Used Car of the Day: 2012 Volkswagen Golf R

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

An 11-year-old Volkswagen Golf R owned by a technician? Color us intrigued.


This manual-transmission car has 138K miles on the clock, new Pirelli all-season rubber, and a new OEM battery. It also has a new PCV valve, valve cover gasket, and ignition coils. The water pump and timing belt were replaced at 100K miles, and the car also has a new HPA Haldex controller and pump.

There's a performance clutch disc and stage 1 ECM software.

The only claimed problems are a touch of exterior rust and a leaky bevel box output seal.

Give this car, which the owner wants $16,500 for, a look here.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

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2 of 19 comments
  • Kendahl Kendahl on Mar 28, 2023

    A very complicated VW that's 11 years old. A money pit even if it's been well maintained.

  • Marvin Marvin on Apr 01, 2023

    Im a current owner of a 2012 Golf R 2 Door with 5 grand on the odometer . Fun car to drive ! It's my summer cruiser. 2006 GLI with 33,000 . The R can be money pit if service by the dealership. For both cars I deal with Foreign car specialist , non union shop but they know their stuff !!! From what I gather the newer R's 22,23' too many electronic controls on the screen, plus the 12 is the last of the of the trouble free ones and fun to drive no on screen electronics Maze !

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  • ToolGuy This thing here is interesting.For example, I can select "Historical" and "EV stock" and "Cars" and "USA" and see how many BEVs and PHEVs were on U.S. roads from 2010 to 2023."EV stock share" is also interesting. Or perhaps you prefer "EV sales share".If you are in the U.S., whatever you do, do not select "World" in the 'Region' dropdown. It might blow your small insular mind. 😉
  • ToolGuy This podcast was pretty interesting. I listened to it this morning, and now I am commenting. Listened to the podcast, now commenting on the podcast. See how this works? LOL.
  • VoGhost If you want this to succeed, enlarge the battery and make the vehicle in Spartanburg so you buyers get the $7,500 discount.
  • Jeff Look at the the 65 and 66 Pontiacs some of the most beautiful and well made Pontiacs. 66 Olds Toronado and 67 Cadillac Eldorado were beautiful as well. Mercury had some really nice looking cars during the 60s as well. The 69 thru 72 Grand Prix were nice along with the first generation of Monte Carlo 70 thru 72. Midsize GM cars were nice as well.The 69s were still good but the cheapening started in 68. Even the 70s GMs were good but fit and finish took a dive especially the interiors with more plastics and more shared interiors.
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