Volkswagen tries very hard to market its cars as being sub-premium - not exactly up there to steal Audi's thunder, but a cut above all the other mainstream brands that aren't lucky enough to be part of the VW group.
For most of the time, this strategy has proven to work. The Wolfsburg company creates mass-market products that can be bought for relatively low money, but they can also be specced with a higher quality kit and more advanced technology to reach premium levels concerning both feel and price.
And then there are those halo models that can hold their own against most competitors form the upper echelons. We've talked about the Arteon four-door coupe and its weird relationship with the Audi A5 Sportback stablemate these past days, and now it's the Golf R's turn.
Volkswagen has been dominating the hot hatch segment with its Golf GTI model despite not being the quickest around Nurburgring or the prettiest of the bunch. It was just such a good all-rounder that it simply made too much sense to go for it ahead of its competition.
The R model, however, is completely different. Whereas the GTI's price was one of its strong points, the R is ridiculously expensive for a Volkswagen Golf. It is just under $40,000 in the U.S., and rest assured that no matter how well specced it is, you'll still add a few thousand bucks to that.
The Mercedes-AMG A45 hatchback is not available in the States, with the closest thing being the GLA45 performance crossover that sells for $50,000. It's safe to assume that had the A45 been on sale, it would cost more than $45,000, and it would probably start with less kit as well.
So the Volkswagen wins the price battle, but it loses the one for the technical specs. They both have four-cylinder 2.0-liter turbocharged engines, and they both send the power to all four wheels through automatic transmissions (the Golf has an optional manual), so this far it's a tie. The Mercedes, however, has 70 hp more (381 compared to the R's 310 hp) and at 4.2 seconds, it reaches the 62 mph (100 km/h) benchmark speed with 0.4 seconds faster than the Golf R.
Does that make such a big difference in real life, though? Glad you asked because we have the right video to answer that. It turns out the Merc is indeed quicker than the Golf, but only by four seconds or so to 155 mph (250 km/h). Is that enough to warrant the extra cash? Probably not, but Volkswagen still has to deal with the fact it's not a premium brand. Plus, that AMG sounds just so much better.
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