Golf R to Cupra Born....

[RobT999]

After nearly 4 years with a Golf R I am swapping to a Cupra Born, hopefully in January 2024 if the order stays on track!

The Golf has been probably the best car I have ever owned and so I hope I won't regret the change. I opted for the Dynamic Chassis Control on the Golf and it is fantastic. I have an Individual setting based on comfort for most of the time which is great and yet switch to Race and it is like being in a track car which sticks to the road like the proverbial s**t on a blanket! Very good fun but fuel consumption dives. So I have chosen the same option on the Born with the hope of two cars for the price of one again.

Looking forward to lots of Born specific knowledge from real life owners.

Rob

[dickyp]

Welcome Rob,
Another person to go into a Born from quite a different current car.

Golf R definitely wears a number of hats and does them all well, one big difference you should notice is that you won’t see many Borns compared to R’s.

Should also have a fuel saving as well depending on how your charging.

[Daveion]

Welcome Rob.
My Son has a Golf R and it sounds awesome in the cabin. Think I would miss that.

[alanjs]

I had a long line of Golf GTi's and R's for over 20 years.... now a Born v3 with e-boost and Firestorm wheels. Spoiler alert - it's not a Golf R. If I had not moved from the Scottish Borders to Tamworth I would not have changed as I would definitely have missed the handling and performance on the kind of roads I drove on in the Borders.
OK, the Born is a good car. It's quick and once you get used to the twitchy back end, the handling is not too bad, but it does not compare to the R's ability to get round a bend, do quick squirt to pass slow traffic and progress comfortably and quickly on twisty roads.
However, round Tamworth the roads are completely different. Mostly motorway, dual carriageway or fairly wide A-roads with too much traffic to have any kind of fun. I just got frustrated in the R. The Born is the better car for these roads. It's quick enough, it's quiet and comfortable and it's cheap to run with a home charger and solar panels.
So, horses for courses. Just don't expect to chuck the Born around the way that you can an R. Sorry!

[monkeyhanger]

We used to have 2 Borns in our household, now we have a Born and a new S3 - I prefer to drive the S3 (especially on long journeys - rapid charging on a regular basis is expensive and inconvenient. The only thing the Born does better is instant acceleration from any speed rather than the DSG takes what seems like ages to go from 5th to 2nd when you floor it at 35mph - I miss manual boxes so much on ICEV, my 2015 Golf R was manual.

As heavy BEVs go, the Born (and ID3) handle better than most, doesn't feel like you're chucking 1800kg around, but it's not quite at hot hatch levels of handling. I've got the e-boost on the Born, and tge difference vs 204ps is noticeable, more so above 40mph, and the Cupra button on the steering wheel is very handy.

[SabreDentist]

The Born is a great car but while it matches (or exceeds) the R in terms of exterior looks it won't match its sheer power and driving dynamics, despite being very good in its own envelope. How much that matters to you will depend on personal preference - many drivers only use a tiny fraction of the R's capability and prefer to use it more as a daily driver. But there are obviously other advantages with the Born, not least the lower energy costs. So it wll be very interesting to see how you weigh all of this up after living with the Born for a while.

[Elea4]

I've driven around 4000km on my 90yo dad's 2018 Golf R (DCC, AWD, 300hp)

What I prefer about the R:

Recaro seats
Lower seating position
Nimbler handling
AWD grip, especially in winter
High torque above 100km/h
Interior materials quality
Lots of real buttons, especially A/C and steering wheel controls
Fender sound system is clearer and deeper
Faster/more responsive infotainment system
No side-to-side rocking/wobble compared to my 58kwh Born with DCC
Better visibility out the front sides due to smaller A-pillar


What I prefer about the Born:

Instant acceleration and zero turbo lag
Massive torque under 100km/h
Travel Assist
360 area view cameras
More trunk space without the Golf's massive Fender subwoofer
Larger infotainment display
Beats immersive surround sound settings
The exterior body looks

Yes, the Golf R is indeed a hot hatch whereas the Born simply isn't. But the turbo lag feels so antiquated that I actually prefer driving the Born. I also love Travel Assist despite it's shortcomings and limitations.

[Pugboy]

I used to have a mk7 GTD and it was my favourite long term car to own. Best all rounder I've had for sure if not the fastest or most exotic. My mate had the R and we once swapped cars for a couple of days.
Once I got over the initial impression of grip and power of the R on my commute to work I may as well have been in my GTD. I only noticed the 4wd when driving with the traction control off and giving it full power off roundabouts. Otherwise the lateral grip was similar (same tyres).
Anyway what I was going for here is I didn't find the R to be an involving drive. Really nice car, but it was like slightly more fun and used almost twice as much fuel. Nothing like the French hot hatches I owned when I was younger.
So on that basis you might quite enjoy changing to a car with less grip and RWD and find it more fun.
I'm actually in a Passat at the moment as needed more space and it's what I could afford at the time so I'm hoping I'll enjoy the Born for the reasons I just mentioned. Fingers crossed it still has the VW solid feeling to the way it drives though.
I ordered the Born in May and its at the dealer now and I should get it next week so the wait times have dropped loads as I was told November.

I think someone above said the Golf R sounded good. Its fake noise from the speakers. The diesel one I had played a Subura flat four tune at you! Ridiculous and apparently you can pull a fuse to disable it, but I just used the custom drive mode so as to avoid it.

I'm jealous of your DCC option. Bloody love adaptive dampers. I had them on a Scirocco and they smoothed out the ride nicely.
Did you know the Born only comes with front speakers? I didn't otherwise I would have ordered the upgraded sounds. Hopefully it's not too bad. I just didn't like the idea of paying the extra as most modern car stereos sound alright and I figured I'd be adding even more weight to a porky car with an amp and extra speakers.

[monkeyhanger]

I've driven around 4000km on my 90yo dad's 2018 Golf R (DCC, AWD, 300hp)

What I prefer about the R:

Recaro seats
Lower seating position
Nimbler handling
AWD grip, especially in winter
High torque above 100km/h
Interior materials quality
Lots of real buttons, especially A/C and steering wheel controls
Fender sound system is clearer and deeper
Faster/more responsive infotainment system
No side-to-side rocking/wobble compared to my 58kwh Born with DCC
Better visibility out the front sides due to smaller A-pillar


What I prefer about the Born:

Instant acceleration and zero turbo lag
Massive torque under 100km/h
Travel Assist
360 area view cameras
More trunk space without the Golf's massive Fender subwoofer
Larger infotainment display
Beats immersive surround sound settings
The exterior body looks

Yes, the Golf R is indeed a hot hatch whereas the Born simply isn't. But the turbo lag feels so antiquated that I actually prefer driving the Born. I also love Travel Assist despite it's shortcomings and limitations.

The first sentence says a lot about your compliments for the R - it's not a MK8 Golf. A lot of the things you like about it are redundant on the MK8. I love the MK7, but the MK8 has a pretty ugly/droopy front end IMO. I considered the MK8 R for about a minute before deciding on the S3. The MK8 had infotainment issues worse than the ID3.

[monkeyhanger]

I used to have a mk7 GTD and it was my favourite long term car to own. Best all rounder I've had for sure if not the fastest or most exotic. My mate had the R and we once swapped cars for a couple of days.
Once I got over the initial impression of grip and power of the R on my commute to work I may as well have been in my GTD. I only noticed the 4wd when driving with the traction control off and giving it full power off roundabouts. Otherwise the lateral grip was similar (same tyres).
Anyway what I was going for here is I didn't find the R to be an involving drive. Really nice car, but it was like slightly more fun and used almost twice as much fuel. Nothing like the French hot hatches I owned when I was younger.
So on that basis you might quite enjoy changing to a car with less grip and RWD and find it more fun.
I'm actually in a Passat at the moment as needed more space and it's what I could afford at the time so I'm hoping I'll enjoy the Born for the reasons I just mentioned. Fingers crossed it still has the VW solid feeling to the way it drives though.
I ordered the Born in May and its at the dealer now and I should get it next week so the wait times have dropped loads as I was told November.

I think someone above said the Golf R sounded good. Its fake noise from the speakers. The diesel one I had played a Subura flat four tune at you! Ridiculous and apparently you can pull a fuse to disable it, but I just used the custom drive mode so as to avoid it.

I'm jealous of your DCC option. Bloody love adaptive dampers. I had them on a Scirocco and they smoothed out the ride nicely.
Did you know the Born only comes with front speakers? I didn't otherwise I would have ordered the upgraded sounds. Hopefully it's not too bad. I just didn't like the idea of paying the extra as most modern car stereos sound alright and I figured I'd be adding even more weight to a porky car with an amp and extra speakers.

I got one of the first MK7 GTDs in the country at launch, and swapped out for a new R in 2015, the R was a much better car. I got a tuning box on the GTD and going to 240ps/500Nm improved it massively, but the GTD was ruined by copious front axle tramp in stock and modified form - it was the main reason to go to the R, it was begging for an LSD like the GTI had.

The R does lack the exciting "fear factor" of old hot hatches - you'd have to do something stupid at ludicrous speeds to roll it, that's just a modern car trait - they're all so competent.

I don't find the Born tail happy at all you have to try hard to make it break traction, but the ESP corrects it straight away.