Video: 2025 Volkswagen Golf GTI and Golf R Up Close: Additions and a Big Subtraction

Yeah, that's no bueno. Really not a fan of that. The good news, well, we'll get into it. (gentle upbeat music) But this is a huge stylistic departure I would say, no? Ah! Don't lie to me. You couldn't tell the difference either. That's all right. There's not much to tell between the previous versions of the cars. For the most part, Volkswagen left well enough alone for both the R and the GTI with the exception of kind of a moderately, very slightly updated front fascia including an extended light bar on the front that is on both R and GTI. The same level of changes can be found on the interior as well, which means, well, for the most part, the biggest news here is the now standard 12.9 inch center infotainment touchscreen display. Don't necessarily love the touch capacitive slider controls for the climate functions and volume. At least they're illuminated now. There's also some new additional standard active safety features added to the standard sweep of Active Safety, including rear cross traffic alert, stop and go functionality on the adaptive cruise, and semi-autonomous hands-on driving that Volkswagen calls Travel Assist in addition to all the expected standard fare of safety tech like automatic braking and Lane Keep Assist. But for the most part, this is still the standard Mark-8 platform that we know and mostly love, including these awesome plaid upholstered bucket seats here. And most lovely of all, is the new addition of hard physical buttons on the steering wheel. You gotta love it. Back to the bad news, I'm afraid. Yes, we've gotta talk about it. There is no more manual. You can only get the 7-speed DSG dual-clutch transmission in both cars. Standard front-wheel drive GTI and the only all-wheel drive Golf R. Now, the good news, the engines are, they're no less fun. The GTI sticks with the same two-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, as does the Golf R. In the GTI, that means 241 horsepower. In the Golf R, you've got, actually, you've got a little bit more. You've got 13 extra horses for 328 horsepower. That's not too bad at all. So, the takeaway? Well, that's gonna be on you really to decide how you feel about this. Myself, pretty sad about the missing third pedal here, even if the DSG is a really excellent transmission. If you want one, either one, and I'm sure some of you really do, production begins sometime early next year with dealer availability starting around that time. And we're gonna know more about pricing and availability closer to that time. And when we do, you can read all about it on cars.com/news.