I don’t know much, but I know this: simple cars are more enjoyable than complicated cars. So it was obvious that the new Mk8.5 Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport would be superior to the similarly new Golf R, given it has two fewer driveshafts, one less differential and not so much power. But after a couple of miles behind the wheel of the needlessly complex, hopelessly overblown and altogether unnecessary Golf R, I’m wondering if I know anything at all…
We’ve given the eighth-generation Golf every opportunity to impress; to prove it’s preferable to its superb predecessor. But the earliest Mk8s fell a long way short when they arrived in 2020, and when this summer we referee’d as two facelifted eighth-gen cars went up against their Mk7.5 counterparts – first in middle-of-the-range then GTI trim – the older cars still came out on top.
So consider this the eighth-generation Golf’s last chance. The entire range has been revised and these are its latest additions. They are sufficiently closely priced (the GTI Clubsport costs £42,155, the R £43,895) that we couldn’t resist squaring one up against the other and whispering inflammatory things in their ears.
