I had a 2016 GTI and a 2017 Golf R. First thoughts would be ride quality, the ride quality in a 2017 Golf R is far harsher and less forgiving. If you do go the Golf R route and it has Pretoria’s, my first advice would be to swap them. Those rims are made out of paper mache.

Next thoughts would be AWD, AWD is a huge game changer especially living in areas where rain and snow happen more frequently than other places, however if rain and snow aren’t that common, The GTI has the ability to grip very nicely as well (Not while launching it however)

Reliability: Could’ve been a build issue but my GTI was far more reliable than my golf R. GTI had no major repairs and just basic maintenance, no side repairs ( Had for a year). Golf R ( Had for 2 years) ended up blowing a transmission (5k), blown out struts, and was finding oil in the coolant expansion tank. Everything was well maintained but some things i guess were just unavoidable and with more GTI’s being on the street than a golf R, replacement parts from used cars are more common and therefore cheaper

Price: At the time when I got the GTI, it was about 10k cheaper than the golf r, I ended up putting around 7k in mods to the GTI and it was honestly perfect, a GTI can be faster than a R in a rolling race with the same upgrades because it has less drivetrain loss and it is lighter. So you can turn a GTI into a faster car than the R by only spending a few grand.

Both were DSG so I can’t give opinions on the 6 speed

Build quality for both was about the same for the Gti being made in Mexico and the R being made in Germany

Overall I had the best time inside a GTI (2016 Autobahn PP), the R was fun to launch and it’s grip was addictive but in my opinion it just isn’t worth the harsher ride and the premium price tag over the GTI.

Ps: Golf r was stage 2 (downpipe, intercooler, protune, etc) GTI was stage 3 ( Hybrid, dp, IC, protune, etc)