VW, to a certain extent, has been bifurcating its global product lineup. While Europe gets some seriously cool cars, Americans have been relegated to the vehicles our market is craving — the Atlas, a sportier-looking Atlas, an Atlas sedan and an Atlas in miniature. Now Volkswagen just announced its latest piece of forbidden fruit that won’t be coming Stateside for at least 25 years, the new Golf R Estate (er, wagon, to us Yanks).
The Golf R Estate is basically a Mk8 Golf R with more room in the boot. Its turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four puts out about 315 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. It can accelerate from 0-62 mph in 4.9 seconds and hit a top speed of 168 mph with the optional R Performance Pack.
Ingo Barenschee
Ingo Barenschee
Like the Golf R hatch Americans will get later this year, the Golf R Estate will have a fancy version of VW’s 4Motion all-wheel drive with R Performance Torque Vectoring. It will also have the Drift Mode and Special Nürburgring Mode. Unlike the Golf R hatch, the wagon won’t offer a manual transmission. It can only be fitted with VW’s seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.
Why won’t Volkswagen bring the Golf R Estate to America? Well, the price point is a major clue. The Golf R Estate starts at €51,585, which is a little north of $61,000 at the present exchange rate. If we factor out Europe’s VAT tax, that still comes out to around $50,000.
VW wasn’t able to sell large numbers of reasonably priced wagons in America. And while car journalists would adore it, the tens, possibly hundreds of American enthusiasts actually looking to pay more than $50,000 for a VW-branded wagon would not justify the expense of bringing it over. However, we’re still hopeful that VW will take a crack in America with the production version of this electric wagon.
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