There was a nice Reflex Silver one in the showroom. This Reflex silver supposedly looks more silver in the daylight and more bluish during the night. I've never been able to tell the difference other than one being clean and one being dirty. I followed the sales guy into the warehouse and he drove out a black R32, all covered with protective plastic sheets.

At first glance, the car is easily distinguisable from the regular Golfs. However, if I'm not mistaken, the 20th anniversary GTI has a similar visual package. Or perhaps that was the 337. When Jenny inspected the car, she said "it looks like any other Golf". My reply to her was "let's take it out for a drive in the wet and we'll see".
The interior looks European as usual. The sun-roof is standard. The only option on the car is leather for $900 which I wouldn't bother. Looking back at the pictures from the European version, the leather sport seats are made by Konig. The entire seat is leather. On the US version, the head rest, the side bolsters, the lower thigh support are all leatherette. The only leather part is on the middle section of the back rest and seat. You wouldn't be missing much without the leather option. In fact, I think the Recaro seats that come with the 20th anniversary edition and 337 are better. Perhaps VW was attempting to save money there.

It took me and Jenny forever to get comfortable seating positions. I do like the fact that it has adjustable lumbar support, that's a plus in my book. However, these seats are pretty firm, probably more firm than I would prefer. As the car starts to warm up, I stepped on the accelerator to listen to the 3.2L motor. Hmmm....I don't quite like the sound from the exhaust, it almost reminded of the G35 Coupe I drove last Fall. It almost sounded fake.

Ok, the fact that VW has blue back-lighting for their dash drives me nuts. I couldn't adjust the backlighting well enough to get the best illumination. Perhaps one needs to get used to it but I still prefer the red on the BMWs and Audis.

Off we go towards Furnace Brook Parkway which consists of a bunch of twisties. I didn't take the car beyond 5000rpm but my first impression was "wow..loads of torque". On paper, I believe the numbers are 241HP and 237 lb-ft. Even for a car that weighs in at around 3500lbs, it felt nice to have that kind of torque available. As I shifted between gears, I realized how I never really liked any of the shifters in German cars. Why do they feel so vague? I've never driven an Audi but in my experience with the E36 M3, E30 M3 and standard Boxster, I didn't like the way the shifters felt at all.

Throttle response is quite good, I think better than the E36 M3 in my book. It's good enough that when I downshifted, I didn't feel as if I had to wait for the revs to go up and back down to match the lower gear. All the pedals felt light too, especially the clutch. I thought the braking feel is superb for this car, only needing the correct pressure to get the car to a dead stop. If I'm not mistaken, these are the same brakes that go on the VW Phaeton and the new Audi S4.

I definitely give it thumbs up on the cornering department. As I got into an intersection with a 90 degree turn with slush on the road, I gassed it to get a feel of the 4-motion system. It was impressive. Less under steering than I expected and not much of over-steering. I couldn't feel or hear the tires scrambling to get grip as much as it would have on our Subaru Legacy. You can feel the weight shift nicely even though there is quite a bit of mass for this car.

On the steering feel, it provided more driver feedback to me than when I drove the Boxster. I think the R32 has a quicker steering rack than the other Golfs which definitely helped. It was quite responsive as I tried to "auto-cross" my way through some holes in the middle of the local town. However, still not up to par with the E36 M3's response.

When I did hit the holes, it didn't feel bad at all. I was expecting a hard thud on the wheels and suspension but it actually felt calmer than if I had hit them driving the E36 M3.

Overall, I think it'd be a great high-performance street car, especially for the hot-hatch segment. The suspension feel and cornering response are pluses in my book. It gave me what I was looking for when it came to hard street driving. It may be a different story when it's put on the track. My complaints are the vague shifter feel, blue back-lighting on the dash, stiffer than I preferred sport seats and the somewhat over-manufactured exhaust notes. Not to mention $30K for this car. Plus, aren't Golfs in general quirky ?

Remember, this is only my own feedback. Which ever car you go with will depend on what you're looking for in a car.

Thanks for reading.