Why Volkswagen Golf GTI and R Sales Are Way Down

With the first quarter of the year in its rearview mirror, Volkswagen of America is happy to report deliveries are up 7.1 percent. While the Taos and Jetta did all the heavy lifting, the Golf GTI and R sales fell off a cliff. The hot hatches suffered a double-digit decrease, with the front-wheel-drive model plummeting 21.6 percent to 1,892 cars. It was even worse for the all-wheel-drive R, which fell 37.6 percent to 770 units.

Given the huge drop, we decided to ask Volkswagen what’s what. The company’s spokesperson, Mark Gillies, told us that the model’s changeover was the culprit. Although the facelifted GTI and R have been available in Europe for a while, the US-spec models weren’t officially announced until November 2024. Fire up the configurator today, and you still can’t find the 2025MY. Whenever a mid-cycle update or a next-gen model is rolled out, there’s usually a slowdown during the transition to the newer car.

But we’re not so sure sales will bounce back completely. After all, VW killed the manual gearbox in the 2025 GTI and R. Before the six-speed manual was retired, enthusiasts in the US bought more three-pedal Golfs. The GTI manual’s take rate jumped from 38 to 41 percent in 2024, while the R’s increased from 45 to 52 percent.

Fun fact: You can still get a Golf with a stick in Europe by buying a lesser version with 1.5-liter gasoline and 2.0-liter diesel engines. Speaking of forbidden fruits, the GTI Clubsport and the R wagon are not getting a US visa either. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the regular GTI we do get skips the 20-horsepower bump of the Euro model because that would’ve required reengineering the exhaust system. It’s unclear whether the Golf GTI 50^th Anniversary Edition, debuting in June, will be sold in North America.

You’d be tempted to say the Golf R was the slowest-selling VW in the year’s first three months. However, that’s not actually the case. Although Arteon production ended in 2023, no fewer than 20 cars were sold between January and March. With the Passat long gone, some people were eager to get their hands on the fancier alternative before it went away completely. It’s worth noting that America only got the five-door liftback model. The more practical Arteon Shooting Brake for the European market wasn’t axed until the beginning of this year.