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Who doesn’t love a hot hatch? The combination of a nimble chassis, lively performance, and versatile practicality has been a winning package for decades now and though they still are less beloved here in the States than they are in Europe we now at least have a few nice options from which we can choose the one that suits our needs. VW, of course, produced one of the most iconic hot hatches of all time and while their current options have departed quite a bit from the excellent lightness of the original GTi, they remain a leader in hot-hatch execution. For 2012 Volkswagen brought us their top performance version, the Golf R. As the replacement for the R32 the Golf R utilized a 2.0 liter turbocharged inline-4 to direct 256 hp to all four wheels through a 6-speed manual. These pack a serious punch when added to the dynamic chassis and all-wheel drive helps smooth out the various problems associated with asking the front wheels to steer and deliver all that power at the same time. With both a 2-door and 4-door as options there’s also plenty of versatility available to those who need it. The example we see here appears to be a lightly used 2-door Rising Blue Metallic 2012 Volkswagen Golf R, located in Dallas.
It’s hard to think that the Volkswagen GTI has been with us for forty years. In that time, the we’ve seen everything from 2.0 liter, 115 horsepower 8-valve Mk3s to an insane GTI concept car with a mid-mounted W12 engine. In between, there’s been a number of variations on the hot hatch theme, including this car, the Mk2 Golf GTI G60. For those of you non-VW aficionados, the G60 pertains to what’s under the hood, in this case, the 1.8 liter supercharged inline-4 with 160 horsepower that saw duty in the Corrado when it debuted and later in the rare Golf G60 Limited. This GTI G60 for sale in Switzerland has had a complete overhaul and looks sharp sitting on aftermarket, deeper offset Ronal alloys.
I was in Stuttgart in 1998 when what I thought was someone’s version of a good joke rolled by me. It was a dark green Mk.2 Golf; not particularly abnormal since they were still mostly less than a decade old and Germans notoriously care for their cars better than most other nations. However, it was about a half-foot taller than it should have been, equipped with some cool looking Speedline wheels, brush guards and a spare tire mounted to the rear. Germans have an odd sense of humor, so it seemed to fit that this was one mullet short of a Hasselhoff Fan Club. I had no idea that I was looking at a factory model; remember, this was in the infancy of the internet and as an American, knowledge of every single European model of the Mk.2 was hard to come by. But the “Country” graphic scrolled down the side gave me a clue, and after some research I found out that this was more than just a one-off. Underneath the standard looking exterior was a Viscous Coupling all-wheel drive setup shared with the Rallye Golf and Golf Limited, amongst others. The engine was more pedestrian with a standard 1.8 8V, but in total an amazing 438 non-standard parts went into the creation of the Golf Country. Since new, they’ve always commanded a premium and have been the object of lust for American Volkswagen fans who like to do things just a bit different:
Mk1 GTIs are getting harder to come by, so those enthusiasts looking for the affordable, tossable treat that it’s always been are going to have to start accepting some flaws to get behind the wheel. Today’s Giugiaro masterpiece comes in daily-driver form with 167k miles and some considerable blemishes, but it’s getting harder to find GTIs under $4k that aren’t basket cases. Yes, a few rust spots could use some attention, but it comes with a new sunroof to repair one of the glaring issues. The Mk3 leather seats are an attractive addition and the new wheels and tires look decent if overstretched. It’s going to be a project, but isn’t that what old VWs are supposed to be?
The new Golf R is a force to be reckoned with, making the first appreciable increase in power since these MkIV R32s brought 4WD performance and the R moniker to the VW Golf lineup. While the new 2.0 liter turbo four may produce a lot more power, the open-flapped exhaust on these 3.2 liter VR6s will still turn more heads. Having covered just over 40k miles means this is one of the best examples on the market, so the seller is going big and asking for $20k. Yes, that’s well on its way to a new GTI or slightly used Golf R, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the original R32.
