A select handful of cars offer a rare level of all-around excellence that sets them on a plane seemingly untouchable by their competitors. Premium branding is often part of the price of admission to this level of perfection, but the people’s car company—Volkswagen—sees no reason it can’t play here too, granting its R32 levels of polish and balance more often associated with pricier brands.
Basically, the R32 is a three-door GTI—already one of our favorite small cars, with a comparison test crown and a 10Best trophy to its name—with more: a 250-hp narrow-angle V-6, all-wheel drive, a full complement of luxury features, and weight. VW manages the R32’s weight gain without losing the GTI’s playful tossability by cinching the car’s suspenders a bit tighter. Spring rates, increased just so all around, mask the additional 332 pounds quite well, leaving the GTI and R32 nearly indistinguishable in tight Alpine switchbacks. With our test gear riding shotgun, the R32 managed 0.87 g on the skidpad, matching the best number posted by a GTI in our hands.
The added weight and traction of the R32’s all-wheel-drive system endow the already stoic chassis with an even more remarkably planted feel on open roads. The steering is pleasantly hefty and stable, and the car tracks as true as a promise from Mother Teresa. During our drive, we managed to sneak over 100 mph a couple of times without disturbing a sleeping passenger or even feeling the need to have both hands on the steering wheel (don’t try this at home or anywhere: both hands were in fact on the wheel).
Unfortunately, the R32 also manages its increase in power without a huge gain in speed over the lighter, front-wheel-drive GTI. All R32s come with Volkswagen’s DSG dual-clutch sequential gearbox—with launch control—so mashing the throttle yields easy, consistent hole-shots. Compared with a DSG-equipped GTI, we saw a half-second improvement in the 0-to-60-mph blast but just a 0.2-second and 2-mph lead through the quarter, with those benchmarks falling in 5.5 and 14.4 seconds at 97 mph, compared with 6.0 and 14.6 at 95.
While the R32 has been on sale in Europe for a while, VW delayed bringing it to the States because the company was trying to work out the creation of an R36, which would have used the company’s 3.6-liter V-6 producing around 300 horsepower. Had the R36 materialized, that would be the car we’d get on our side of the pond. However, a larger transmission was needed to handle the additional output, and engineers could not find a suitable way to package it within the R32’s frame. The R36 was canned and we get the R32 instead.
With the VR6 and all-wheel drive, the R32 could be a better baseline than the GTI for a great tuner package, except that the torque produced by the stock engine is already nearing the maximum that the DSG gearbox can tolerate. Start adding power, and you’ll be gathering little bits of transmission from the floor.
No doubt the R32 is a special package, a rare blend of performance and comfort, and a bargain compared with other cars offering the same balance of attributes. But for $33,630, or about $6,000 more than a similarly equipped GTI, some might want more than just two more driven wheels, a center-exit exhaust that emits a sexier note, and a slight calming of high-speed ride. How much is a small step towards perfection worth to you?