Our Cars: Volkswagen Golf R Mk7.5

As the great and now sadly late John Michael ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne once sang, ‘I’m going through changes’. Except in my case I haven’t ‘lost my woman’ or said goodbye to ‘the best friend that I ever had’ but merely swapped one Golf R for another. The mad manual Mk7 has gone, making way for a newer, lower mileage, slightly less nuts Mk7.5 DSG. And I feel neither unhappy nor sad about the transition.

Why the change? Well that does involve a woman, in this case the unceasingly lovely but sometimes a little bit scary Mrs Sutcliffe, who couldn’t get on with the manual Mk7 no matter how hard she tried.

Perhaps it was the severity of that Golf R’s stage 2 modifications she couldn’t come to terms with. Maybe she just seeks an easier life nowadays and can’t be faffed with a clutch and gearlever on our congested roads. Or it might just be a case of her not being able to see the benefits of having a 400bhp hot hatch as a daily driver, and I must concede she may have a point on all three counts.