https://www.revscene.net/forums/7171...ml#post9047209
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Idk who would ever read this or if there's any value to this, but my choices were Genesis G80 3.3T (last gen and facelifted gen), Hyundai Veloster N, Golf R, and Civic Type R.
The Genesis was the closest to a BMW - I had a ton of fun in that car but even a used model would have been 10K more than the Civic Type R.
I previously discussed how much joy I had in driving the Veloster N - lots of drama and theatrics. Pop pop bang bang. But a Veloster N all in is between 42K - $46K. Which you might as well buy a Golf R or FK8.
The Golf R was the biggest disappointment. It rides well, it's very fast, the manual was terrible. The clutch was so light you can't feel anything. I tried ACC on it, and while in theory ACC is great, with manual transmission it doesn't make any sense. Btw, AJ at VW Richmond was great to deal with! We connected really well and I never got any pushy sales person vibes from them. It was a great experience.
Shortly after driving the Golf R, I drove the Civic Type R. I had to convince the dealer to let me go on a test drive. We went literally around the block and back. But that was enough time to convince me that the FK8's manual transmission was THAT much better than the Golf R. Overally, I'm very happy with my purchase. The dealership experience was eh, not as good as VW Richmond, but I guess they get a lot of curb kickers with the FK8.