Volkswagen Golf 2007 review

Don't you just hate the aphorism “you can have too much of a good thing” — a propaganda line espoused by the few who have it and aren't especially keen on sharing it.

Yet with Volkswagen's Golf R32, it has a certain, highly irritating, ring of truth.

The question most frequently asked of this uber-hatch since it arrived locally in mid-2006 would be: is it worth the extra whack over the Golf GTI?

This should be a no-brainer. On paper, the R32's rorty, direct-injection V6 and all-wheel drive make it a runaway champion in such a comparison.

Except, of course, the GTI boasts a marvellous, direct-injection turbo four and has provided the benchmark for the burgeoning hot-hatch brigade in how to do front-wheel drive.

Burdened by the 170 extra kilograms that come with its more sophisticated drive train, the R32's performance advantage is so marginal in most circumstances that its $13K or so premium becomes questionable.

Then there's the matter of the GTI's almost polymathic aptitude and its less tangible (but very real) sense of tradition and cachet.

Purists can be pleased that the R32 is, at long last, available with the same slick, six-speed manual transmission that graces the GTI.

Freed from the artificial constraints built into the manual-matic Direct Shift Gearbox — the sole option until now — an R32 can be revved to, and held at, redline. Never mind that DSG is fractionally faster, the manual R32 can be exploited as a performance hatch is intended.

Even if the 3.2 FSI V6 doesn't go as hard as it ought at the top end as it gets to 100km/h in a claimed 6.5 seconds, it's a hugely capable and tractable device.

Where you'd normally be looking for lower gears on a B-road, fourth and even fifth suffice to keep the momentum up in this 1.5-tonner.

The feel through that GTI-derived steering wheel (the best you'll find in anything beneath exotic money) isn't the equal of the ostensibly lesser Golf. It's vague just off centre, and loads up less evenly.

Dynamically, though, the 4Motion all-wheel-drive system promotes this hatch to a league above the bum-draggers.

The Haldex multi-plate clutch apportions up to 100 per cent of available torque to either axle as required.

Even with the ESP switched off, the R32 is almost impossible to upset, providing acres of play room before front-end push becomes an issue. Provocation makes for some squealing from its ultra-grippy, 18-inch tyres, but for the main part, the R32 simply refuses to be moved from your chosen course, an upright and clinically efficient cornerer.

Should things somehow all go awry, the stoppers have real power, if a degree too much grabbiness through the pedal.

The trade-off for such shoes is excessive noise over the coarse-chip crap that passes for road surfaces in this part of the country. Deal with it.

Visually, the R32 strikes as many false notes as true: it's anonymous in certain respects, too obvious in others.

The Jetta-like silver grille is less distinctive than the GTI's honeycomb, whereas the fat exhaust pipes jut awkwardly from slightly to each side of centre.

Metallic blue, which has become the signature colour for the model, best becomes the R32. In most other hues, it's just another Golf.

Divergent design takes continue within. Lurid, faux-steel inserts are incongruous in the otherwise typically VW dark leather interior.

From $55K for the three-door manual, the R32 sits well under the comparable Audi A3, and is car enough to throw a real scare into BMW's 130i. To that extent, it's exceptional value and a package sure to please.

But another rival comes in the form of the model that bears the same double-consonant badge — one that's less than a second slower to the tonne and is an equally, if not more, engaging drive in most circumstances.

The R32-vs-GTI thing remains not so much a case of less being more as such, but of the latter being more than enough.