Welcome To Blue’s Travels

When I think about buying my first new car I cannot help by grow sentimental. The images of that day are so vivid. It was a little more than three years ago. I had just purchased a Volkswagen R32 from Terry Volkswagen in Lynchburg Virginia.

I can clearly remember the feeling I had sitting there in the driver seat of this Deep Blue Pearl, 2004 VW R32. My hands were wrapped around the thick steering wheel. The throaty dual exhausts growled quietly behind me. The instrument panel loomed ahead of me, just inches away from my face. I can remember thinking that I could not wait for the sun to set just so I could see that Indiglo Blue backlit display panel come to life. The 6-speed shifter fit nicely in my hand. The R-Line pedals in the floor board gripped the bottoms of the soles of my tennis shoes and the car was begging for me to take it home. The long way home.

The emotions I had running through me at that moment were an odd mixture, but I can best sum them up by describing the feeling I had as one of excitement and exhilaration. It was not just the fact that this was my first new car. That was indeed part of it, but only a small part really. What excited me was the car itself. The Seats. The Sound. The Look. The Feel. From stem to stern, the 2004 VW R32 was a pure sports car. Purely European. Agressive and mean, meaning business. The 2004 R32 was a sophisticated car for the discriminating driving enthusiast and VW left no stone unturned in making sure that every last “t” was crossed and every single “i” was dotted.

The blue coil-overs, front and aft, put the finishing touches on a terrific suspension; the multi-adjustable Koenig Sport Seats were so aggressive that you needn’t ever worry about taking the most aggressive turns, for they would hold you secure from start to finish; a tight 6-speed manual tranny for the driving purest that wants to be connected to the road by the machine he is piloting; brushed aluminum trim graced the interior, but not so much as to be tacky; that Indiglo Dash, a VW trademark, which made nighttime driving a thing of beauty. I could go on, but you get my drift.

The bottom line is that the 2004 R32 had a personality all of it’s very own. So much so that when you sat in it you immediately realized that you had never sat in anything quite like it before. Moreover, you realized that you might never see anything like it again. Because of this….you just had to have it.

Juxtapose the feeling I had then to the one I had today when I had my first opportunity to see a 2008, Deep Blue Pearl VW R32, up close and personal, having just been detailed and having just been put on the show room floor. There really is no comparison between the two. That is both a good thing, and a bad thing.

A recent visitor to this site summed up my frustration with VWoA when she stated the following in a comment:

If you take the time to read what VoA said when launching the car, it’s all about creating a unique and more sophisticated alternative to the rice-rockets. Goggins describes it as “a GT” = not as fast or extreme as an EVO/WRX but better because it’s more rounded, more talented.

I just cannot accept this line of reasoning.

First of all, the 2004 R32 was never meant to compete with the EVO/WRX/Rice-Rocket crowd. Discriminating, mature drivers who owned the 2004 R32 understood immediately that Volkswagen never intended the R32 to be the fastest straight-line car on the road. The R32 was about fun.

The R32 has to be one of the best handling cars in the world. The 2004 R32’s ability to corner, accelerate out of turns, brake on a dime and style and profile like nobody’s business were the car’s hallmark claims to fame. In that regard, the 2004 R32 excelled, and on that basis alone the 2004 R32 outclassed the EVO/WRX and virtually every other sports car on the road at twice the price.

Secondly, the 2004 R32 was then, and remains to this day, a very sophisticated car in both style and performance. So, for anyone to suggest that the 2008 R32 was designed to be a sophisticated alternative to “rice-rockets” is to imply that the 2004 version of the car wasn’t, which is 100%, unmitigated horn-twaddle (my own word).

Let me tell you what the 2008 R32 really is. It is a complete re-imagining of a 2004 gem of a car, for the expressed purpose of appealing to the more mature driver. The real reason VWoA/VWoG redesigned the 2004 R32 was because they wanted to appeal to a different class of consumer. That’s all. And at the age of 45, that marketing decision has some appeal for me.

So, the question is this: Is a more mature version of the 2004 R32 a bad thing? Well, that would depend.

My feeling has always been that VW could have upgraded the new R32 by improving on the suspension, offering the DSG transmission as an option, switching to the the MV chassis, all the while leaving the nuanced, subtle hints of pedigree in place. As it turns out, virtually all of the pedigree of the 2004 version is gone. No more 6-speed. No more blue coil-overs. No more Indiglo dash. No more aggressive seats. No more R-line theme interior. Gone is the throaty exhaust. You name it, Volkswagen ditched it in favor of the mundane. In fact, when you sit in the 2008 R32, other than the R32 emblem on the steering wheel you would be hard pressed to know you were sitting in anything other than a GTI.

Having said all of that, I am in love with the 2008 R32. Stay tuned for Part 2 to see why.

Part Two With Photos

Popularity: 4% [?]