Volkswagen Golf R Variant Ready to Haul Ass, Stuff

9 years, 11 months ago - 24 November 2014, Autoblog

Volkswagen seems to be playing a cruel trick on the American automotive public at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It's displaying its sexy Golf R Variant with no clear intention of actually selling the model here.

The hot wagon launches in Europe in the spring, but the automaker makes absolutely no mention of the model's prospects in the US. Hopefully, its appearance in LA at least indicates VW is considering bringing it stateside.

The great thing about this wagon is that it has everything that the regular VW Golf R offers, but there's even more room to carry stuff. The same 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine makes 296 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque with a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox and 4Motion all-wheel drive. Performance is very close, too, with the Variant R taking 5.1 seconds to get to 100 km/h versus the 4.9 seconds the standard R needs to read 96 km/h. The two of them also have the same tech goodies like ESC Sport stability control and multiple damping modes. The real advantage to opting for the estate is its ability to carry up to 57.2 cubic feet of cargo in the back.