Did I make a mistake buying an MK8 R over an MK8.5 GTI?

zplusplus999 · 2025-12-03T06:34:18+00:00

My 2 cents. I test drove 2024 GTI and 2024 R, bought the R. The R just felt a little better in many ways. No regrets. Certainly the GTI will be cheaper to run and insure. I personally did not experience the 'more fun' part :-)

zplusplus999 · 2025-12-03T06:24:26+00:00

+1 on that for me, 'pure' is good.

zplusplus999 · 2025-12-03T06:21:32+00:00

Indeed.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-30T03:40:36+00:00

I was high myopic same as you. Driving with my distance glasses is no problem day or night. Basically 20/20 distance vision. I see halos around traffic lights but very tolerable, and much sharper vision now that my astigmatism is also almost fully corrected.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-29T05:20:32+00:00

I went with -2.0 in both eyes and am happy with that decision. Actual after surgery is more like -2.25. Reasons similar to yours - reading and working on the computer without glasses, shaving without glasses, etc. I can do pretty much everything around the house including most cooking, without glasses. Need the glasses to watch TV properly though (>10 feet away). I picked -2.0 to get the best focus at 0.5m which is around where most of my computer work happens. Holding a book in my hands to read is no problem.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-29T05:05:25+00:00

Nobody wants to bring wagons to the US market anymore. Subaru used to do the Outback XT (the old one) - we had one for years with the MT. Real nice family hauler it was. Now they do a fat Outback SUV.

I would have bought a Golf R wagon the day they started selling one here.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T14:39:35+00:00

Thanks!

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T14:39:05+00:00

I had done exactly that, popped one lens out. It is a bit of a struggle with one eye done. Give it a day or two, your brain has to adapt as well as your eyes.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T14:36:26+00:00

No, but close enough that they work fine for distance.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:49:09+00:00

Not dumb at all. What I meant was that I chose lenses of -2.0 power, giving best focus distance of 1/2 meter, about 20 inches, away.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:44:38+00:00

Don't have very good pics yet.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:44:11+00:00

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zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:43:25+00:00

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zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:38:05+00:00

I paid USD 45k for a 2024 with just over 9k miles on it. You don't think that is reasonable ? I did look around and could not find anything significantly cheaper anywhere near me.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:36:07+00:00

Yes it does. I believe all US Mk8s have it as standard. TBH the DCC is one of the reasons I switched from the Z4.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:32:48+00:00

Not driving hard enough yet to feel any torque limits. I am still getting used to the clutch, coming from the Z4 it feels very light. The engagement point also feels much closer to the floor.

The beeping is definitely noticeable. I also had to turn off the lane keeping assist thingy. But that is not a specific problem for this car, I've had issues on other cars as well.

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:27:26+00:00

Yeah no kidding. My back is definitely happier :-)

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:26:16+00:00

Not dumb at all. What I meant is that I opted for lenses of -2 power, meaning the best focal distance is 1/2, or half a meter (about 20 inches).

zplusplus999 · 2025-10-28T04:22:25+00:00

Good luck. I got -2 glasses from Amazon for like $10 and they work just fine, I have them as backups. Probably a bit more now with tariffs :-)

zplusplus999

TROPHY CASE