Should I buy a second hand Golf R?

[Dutch77]

They do tend to attract different buyers - especially post the first year or two of release when there was a massive waiting list on S3 sedans (mostly migrating from Mk6 GTIs and Rs).

At least be happy if an R seller discloses there is a tune on there, particularly if it is a simple stage 1. That should generally not have caused issues although will still be a warranty risk. It's the Rs out there that don't have tunes that would worry me, a lot of buyers have used plug ins and may hide the fact later, so you may end up with a bigger problem warranty wise should anything go wrong. If you can jag a car off someone you know or a regular forum member you should end up with a better buy.

[tigger73]

Just be aware that the 5 year warranty only came in as a permanent thing at the beginning of 2019. I'd personally go for the 7.5R with the 7 speed DSG. If you can stretch to a 2019 with the 5 year warranty then that would be my pick but it comes down to $. Also mk8 is just around the corner so if you can hold off then prices will come down when the new model hits (or be aware of that when buying now/factor it in).

[cloudblade]

But the mk8 R is not going to release for another year waiting I suppose, IMO 7.5R looks much better than MK8.

[Dutch77]

94% of Golf owners always claim the current model looks better than the next one.

Regardless, the fact it is/will be superseded is relevant to the price to pay for one now, which I believe is what @tigger73 was getting at.

[Gladbach]

I'm in a Golf R facebook group and have seen people posting who are considering buying something else wanting to sell their R now before the MK8 comes out as they know that they'll take a hit otherwise. Still a while off though.

Agree as well, not a big fan of the MK8 looks, no idea who signed off on it and thought it looked good. The interior is nice, with more tech once again, but I much prefer having physical buttons/dials for the aircon etc.

[Sharkie]

I love my R and will no doubt hang on to it for quite a while. As mentioned above, look for a R sold in 2019 as it will have 5 years of warranty on it then, which should remove any/most of the risk in buying a R.

If you can drive a manual consider looking for the R in a manual instead. In the long run it will be worth more and have less reliability issues. The only downside is that in order to put any kind of tune on it, you will need to do a clutch upgrade as the stock clutch cannot handle any more torque than 400NM. A Stg 1 tune therefore turns into a $3500 exercise ($2500 clutch and $1000 tune), which does mean fewer are likely to have been tuned I suppose.

[Dutch77]

..or they just have a ****ed clutch?

Problem with the 2019+ cars is they're priced too close to a brand new car currently because of the weird market we are in. However understand if high 50s-60k is over desired budget, so then it's a case of cherry picking the sensibly priced second hand stuff.

[Gladbach]

Yeah, I have some time, just want to have it all finalised by February before our baby comes. I think the reality is that I'll either end up with a 2019 GTI with the remainder of a 5 year warranty, or a 2018 R with the remainder of the 3 year warranty.

[Dutch77]

Keep an eye out before hand, but otherwise everything turns a year older in January and you can use that against the seller - less relevant on an older car, but makes a difference on a 2019 or even maybe 2018 (even if it shouldn't).

December salesman - "it's only complianced this month!"
January wholesaler - "yeah that's a 20xx car mate"

[Ozsko]

The interior is nice, with more tech once again, but I much prefer having physical buttons/dials for the aircon etc.

While I somewhat agree with you the reality for me is I can't remember the last time I changed any settings on my CC.