine through twists and turns, and with the driver going a bit faster, there would be the potential for adults or kids to feel a bit green.

The Drift Mode is another self-explanatory one; however, what the R team has done here to make the Golf feel more rear-wheel-drive sports car than all-wheel-drive hot hatch through its torque-vectoring rear differential is impressive.

In Drift, the car can shift almost 100 per cent of the power to the outside rear wheel. 

Depending on the drive mode, the split can be variable, helping the car to respond better to the individual situation. The traction is incredible, even in the wet.

Beyond those, there is also a custom Individual mode.

Just for some extra giggles, VW has thrown in some Easter egg features in there too.

For example, instead of pressing the brake and then the start button as you would typically do in a modern car, in the Golf R if you push and hold the start button and then step on the brake, the car starts at higher revs – around the 2500rpm mark – and pops and crackles like it's backfiring. But maybe don’t try that on the driveway if you’ve got an early start – your neighbours might not thank you for it.

Or, for example, if you want a fast overtake or are ready to brake hard into a tight corner, pull and hold the minus paddle behind the steering wheel and the Golf will automatically shift down to the lowest possible gear for you. Handy when you need to quickly change from fourth gear to second on a circuit like Sydney Motorsport Park.

For customers lamenting the loss of a manual Golf R, Volkswagen has now responded with the M+ function in Sport Mode so enthusiasts can still use it as their daily driver in auto, but switch to manual when they want to have more control.

Using the paddles, in M+ you have no automatic override, you have no kick-down, so you can decide which gear the car stays in without it intervening.

So can you use it as a daily driver? Yes, absolutely. Family practicality issues aside, it's capable of tackling the commute with genuine efficiency. On our mixed journey, the highway sections saw us getting as low as 5.5 litres per 100 kilometres in Comfort, which is incredibly impressive, and much lower than the combined claim of 8.3L/100km.

However, driving it in the manner it is intended to be driven, such as through winding hills, saw us achieving more like 10.7L/100km.

There is one other win with the arrival of the Mk8.5, though, and that’s it being able to take 95 premium unleaded instead of just 98, which will make a decent saving at the bowser over time, as well as generally being more available if you’re taking it out on road trips in rural areas.

From a safety perspective, the Golf R gets the full armoury of equipment offered by VW, including features such as blind-spot monitoring, tyre pressure sensors, rear cross-traffic assist, forward collision warning, driver monitors for both fatigue and distraction, rear collision warning, lane-keep assist and more.

It is also covered by a five-star ANCAP rating awarded in 2022. 

The Golf R is covered by Volkswagen’s five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, meeting the industry average, with servicing intervals set at every 12 months/15,000km. 

Services one, three and five cost $557, while two and four work out at $1071 and $1460 respectively. Additionally, the brand offers Care Plans for either three or five years, with the former cutting the cost by 10 per cent and the latter equating to getting the first service for free.

Unsurprisingly, most Golf Rs are driven by enthusiasts, according to Volkswagen, with its evidence suggesting the model is often the second car in a family home.

The split of buyers still favours males, made up mostly of a mixture of young men and those over the age of 50, although female ownership is increasing, working out at roughly 70/30.

Interestingly, VW said its customers like to own a vehicle with the capability under the bonnet, but whether they necessarily use that capability often or not “is another story”.

Which takes us to the point of track days – every performance car owner’s dream.

Volkswagen only offers customer track days when there is a significant upgrade to one of its performance-focused products, and it is by invitation only, aimed at its most loyal buyers or those who it knows are in the market.

Arjun Nidigallu, Volkswagen Australia’s Head of Product, told Drive the brand will look at where there are opportunities for a broader track day program, as is offered by other high-end car makers such as Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, but has to consider the investment involved in doing so.

Globally, the brand is increasing its track presence, with recent events held in Japan and Sweden, with plans for upcoming days in Switzerland and the Czech Republic. The Mk8.5 launch was held in conjunction with a customer event at Sydney Motorsport Park too.

According to Volkswagen, “it’s difficult for someone who drives an R engine to feel comfortable driving anything else… you can’t let go”, because they’re “trying to retain their sense of youth and exuberance”.

Having driven the Golf R on a variety of roads and on-track, I can understand how this could be the case. It is an incredible vehicle – fast, fun and handles so intuitively. It’s as if the Golf R knows what you want to do before you do it, and it definitely took me back to my carefree twenties.

However, as a parent in my thirties, I know in my heart that with all the will in the world, if I had the pleasure of a Golf R in my garage, that’s exactly where it would spend 99 per cent of its time. Because going out for a drive by myself, purely for the sake of driving, is the stuff only dreams are made of.

If you can stretch beyond a $70K budget, and can drive it dynamically on track or challenging roads regularly enough, then the Golf R is a wild little hatch that will blow all your mates’ cars out of the water. And if you can get your hands on one of the 300 Black Edition variants, then even better, though 150 are already spoken for, so you’d better be quick.

For any fellow parents out there, though, waiting until your kids are a bit older and more independent is more realistic, and means you’d get more time with your car, helping to justify the cost. Alternatively, consider moving up Volkwagen's range into one of its R SUVs, such as the T-Roc, Tiguan or Touareg.

The Mk8.5 Golf R is more than a GTI with the wick turned up a bit. The latter is a family car with lots of punch. However, the R is much more focused and in a different league of performance. The family can come along for the ride, but it's made for the driver.

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

Read more about Kathryn Fisk