Though available in Europe for the past several years, the R32 made just one brief appearance in the U.S., in 2004. Slotting in above the
GTI, the R32—which, like the GTI, was based on the Golf—featured a V-6 engine and all-wheel drive (AWD). The new R32 is based on the fifth-generation Golf (now known here as the Rabbit). It employs the same basic formula as the 2004 R32 (6-cylinder engine and AWD) with one major change: The sole transmission offering is Volkswagen's Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG), a fully automated manual transmission with a computer-operated clutch. The DSG's design allows it to change gears in a fraction of the time required by other automated (sequential) manuals, not to mention human-operated manual transmissions, cutting 0-60 mph times by about half a second compared to a manual transmission, according to Volkswagen.
