Muscle vs Turbo: The New Volkswagen Golf R Takes on the New Mustang in a Drag Race! 

Manual golf VS automatic mustang isn't exactly a fair fight

DSG makes a huge difference compared to the manual gearbox...

The mustang has 100hp more and a 10 spd auto transmission. Would have been better if the VW had a DSG trans.

Wow you have to do a better comparison. First get a better driver for the Golf R if you are going to put a manual against the 10 speed auto Mustang. 16's is atrocious unless you are running in the stratosphere. That is just bad driving. Second comparing a 6 sp manual to 10 speed auto is too huge a difference for any kind of fair comparison. Compare auto to DSG and manual to manual and you will see much closer races.

The DSG in the VW 'R' would have been a better choice.

Next race: Camaro ZL1 10 speed vs Mustang EcoBoost with a manual!

No one buys a Mustang for interior quality, space, or interior details. It is the engine. Still miss mine.

@5:30 It looks like FORD just glued a couple of tablets onto the Mustang dash😂

For the money the Mustang is hard to beat. The V8 sound is unmistakable

The Golf R with the Dsg would take it. 100%

Auto against 6 speed, where is the DSG not a fair race.

My bone stock dsg Golf R ran 12.6 @ 108 down here in Phoenix which never gets good air and is at 1700’. How does it lose 4 freaking seconds going to Colorado?

I didn't buy a mustang thinking someone was going to sit in the back ! Buy your own!

$46k for a golf. Never thought i would see that.

Omg give the golf R a dsg and make it fair... The Dsg is amazing! Omg that guy can't drive a manual!

The 24 mustang is sharp! Looks great and drives great 💪🏻

What's really crazy is that $46K is now considered a "lower" cost car. Compare Consumer Price Inflation/Index before Jan 2020 to today. They are two different worlds. Maybe we should send another $100B to Ukraine and I say this as someone who happens to be 50% Ukranian. Great job guys...!

Man y'all making me want to buy another mustang 😅

16 SECOND QUARTER MILE IN A GOLF R U MUST BE JOKING, they normally run low 13 😳

you need to be drunk to understand this comparison

Next time, put a better driver in the Golf R. That car is much faster than that…

Yeah why not do both manual or both auto.. makes no sense

We need the 7-speed DSG dual clutch Golf R.

The slow mo launch with the Mustang was just beautiful.

Loved that Slow-mo at the beginning of the drag race😍

Can we get a redo with the DSG Golf R? It would be good to see the difference. I know everyone else is complaining but it’s fair to say it’ll be a successful video after all 😂

What amazes me is 46000 for a GOLF!!!

A DSG would have made a world of difference

Love the slo-mo at launch!

The 5.0 with a six speed manual gear box is the way to go... fun to drive, fun to wake up the neighbors and reliable all day long... hell it even gets decent mileage.

So fake, the Golf can be way waaay faster than this!

Let’s remember commenters, the Mustang is on All Seasons and the Golf is on Pilot Sport tires. Get a driver with a redline clutch drop and it would have done better but would still lose in the end.

you lost me as soon as you guy showed the vw with the manual transmission (REALLY?) , with a DSG the vw should be able to at least make this video interesting to watch , race the two cars with the same transmission (auto or manual) , is that so difficult???

When I was younger, build quality was not a major concern or care of mine. As I get older, a balance of build quality and performance is something I consider more seriously.

The backseat is actually fairly usable, my kids when they were young loved them. My opinion, it's clear Ford put an effort into making the rear seat usable. The Mustang is appointed with one of the better 2+2 rear seats that can be found. Say what you want about that VW, at a quick glance it could be one of 20 different cars. At a glance a Mustang is instantly recognized. There comes a time when you no longer want a 4 door car, buying a sports car makes a statement in your life. For those in that market; a Mustang is very hard to dismiss. It's hard to say that the shear competence of the Mustang hasn't forced BMW to significantly increase their game with the BMW M cars. Here's your decision maker when comparing a M2/3/4 vs. a Mustang, sure the BMW is a quicker, it's nicer on the inside, however you know with zero doubt, you're gonna be dumping money into that M car to keep it on the road and out of the shop. A Mustang on the other hand is built to drive to hell and back as if were any other day.

Bruh yall tripping down here, the comparison is just for fun. Out of curiosity, yall getting ur feelings hurt

Dear TFL ,dont mix appels with bananas, they are not the same Fruit ,Ultra fast Automatic with Launch Control against a manual transmission??

Everyone complaining about the comparison between two very different cars needs to understand a company life TFL does’t have a budget of Top Gear so they need to make content with what they have. I’m sure they’d love to have a DSG Golf but they might not have had the option. Great video as always guys I really enjoy your content. Cheers Pat🇦🇺

Worst launch I’ve ever seen on an AWD car

Ford > VW

Nothing beats a V8 for the fun to drive.

Guy sucks at manual first of all, way different hearing between dsg and 6 speed. Golf r will smoke the mustang in almost all daily activities. A simple tune (vw are known for) will make this beat the mustang in its straight line also. 🙏

5:25 I'd just like to mention, judging a base model 300A package on interior quality isn't too fair. The GT Premiums with the 401A package feel CONSIDERABLY better. Soft touch pho-leather completely covers the drivetrain tunnel, your dash, door cards. There's accented stitching on every surface, the seats are leather, etc. Sitting in the two of them is night and day .

This drag race is incredibly flawed. The DSG Golf is considerably faster than the manual.

The slow motion of the Mustang off the line was incredible!

Speed isnt everything, still rather have the Golf r

Doesn't the guy driving the Mercedes know how to brake boost?

That is BS run since you ran the stick VW. DSG would have been the route to go.

Mustang 💪

VW is junk; not as bad as the koraen cars though

Any car buyers looking for a new car probably wont line up a VW Golf, a Benz and a Mustang as a choice. These cars are targeted at different markets. Gotta luv the v8 though. There is no replacement for displacement, no substitute for cubic inches. Sadly, Mustang is the last v8 left in the market now, its all there is, and its days are almost certainly numbered, for now at least. Mustang is a much simpler car technically, service and repair costs will be much higher with the German cars, they are technically more complicated.

This is an apples to oranges comparo with nothing unsuspecting to offer. The point? Having owned a 2010 V-8 Camaro & Jeep SRT: both absolute beasts - I can say I love my 2024 Golf R manual (soon to be modified to Stage 1) much more. So very immersive an experience and with a short throw shifter & AWE exhaust upgrades- this will be more bang for the book than should be allowed. Oh & it's the best daily driver on the road...

This is why manuals are going away. Slowest shifts. Worst performance.

The guy driving the Golf R has for sure never been in a drag race before. Also never driven a manual before.

I would be happy having any of these cars cuz they are all a bit of fun and also functional

You need someone who knows how to launch a 4WD manual transmission car. That person you put in the golf is clueless. I am not one of these people who thinks they are a know it all. I have owned a manual 2012 Audi s3 for some years now and it takes allot of practice to get the launch right. DISLIKE!!

The M240i XDrive would be the perfect competition. It’s a 2 door coupe.

DQ350 Golf R would absolute annihilate that mustang. I'm eating manual GT350R's for breakfast with 800 bucks in it. :/

DSG and simply a stage 1 tune on the Golf R and this would have actually been interesting.

Disappointing content from you guys using auto vs manual, especially when the auto is the one easy up on power. The Ford fanboys may enjoy this, but it's a waste of everyone else's time. Hopefully you can get your hands on either a DSG Golf R or a six speed Mustang for a redemption video.

I understand sometimes you have to work with what you have, but as soon as you mentioned that the Golf was a manual, I knew you guys couldn't be serious about this video. Or maybe you were, which is even worse. If the point was to demonstrate the value of the Mustang in terms of performance, unfortunately, you missed the mark. First, the 0-60 time of just over 4 seconds that you mentioned for the Golf R applies when it is equipped with the DSG. The DSG only adds $800 to the MSRP but significantly enhances performance. Second, you quoted the Golf R as having 315 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. Again, this would be correct if you were discussing the DSG version, which is not featured in this video. The 6-speed manual version has less torque than the DSG, at 280 lb-ft. There’s no reason to expect a 315 hp sport compact to be faster than a 480 hp sports car, but if you're going to base the entire video around a particular car, in this case, the Golf R, at least use the car whose stats you are quoting. To reiterate, the car you are discussing (Golf R DSG) and the car you have (Golf R 6-Speed) differ significantly in performance. Mustangs and pony cars in general have always offered great performance for the dollar. That's not newsworthy. However, trying to make a point and then choosing the worst example of a car that is already at a disadvantage doesn’t help your case. If the goal is to show how fast a car can be compared to similarly priced cars, the Mustang, as optioned in this video, is actually more expensive than the Golf. I'm not criticizing the inclusion of these cars in a video together, but at least make an effort to properly inform viewers about what's happening. Additionally, continuing to discuss how much faster the Mustang is, as if there isn’t a clear reason why the Golf R ran a 16-second quarter mile (maybe 15 in better condition), is hard to understand. Motorweek recorded a 12.5-second quarter mile at 111 mph in the Golf R. Car and Driver reported the same time as Motorweek, and Carwow reported a 12.3 second quarter. The Mustang in this video ran a 13.6-second quarter mile (assume a 12.6 in better conditions). Don’t skirt around the issue; address it directly. Otherwise, thanks for the time and effort put into these videos. I just wish there was a bit more purpose and understanding behind what is going on here.

Mustang for me, but I don't live in the US, here in rural France, the back roads are narrow so it's the VW or a small Ford!

Try comparing apples to apples guys.

Rigged, they know of the Dsg, these are American muscle fan boys. I like both but this is an unfair fight. On the move, yeah 400+hp V8 all day

Not exactly a fair fight but this in a way proves that there's no replacement for displacement in a straight line.

My take, the Mustang for weekend fun,and the VW for the daily driver family car. The Mercedes while it has a Pretty interior, for some reason doesn't appeal to me enough to spend that much on.

Less shots of the drivers face driving and more shots of the actual race

Still would take a VW over F ound O n R oad D ead Go on a twisty track and then see who takes who! VW MK4 R32 24V VR6!

Mustang all day. Especially where I live which is close to sea level and never snows, rarely rains. Anyone who would pass on that Coyote V8 for a nicer interior isn't really a car person in my book.

How fast and how far you can put your foot to the floor doesn't make one car better than another. The golf would eat it on a track. The mustang is stone axe technology incomparison to the VW.

Agh, no DSG on the Golf. I’d still have the Golf R (with DSG) with the APR stage 1 tune. Better fit and finish on the Golf.

This is BS automatic will always be faster than a stick.

Cmon auto vs auto

Golf is what I bought. Manual as well. Love it. Who cares about 1/4 times anyway. These cars are all fun, just get out and drive 'em.

This channel sucks 140k view over 1 month lol, and a poor comparison on vehicles fml.

Not many realize how much of an advantage the 10-speed auto does for the mustang over the 6-speed manual. Yes purists will bash me that it's not as much fun as a stick, but if my goal is to go faster than my competition, then i want the fastest trans to get me there, period!!

DSG R is almost a full second faster on the quarter mile than the manual. You guys can do better.

I own the Golf. I highly doubt the 'stang can keep up with its all wheel drive torque vectoring system when you get off a straight line and actually start turning like you would on a track or in the real world. Just tune the Golf to Stage 1 or Stage 2 so it also makes 400+ horsepower and it will be as good or better than a muscle car in pretty much any arena.

Id love to see this vs thw dsg golf r. My golf r (older) dsg ran 12.8 all day bone stock. Hot lapped. No tire pressure adjustment. Jsut ran 12.8s the manual version is more than a second slower in the 1/4

The Mustang isn’t going to constantly break and ruin your finances.

I'll save you 17:51 mins of you time..... Domestic beats import every day.

I’m surprised the VW is only 350# lighter than the Mustang.

The Mercedes is going to lose amazing amounts of value in the first 5 years and become an endless Money Pit thereafter

An automatic Golf R might have still lost, but the outcome would likely have been tighter. As for a manual Mustang versus a DSG Golf R, it's hard to determine which would come out on top. Perhaps that match-up might be for another day.

The DSG GOLF R will destroy the Mustang GT hands down !!!

What a unfair comparison... do it again with the DSG... this is dumb

A mustang is just like a jeep, it not your first vehicle its your play toy.

$46k for Telsa Model 3 Performance. 0-60 2.9 1/4 mile 11.5 sec and usable back seats. Not too hard pressed to find a better performance car. This coming from a die hard Mustang fan.

Coyote + TT = Supa quick. The current king of proven street legal cars is Brett Lasalas 6.26 @ 227mph oe cast Coyote Mustang. Boom

Who gives a shit a bout straight line performance? if it came down to that, my 2006 20VT shitbox with 10.000 in mods can do sub-10 second 1/4 miles.

They kept on talking “usability”, what they should be comparing is “functionality”. Sure you can “use” a bucket to bail out your flooded boat, but a pump is far more functional.

vw is way too overprice end of the day its an compact car with bias reviews

That C43 with the 4 banger should not have an "AMG" badge. Mercedes has diluted the AMG name by putting it on everything. Can't even make it sound like an AMG anymore.

The Golf R is no match for the Mustang GT.. The Golf got smoked..... Wow.

The Golf R isn’t just for straight line speed. Take the cars to a racetrack.

$46K for an awd 300hp chevy sonic is wild. Golf R is $38k at best

The auto DSG golf R is 1 second faster than the manual. This video is a bad comparison

I'm born in Germany but I will go with the American Mustang. ❤

That VW looks like some $6000 Facebook Marketplace disposable junk.

But straight line drag races are completely irrelevant for daily driving conditions, whereas the ability to drive swiftly down a narrow winding road is something lots of people use all the time. So let’s see a race on this basis instead - we won’t even meter the fuel consumption.