Volkswagen Golf R Estate Review & Prices

The Volkswagen Golf R Estate is the more practical brother to the Golf R hatchback, with a bigger boot but the same high performance and the same excellent handling. It’s basically like taking two twin brothers, who are great at sports, and giving one of them a bigger backpack than the other.

While the Golf R Estate is, of course, a bit longer than the Golf hatch, the two cars basically look the same, with the same standard 18-inch alloy wheels, the same quad exhausts, the same optional Lapiz Blue paint, and the new LED light strip at the front which also now illuminates the Volkswagen badge.

It’s a sporty, even slightly aggressive looking car, but somehow the estate bodywork makes it look a little more subtle than the hatchback, so if you want to pass unnoticed, get this instead of the hatch.

The Golf R Estate gets the same 2.0-litre turbo engine as the hatchback, which has recently been upgraded from 320hp to 333hp, with a 4.7 second 0-62mph time. There’s a standard four-wheel drive system, which is biased slightly towards the rear wheels, and which can shuffle power between the rear wheels for even sharper handling. There’s also a seven-speed DSG automatic gearbox with paddle shifts. It’s a little heavier than the hatchback — by 180kg — but that’s not enough to put much of a dent in the performance nor the handling.

The suspension is lower and stiffer than that of the standard Golf, or indeed than the Golf GTI, but there are optional DCC adaptive dampers which allow you to pick from firmer or softer settings. Mind you, it’s still pretty stiff around town, although the suspension does smooth out at higher speeds. The brakes are upgraded and stop the Golf R pretty well.

If you’re after more sporty thrills, you can add the R Performance Pack for £1,960 which gives you an increased top speed of 168mph, 19-inch alloy wheels and a ‘drift mode’. Drifting a Volkswagen estate? It can be done.

The upgrades which Volkswagen brought in for the ‘Mk8.5’ Golf have made the Golf R Estate much better to drive than before. Whereas previously, it was fast but a bit plain to drive, now it’s far more involving with sharper steering and amazing cross-country, all-weather ability and agility. You could, maybe, go for the Cupra Leon estate, which uses the same basic mechanical package, and which is just as much fun, but the Golf R Estate has a classier air about it. It looks better, too.

Slow down, and the comfy bucket seats and potential for 40mpg on a long journey make the Golf R Estate a truly talented all-round car. Performance and practicality in one package.

Inside, there are blue tartan inserts for the bucket seats, and there has been a significant uplift in overall quality for this Mk8.5 model. The new 12.9-inch touchscreen is a big improvement over the previous infotainment system, and it’s much better and more responsive to use, even if it’s still too fiddly and annoying at times. It also sometimes struggles to connect to your phone, and please can we have a return of proper physical buttons? While the regular Golf and the GTI have been given a new steering wheel with proper buttons on it, the R sticks with the previous model’s touch-sensitive pads, which are really fiddly and awkward to use.

The Estate has a longer wheelbase than the standard hatch, so you get a bit more leg room in the back. But the real change is in the boot. Compared to the decent 341 litres you get on the normal Golf R, the Estate has a stonking 611 litres of boot storage. With the rear seats down, you’ll have 1,642 litres of storage, more than enough for chucking a bicycle in the back without taking the wheels off.

The Golf R is one of those jack of all trades - It’s pretty good at everything. The Golf R Estate may be a little heavier and slower than the hatch, but it’s still good fun to drive, and very practical. If you’re after a fast family car, the Golf R Estate should definitely be on your list.

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The Golf R was once something of a high-performance bargain, but now the Golf R Estate is just about brushing the £50,000 mark, and will easily go beyond that price once you’ve ticked a few options boxes. Oddly, the Estate version isn’t available with the same Black Edition spec that you can have for the Golf R hatch, but perhaps that’s no great loss.

You won’t save much money by going for the Cupra Leon VZ1 estate, which uses all of the same mechanical bits in a body that’s not as good-looking, but a bit less anonymous. You could save yourself a packet, and have a bigger boot, by downgrading to a Skoda Octavia vRS estate, but that’s front-wheel-drive only and has just 265hp. A Honda Civic Type R is more expensive again than the Golf R, lacks an estate version (although it has a pretty big boot), but it is wildly good to drive, and more outright fun than the Golf.

Find the right road and the Golf R Estate is massively good fun, but it’s not as smooth as a Golf GTI elsewhere on a bumpy city street

In town

The Golf R Estate can be had with optional adaptive ‘DCC’ suspension dampers, which cost less than £800, so are well worth having. Not only is there a ‘Comfort’ mode for driving gently around town, there’s even, if you go into the settings menu, two extra settings of softness, beyond Comfort. That should make the Golf R Estate lazy and easy-going around town, but the car’s inherent stiffness and sportiness always seems to come through, so you will still feel the bumps and lumps, and there’s quite a bit of fidget and jiggle over speed bumps. A regular Golf GTI feels more supple in urban conditions.

Although this Estate is a bit longer than the hatchback, that’s compensated for by better all-round visibility, and there’s a standard reversing camera too. That pops out from under the rear Volkswagen badge, so it won’t get covered with grime, but you do have to pay extra for a 360-degree camera, which is annoying.

On the motorway

All Golf models (and indeed all the Volkswagen Group cars that share the mechanical bits of the Golf) seem to suffer with a bit too much tyre noise, and the Golf R Estate’s massive tyres, running on 18-inch wheels at minimum, add to that. It’s not deafening, but you will find yourself turning up the stereo a bit on long runs.

The better news is that the suspension becomes a bit more supple at higher speeds, so the Golf R Estate copes with lumpy motorway surfaces better than it does around town, and it’s actually a very comfortable car to drive, helped by those excellent bucket front seats. If you happen to be on holiday in Germany, it will also sit very happily at 140mph all day long, too.

The Golf R Estate comes with standard adaptive cruise control, which is helpful on long journeys, as is the standard lane-keeping steering.

On a twisty road

Now we’re talking… Having standard four-wheel drive gives the Golf R Estate a major advantage over front-wheel drive GTI and GTI Clubsport models, especially in UK conditions. It means that you can put all of that newly-enlarged 333hp to the floor at all times.

That’s always been the case with the Golf R, but previously the Mk8 Golf R felt a bit dull and lifeless, even if it was quick. That’s been totally rectified with this version, with gets sharper steering and makes full use of the rear-wheel drive bias of the four-wheel drive system, and the fact that that it can vector power between the rear wheels, to turn the Golf R Estate Mk8.5 into a proper corner-carving fun-fest. Even with the extra length and weight of the estate body, this is a massively enjoyable, adjustable, engaging car to drive on a twisty road. No wonder so many local constabularies like their Golf Rs so much… The only shame is that there’s no manual gearbox option, although at least you can take partial control with the steering wheel paddles for the seven-speed DSG automatic.

Is a Honda Civic Type R more fun again? Yes, a little, but then it doesn’t have the all-weather security of the Golf, and there’s no estate version of the Honda.

Equally, the Honda doesn’t have a ‘Drift Mode’. The Golf does, although it’s a pricey option and really only useable on a race track.

Plenty of room in the Golf R Estate’s cabin, and the boot is huge, but the Civic Type-R has more rear-seat space

In the front of the Golf R Estate, you get nicely-specified bucket seats which are really comfortable, and which give you an excellent driving position. It’s annoying that, at this price level, there’s no full electric adjustment though.

There’s decent storage in large, lined door bins and a useful box under the front seat armrest. The cupholders on the centre console are a good size too, although it’s a shame that with the little toggle switch gear selector more space couldn’t have been found for storage.

At the base of the dash, there’s a storage area with the wireless phone charger. Sensibly, this has a hinged lid which not only means you can avoid distractions from pings on your phone screen, but it also means your phone won’t go flying across the cabin, mid-corner.

Space in the back seats

The rear seats of the Golf R Estate are as roomy as those of any Golf — which is to say that they’re fine for legroom and headroom, although the front bucket seats do encroach on rear passenger’s knees a touch in spite of the fact that the Golf Estate has a slightly longer wheelbase than the hatchback. There’s adequate space for four adults to get comfy, though, but don’t try squeezing five in, as the centre rear seat is just too narrow. For storage, you get some decent-sized door bins, and handy split-level seatback pockets, which give you small extra pockets high up on the seat for small items such as phones and earbud cases.

Helpfully, if you’re carrying kids, the Golf R Estate comes with three ISOFIX points — two in the back seats and one in the front passenger seat, with an airbag cutoff switch.

Boot space

This is why you buy the estate, and not the hatchback. The Golf R hatch can hold up to 380 litres in its boot, up to the luggage cover, which is fine but nothing special. The Golf R Estate can swallow up to 611 litres, and will go to a full 1,642 litres if you fold the back seats down. The rear seats don’t fold entirely flat, so there’s a slight bit of uphill, but there is a flat load floor, so heavy items are easy to slide in. There’s a handy ‘ski hatch’ load through too.

The Golf R’s new touchscreen is an improvement, but still too awkward in places

The Mk8 Golf R was — rightly — heavily criticised for its annoying infotainment screen, housed in a cheap-looking shiny plastic surround. For this Mk8.5 model, that’s gone and has been replaced by a new 12.9-inch screen that looks as if someone has abandoned a telly on the dashboard. It’s a much better screen — although arguably a bit too big for a cabin of this size — and the menu layout is much simpler to use, helped by the fact that the air conditioning controls are now ‘always on’ at the base of the screen, and there’s a handy customisable menu bar at the top, which allows you to have your most commonly used functions up at the top and easy to get at.

So it’s better, but still not ideal. There are still too many menus with too many items too many clicks away, and it would still definitely be better to have physical controls for things like stereo volume and air conditioning. Volkswagen should take a leaf out of Skoda’s book, here.

There are also some connectivity issues for phones. There is standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but the link can be flaky, which is irritating.

The digital dials are OK, with clear graphics and R-specific layouts, but it does all look a bit ‘cartoony’ and slightly cheap at times.

The big high-backed bucket seats gets blue tartan centres, a throwback to the original Golf GTI, which is a nice touch, but some classier seat fabric would be better at this price level.

The Golf R’s uprated 333hp engine can be surprisingly economical. The official 34.6mpg figure for the Estate model is generally quite accurate, and if you drive with some restraint, you might actually get better than that.

However, the 185g/km CO2 figure means that you’ll have to pay £2,190 for your first year’s tax, and Golf R’s £40,000+ price tag means that there’s an extra £425 ‘expensive car levy’ tax to pay in years two-to-six. If you’re a business user, you’ll pay at least £280 a month in BIK for a Golf R Estate.

The Golf has a solid five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, and that transfers over to the Golf R Estate. There was an impressive 88% rating for adult occupant protection, and 87% for child occupant protection, and the Golf R’s four-wheel drive makes it more sure-footed when the weather turns nasty. However, it’s irritating that, for such a pricey car, you still have to pay extra to have curtain, side, and centre airbags. Surely those should be standard by now?

The Golf R comes with an alarm and immobiliser, but with its popularity among the criminal community, you’ll definitely want to fit a tracker, and get some physical security such as a steering wheel lock or driveway post too.

The Golf is a generally reliable car, but being a high-performance model, the Golf R Estate means that you’re going to have to keep on top of more expensive maintenance to make sure it’s running at peak performance. The Golf range finished poorly in the most recent Driver Power Top 50 Cars To Own list — in fact, it came bottom, in 50th position, with lots of customers complaining about the infotainment system and lack of proper buttons. Will the new infotainment screen turn that around?

Volkswagen also finished poorly as a brand in Driver Power, coming 29th out of 32 marques, although the 23.4% of owners who reported faults with their cars isn’t actually out of kilter with other brands.