But I love what Im reading and feel pretty sure about getting one.

The R36 is exceptional. Exceptional build quality, no disappointments from moving from the Beemer, great ride, seats, visibility etc. Engine sounds throaty, the whole car has an extremely solid feel. I’ve traditionally been a manual driver but love the DSG.

Goes like stink and stick like shit to a blanket. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. If you are entertaining the thought of moving from BM, Merc or Audi to an VW R36 I can highly recommend.

Great car…

Its a nice car, just had a race with one and thought should look up the specs! My mazda 6 MPS with 42.5k kms is well broken in and was too good today, but it was very close (Cannot divulge speed but >90km/hr). Having a smooth calm everyday car that turns into something very close to hardcore performance cars in a real treat. Depreciation for new car buyers of this niche is not so nice though :(

I recently bought an R36, since I recently became a father.

I used to drive a Mini Cooper S convertible, so you can imagine the ‘change’ of pace! Every day I drive the R36, I’m continually impressed by it, and I love it more and more over the old Mini.

I love it because it gives me what I need now.

I can be ‘responsible’ for all the reasons the review and everyone else has quoted. And because it’s a very practical car and ‘cheap’ for what you get.

I can also be ‘two fingers to the green crowd’, and thrash the f*&k out of it when it’s just me. It sounds awesome. Moves like stink. And really is an fantastic drive.

Why have two or three cars when you can have one. :D

The R36 is a surprise package. Once you hit the start the exhaust burbles away telling you something is not quite what it looks like. Drive in anger and wow! Real life driving includes driving in the rain, and the AWD will come into its own then. Handling isn’t meant to be like an Evo, but it still is direct and tight enough for “normal”, this is not meant to be a comp/track car.

DSG works well too with very quick change, I don’t mind when it auto changes up when you hit the rev limit. My current car does that and I find you go quicker.

Hope the comments help.

You are right about the big T wanting dollars, but wrong about their size. They sell more cars, period, but are not up to VW turnover.
VW is now a massive company who own Audi and several other brands – whose recent market capitalisation was advertised – exceeds that of Exxon Mobil. For me, having had many makes of models, including several performance vehicles, the R36 wagon was my choice. Comfort, fantastic driving, space for several sets of golf clubs, towing jetski, performance, DSG, different – and who cares whether the other driver likes it. I looked at the lot, including Audi s3 and 4 variants (at $40K dearer and you lose $40K when you drive it out the door), 135i cab (quoted in September at $94K and now $70K drive away for a demo with 2000k), replacement Liberty GT ($7K dearer), Lexus 250i etc.

As others have advised, horses for courses, otherwise we would all have a Lada. We have a choice, so we should be damn grateful about it !

p.s. to others, if you are not interested in the R36, write to the discussion page for the brand you like, not this one.

I could live with an Aurion Sportivo quite happily.

VW make nice cars but i doubt if they will ever topple Toyota as market leader.

Disappointing they never gave this one a 6 spd manual option, as good as the DSG is.

Iz – its because the company realised profitability comes from selling to the masses not to only people who know and enjoy cars. Toyota is a corporation, its there to make money and only money… Anything else is a PR/marketing campaign.

It Doesn’t matter if the cars are from different classes; in different price brackets; with different platforms different engines different body styles or built for different purposes etc.. so long as they can try to make people think that the Toyota is a far superior car to anything else above it or below it that’s all that matters.

As Riceboy said, people need to take a chill pill and get back to commenting about the R36.

Why did Toyota stop making cars for PEOPLE -_- (Their ’90s slogan was “FUN2DRIVE” too; my old ‘94 Tarago has that very statement in the opening page of its tech documents for it)

OMG someone who feels the same about their Golf =D

I find the little diesel grumbling away endearing sometimes, and sometimes you just get the spirit of the Little Blue Train appearing while you’re driving ^_^ (”I think I can, I think I can!”)

But more importantly, drove past my local VW dealer the other day, saw this big shiny blue missile waiting in the dealer yard and I thought “Could it be?”

Pulled into the dealer, sat in the car, admired the feel of it, very nearly got the dealer to hand me the keys, but then realised I was in a rush =(

And then one of my closest friend’s uncle stepped out of the dealer showroom; said he test drove it that day (and funnily enough, my friend was with me too heh). This uncle is quite a petrolhead, he most recently traded his Subaru WRX for this R36 (but sedan form, not wagon).

He hasnt stopped talking about how well his R36 goes yet :o)

The R36 is an amazing car, i have spent several hundred km’s behind the wheel and would happily put one in my garage, especially if I did have kids and needed the space.

But to dismiss a car as “boring” because it’s either something that doesn’t interest you, or maybe it’s a bit of tall poppy syndrome, i don’t know. But it’s not fair on the car or yourself.