How is the Golf R not the best enthusiast single car daily driver?

It is. And you can tell by all the people shitting on the MK8R in these comments. My daily driver is a manual 2021 ND2 MX-5 GT RF and when I initially test drove the Golf R to potentially buy as my wife’s daily I wasn’t blown away by it. Yes, it was fun, but a RWD manual it certainly was not, and that’s also not a very fair comparison. If that’s what you want, Miata is always the answer. You will not understand how great this car is from a 10-15 minute test drive. You’ll be frustrated with the interface and lack of physical buttons. They’re not going to let you drift in drift mode, launch it, drive on curvy mountain roads, try out all the different drive modes, or tear it up in heavy rain or snow. On a dealership test drive you probably will be bored. It wasn’t until I watched the Throttle House video that I took another serious look at it. The fact that James test drives so many amazing cars for a living and used his own money to purchase a Golf R over everything else speaks volumes. The fact is this car really is amazing value and in a class all by itself here in the USA. Now if we got the sportback Audi S3 or RS3 that may be a different story. Why is the Golf MK8R the ultimate daily driver? Simple answer really. My wife has never been into cars, and she is a car nut now. That practically changed overnight and I don’t think any other car could have done that, my ND2 miata sure as hell didn’t. She is genuinely excited to drive to and from work every day, pickup groceries, make large dumps/donations/purchases knowing she can easily haul everything and won’t be restricted like her old sedan. She loves that the car can park and parallel park for her when she doesn’t feel like stressing out about it. She is excited to tell me stories about people of all ages complimenting her left and right at the gas station, and parking lot. She can’t wait to tell me stories about all the cars she left in the dust who tried racing her. She has never felt more confident in rain, snow, or shine. The matrix lights and visibility is next level, and she had no idea how poor her past cars visibility were. She can pass just about anyone, and easily steer clear of dangerous drivers around her, while regularly finding the long, windy way home. She praises all the amazing standard features it comes with: HUD, triple zone climate, nappa leather seats, harmon kardon sound system, ventilated front seats, heated front/rear seats, heated steering wheel that’s actually hot all around the wheel. She loves the wireless Apple CarPlay and the fact that she can just set and forget the climate controls and nav, and has no trouble with the haptic touch buttons. It’s painfully easy to drive when you want to just relax in comfort mode, but adrenaline inducing when you want to push it in sport/race/drift/Nurburgring mode. On long roadtrips we don’t feel worn down like we used to in her old SUV, and previous sedan before that. She says this is the perfect car, and she wouldn’t change a thing about it, and will never sell or trade it in. This is the last car she hopes to ever own. How many wives can say the same about their cars? How many people can say they’re debating on a daily basis about trading in their manual ND2 Miata for a second Golf R. I imagine a lot of people in this forum are constantly focused on upgrading and moving up to that next level. The car is not cheap I get that, but neither my wife nor I have had buyers remorse for a single second. There is no other car like it. It fits our small family perfectly. We can drive cross country with all our gear in the roof box, bikes on the hitch, plenty of room for kids in rear, dogs in the cargo, and still have that nimble, sporty feel, and handling. I can finally sleep now on road trips because my wife actually wants to drive. She uses self driving travel assist on the straightaways which works incredibly well, until it gets curvy and fun, then it’s game on with the paddle shifters as we try and see who can get more pops and burbles. This car is just the epitome of family fun and we have put close to 15K on the odometer in a single year, doubling the mileage we would put on our old SUV in a year. As long as you can look past the steepish price tag, and lack of a luxury badge, which was a huge selling point to us, it’s a bargain for what you get. Then again we don’t care about keeping up with the joneses like so many others sadly do. It’s no way to live really. Those are the people downvoting a car simply because it isn’t the one they like/own. The Golf R wasn’t created for people like that and they will never understand what makes the car so great no matter how hard they try. They value that badge more than anything else in a car, that exclusivity that not everyone can afford one. Now, I could have bought a new Corvette or M3, and I chose a Golf R anyways, most people wouldn’t do that, I gladly did. I think the only car I would consider swapping it for is a RS6 Avant, but I would never spend that much on a car even if I could afford one. Hope others can find that same joy in a car as we did when we bought our MK8R. Ultimate daily driver? No need to look any further, it’s the MK8 Golf R, just get one.