Hot hatch minefield- which one?

[Jbridges522]

Focus RS prices have remained pretty stable even through Covid which proves not only do they have a following, that it’s a good product. The same year & miles Golf R dropped 50%.

The Hyundai looked appealing & the Renault gets outstanding reviews on handling but drift mode & pops/bangs from standard means the Focus is the best but preowned.

I’ll have one in magnetic grey please, shell seats ta.

have a client that has just sold his mk3 rs for the new ST, says the rs was a very capable car and enjoyed it but he prefers the ST, very little difference in real word performance and has a feeling of being much lighter, assuming due to the lack of 4wd, he found the rs a bit heavy clutched and steered for daily driving, along with pretty poor MPG. Having said that a mountune upgrade would take the RS to another level. if i was buying an rs it would have to be a mk2 rs, five pot on another level to the slightly fake sounding 2.3, but tbh i just kinda hate on 4wd hot hatches unless they are going to be tuned, id rather have something at the edge of the power it can cope with instead of well below it.

 

[Modmedia]

Civic Type-R for me. I loved my FK2 but purely as a weekend car. If I had to drive it more then the FK8 would be a good shout.

Yeah the Golf R would be quicker on a wet day but way way less fun. Same as the S3. The S3 and Golf R feel the same to drive to me; DSG: hold on and go. Very quick and impressive cars yes... but fun? No. A hot hatch to me should be a bit mad. Half the fun is trying to wrestle it and get the best from it. Anyone can drive and of the VAG 4WD stable quickly.

I've owned (or driven for extended periods) most of the cars on the list apart from the Focus RS. I'd love a go in one and was tempted to buy one when I bought the Type-R but the (valid or not) claims of ****ty engines put me right off.

 

[davyk31]

The latest Civic R are no doubt great cars but the looks???!!!!

If I had one I could only drive it at night so that no one would see me.

 

[DC.]

Plus they are well north of £20k which is the OP’s budget.

 

[gcon45]

The latest Civic R are no doubt great cars but the looks???!!!!

If I had one I could only drive it at night so that no one would see me.

Horses for courses.
Best looking hot hatch out there imo.
Certainly more interesting looking than any of the vag stuff.

 

[Coog]

Don't think you'd go wrong with a Golf GTI to be honest. They've been doing hot hatches since the phrase was coined and aside from a few bloopers in the middle, have always made a good car.

I've only ever passenger'd in a Golf R with a stage 1 tune and I'm not sure about the wresting part but there was a fair bit of twitching in the passenger seat going on. The only thing that would really put me off the R is that they seem to be stolen quite a lot? Or maybe that's just England only.

 

[Boydie]

@Coog there are some thefts but no where near as bad as England - owners groups are full of posts of thefts and questions about trackers, faraday bags, disc locks, etc...

 

[Coog]

@Coog there are some thefts but no where near as bad as England - owners groups are full of posts of thefts and questions about trackers, faraday bags, disc locks, etc...

I quite fancied buying an estate or hatch for the wife next year but was thinking I'd be panicking all the time. In fairness there's two others on the street and as far as I'm aware they're OK but would just be in the back of my mind. I saw one on eBay a while ago that had all the 'R' bits removed and made to look like a 1.4 petrol. Had all the bits there. His reason for doing so was to fly under the radar and not attract unwanted attention. I thought it was class tbh

 

[davyk31]

The R doesn’t look that different to the standard Golf to be honest. Great cars but the Gti look a lot better to my eyes which is why I chose one when buying a performance Golf.

 

[Lyons]

I think keyless is the thing that makes them so common for stealing, but then lots of cars these days have it.

I do laugh at all the folk saying they are boring to drive. There’s obviously an awful lot of experienced racing drivers on here. Perhaps if compared to a Caterham or something, but in their own right they are not a boring car.

 

[DC.]

Of those cars listed there isn’t too many bad cars per se just whatever works best for you.

Each to their own etc.

 

[Boydie]

I quite fancied buying an estate or hatch for the wife next year but was thinking I'd be panicking all the time. In fairness there's two others on the street and as far as I'm aware they're OK but would just be in the back of my mind. I saw one on eBay a while ago that had all the 'R' bits removed and made to look like a 1.4 petrol. Had all the bits there. His reason for doing so was to fly under the radar and not attract unwanted attention. I thought it was class tbh

Just now i was flicking through facebook and someone posted about they front bumper being ripped half off last night in an attempt to steal the front lights

 

[trev 1515]

The biggest problem with the R and gti is they look identical to a gtd or a lesser spec.
A fun car doesn’t mean doing 120 everywhere, the R is a fast car but there’s no fuss, sense of occasion to it. I’d rather go slower in something more fun.

 

[Coog]

Just now i was flicking through facebook and someone posted about they front bumper being ripped half off last night in an attempt to steal the front lights

Nightmare but probably not unique to Golf Rs either. Range rovers seem to get the front ends stripped off them fairly regularly as well.

Is the insurance on the Golfs or S3's a complete fortune compared to the other hot hatches does anyone know?

 

[Deezer-D]

Nightmare but probably not unique to Golf Rs either. Range rovers seem to get the front ends stripped off them fairly regularly as well.

Is the insurance on the Golfs or S3's a complete fortune compared to the other hot hatches does anyone know?

Stage 1 S3 with Induction mods and lowered is £406 for me BT5 postcode.

 

[Graham]

Looking at 300ish hp hot hatches
Audi s3
VW golf r
Renault megane rs
Honda civic type r

So far driven an s3 and liked it a lot. What would the pros and cons of them all be?

From that list, i'd be in the Civic, though a little hard on our roads due to the massive wheels and rubber bands.

I'd personally be in an i30N Performance, or if you like German, get a Golf GTi PP with Revo ECU software, as they are a proper hoot to drive, in that state.

 

[Wild Thing]

Be rude not to throw an F56 JCW mini into the mix, plenty on sale about 15k, spend 1k on a decat and map and boom 300bhp supercar pocket rocket that nothing much will annoy around NI B roads

 

[trev 1515]

Be rude not to throw an F56 JCW mini into the mix, plenty on sale about 15k, spend 1k on a decat and map and boom 300bhp supercar pocket rocket that nothing much will annoy around NI B roads

Will it blow up though? Lol or is that just the earlier cars?

 

[Ben]

Do any of them really blow up? I've heard the R56 can have gearbox problems though. In saying that my brother's R56 JCW is on 110,000 miles now and it hasn't gave him a pick of bother (Owned from 70k)

 

[Crow555]

Personally, if you can find a Civic Type R at that money that's where I would be headed, but then I'm a bit biased with Hondas. That being said if you didn't need the doors and the interior space (I did see R56 mini mentioned), I would probably be looking at a Fiesta ST (Mountune if I could find one) because of the all-round package. I'm sure 300bhp is quick but I'm not sure how often I would be able to use all of it.

 

[kharma45]

Two things about the N I didn’t think to mention, well, a few more.

For a while there was one option (bar colour) on the i30N, which was the winter pack. Was made standard when the hatchback came out, but there are some cars out there that don’t have heated seats and steering wheel but most will.

Gearbox on some earlier cars were problematic and required a new one under warranty. Problem was going from 5th to 6th.

The Fastback N is also worth a look. Bigger boot and a different look but lose a bit of rear headroom. The dampers are slightly softer on it than the regular hatch making it more compliant for day to day running, although those changes came to the MY20 hatch. fwiw when I tested the i30N I didn’t think it was too firm but I was on mostly decent roads.

GPF was added at some point in 2019 iirc. You can tell when as the filler cap was changed from a circular one to a rectangular one. It’s slightly quieter but still raucous compared to most hatches.

 

[Sonny]

F56 with the JCW Pro exhaust will be the most fun out of any of those.

 

[Chris100]

Horses for courses.
Best looking hot hatch out there imo.
Certainly more interesting looking than any of the vag stuff.
View attachment 289052

You're not picking one of those up for £20k, it would be the previous generation which are awful.

 

[Wild Thing]

Will it blow up though? Lol or is that just the earlier cars?

Earlier R56 models did have their issues however the F56 jcw is a very detuned 2lt turbo, so a lot of gains with decat and map, seem to handle the power upgrade very well

 

[NickR]

I think keyless is the thing that makes them so common for stealing, but then lots of cars these days have it.

I do laugh at all the folk saying they are boring to drive. There’s obviously an awful lot of experienced racing drivers on here. Perhaps if compared to a Caterham or something, but in their own right they are not a boring car.

Its all down to personal opinion though. I've had a GTI and R, the GTI felt more fun on a back road blast. I wouldn't necessarily say the R was boring as such, it just didn't give me that sense of enjoyment or make me smile when pushing on a bit. It did look great though.