Used Golf R - should I worry

[ABCD]

Hello
Hoping you guys could put my mind at ease.
I went to have a look at a used mid 2018 Golf R today at a dealer.
About 50K on the clock. Car appeared in pretty good order, with an up to date service history and some subtle cosmetic add ons (blacked out grill and VW emblem on boot) which while not my cup of tea does at least suggest it has been well cared for.
However what caught my eye was heavily sooted up chrome exhaust tips and on driving it the clutch felt very light and with quite a high take up. The state of the tail pipes and the clutch feel got me thinking that perhaps the car might have had quite a hard life. Or could it be that perhaps worse than being ragged it has done lots of short trips ie not fully warmed up hence all the tail pipe soot. Or am I just being paranoid and the tail pipes simply have not ever been cleaned properly.
Any comments welcome.
Cheers

[gregozedobe]

I wouldn't worry about sooted up exhaust pipes - Rs run pretty rich, and unless the owner cleans the tips very frequently they all get quite grotty (and can be very difficult to clean properly).

Unfortunately the standard clutch on Rs with a manual gearbox is marginal, and a lot of people have trouble with them slipping at full throttle at lowish revs (2-3000 rpm) in higher gears (eg 4th, 5th & 5th). Even more so if the ECU has been tuned for more torque. I've read that some people remove the assist spring and remove the "slow return" valve in the hydraulics to improve the clutch feel.

[hardy_bm]

Stock clutch is hopeless if tuned. Clutches are a consumable in manuals so if not replaced then price it accordingly.

Fun car. But I’ve got the DSG.

My exhausts are filthy.

[ABCD]

Thanks for replies. The car is at a VW dealer as an AUC with extended VW warranty. I would be surprised VW would touch it if it is tuned/modded and I not sure someone would modify the clutch and do nothing else. If anything it feels lighter than on my stock manual 2018 GTI with similar mileage and this has not been flogged/dumped. As it turns out I am going to look at another manual R so will get a feel for what a typical R clutch feels like. But given how few manual Golf 7.5 Rs there are out there (let alone in the colour and options I looking for) if I continue to have nagging “clutch concerns” I may just broaden my search to include Rs with the DSG.

[gregozedobe]

I was a long term (like 40 years) manual 'box enthusiast, but these days IMO an R with a DSG (preferably one that has had a TVS TCU tune to avoid lugging at low revs when driving gently) is streets ahead (literally & figuratively). You can drive a DSG in manual mode when the mood takes you. I will admit the DSG takes a while to grow on you if you have been used to manuals.

[Sharkie]

Love my manual mk7.5 R. Won't change it for anything.

Far more pleasurable than the DSG and no slower in real life. At the lights 90% of the time you will beat any equivalent DSG equipped S3/R as the DSG is ONLY quicker if they use full launch control ... independent testing confirmed as much as 1.5s slower without launch control to a 100km/h. Manual R (stock) if you are handy with clutch control will repeatedly run close to 5s 0-100, whereas a DSG R without launch control is closer to 5.7s (with launch 4.8s).

Clutch is good and will actually hold up to a Stg1 tune if you don't rev it and dump the clutch too often. I'm now running an IE Stg 1 high torque tune and 5,000+km later the stock clutch is still going well.

And yes, they all (stock and tuned) dirty up the exhaust tips.

[The_Hawk]

As much as I love my manual, driving a few DSG/auto vehicles over the last little bit makes me wonder if I'd go out of my way to buy another one. Fun when you get to stretch its legs and/or play on a track... far less so in peak hour traffic.

[ABCD]

Just put deposit down on a manual 2018 R. White with Dynaudio option. Aug 2018 build so one of the last manual performance Golfs in Australia. I was really keen to get one with DAP and the upgraded sound system but was only at best 50:50 on the white colour and not fussed either way whether it had sunroof. While I waiting for the sales guy to get it ready for a test drive I found myself wandering around the (VW) service department car park. There were 3 Golf 7 Rs in for service, a blue manual with sunroof only, and 2 white DSGs, one fully optioned and the other in “basic” spec. Seeing this I was already beginning to think that to find an R in good order with the options and colour I wanted I would need to include the DSG in my search.
But…… taking this on a decent test drive I “clicked” immediately with the manual transmission - the light clutch pedal and the gearshift that was part switch/part lever in feel. By the time I learned that it had one local owner from new with mostly motorway miles, a full VW service history, factory warranty till late 2023 and in overall clean and tidy condition I decided there and then to forget about my ideal spec and quite literally signed on the dotted line.
Now to tell my wife. And get it paid for of course.