It's an old story- European brand puts out awesome car. Americans lust for said awesome car. US safety and emissions standards prevent awesome car from making it to US. Americans weep, Europeans have fun. Blah, blah, the end.

Last year Volkswagen introduced their sporty little Golf R with the alluring promise of a US-spec model. The R32 replacement, essentially a sportier GTI, has something like, oh 265 horsepower and all-wheel drive. This was great news to fans of V-Dub and just cars in general. One couldn't help but be reminded of past favorites from the brand like the original GTI and Scirocco that graced out shores for a gratifying albeit brief time.

Perhaps from now on things would be a bit different between our two continents and we could be allowed both our excessive, high-performance domestic offerings alongside the tidy, nimble Euro-pocket rockets.

Once again, the promise of a US-bound European hot hatch will not likely come to fruition- or as VW spokesperson Steve Keys puts it, "still up in the air". Keys lamented, "We'd love to have it, but it's a question now of Euros vs. Dollars." It turns out the unfavorable exchange rate has led to this reluctant release of a Golf R in the states. I swear, it's always money with these guys.

I can understand what Keys may be getting at. It is a trying time with this economy, everyone has talked about it to no end, though it is looking better. However wasn't it Volkswagen that dreamt of becoming the world's largest automaker by 2018, with US sales exceeding 1 million annually?  Although seemingly a step in the wrong direction, they probably better cater to US tastes by offering another, smaller SUV, the Tiguan... yippee.

 

For now we'll just wait and sit on our hands as other fun offerings pass us by. The Golf R is in good company with the likes of the Focus RS, its twin, the batshit-crazy RS500 and any of the myriad of clean-diesels hinted at over the years.

 

It seems Europe is just waiting for the perfect moment in the market when the ripples clear, or possibly until Americans finally decide to grow up. At least we can rely on the revival of Japanese sports machines and will continue to pray for the coming of some European competition.

theCD's take: Volkswagen roughly translates as the people's car. Apparently that title may be a bit more exclusive... or Americans are less than people.

Source: Left Lane News