Why would you buy a VW Golf R instead of a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ supercar?
What do you get for your money when you buy a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, Lamborghini Urus SUV, Audi RS5 Sportback, Golf R or VW Beetle ‘Final Edition’? Matthew DeBord finds out
Is a US$610,000 car really an entire mortgage better than a US$27,000 car?
That is the question I set out to answer, after testing five vehicles across a wide spectrum of prices. The quintet had something in common: they were all made by the VW Group, which owns the VW, Audi and Lamborghini brands.
Is the Audi RS5 Sportback worth its price of almost US$100,000? The answer there is absolutely yes. In fact, its performance-to-versatility ratio makes it look like a bargain. And it is crammed with technology, luxury, and go-fast goodies
I thought about comparing just saloons or sport utility vehicles (SUVs), but the truth is that sometimes a luxury SUV might be based on a mass-market vehicle, so distinctions are harder to draw.
In that case, you are dealing with premium appointments, luxurious extras and upmarket styling. But mechanically and performance-wise, the vehicles could be quite similar.
So I took a different approach, along the lines of: “What are you getting for your money?”
I also enjoyed driving all six of these vehicles, so I had a positive baseline to begin with.
Check out how it went.
Lamborghini Aventador SVJ
We’ll start with the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, a track-oriented version of the “Big Lambo” – already a near-hypercar, which is US$610,000.
The Aventador arrived in 2011 and, like all Lambo sports cars, is named after a fighting bull. The car is a beast, and in a “Rosso Mimir” matt-red colour, it looked ultra-aggressive. The basic model Aventador costs about US$517,000