The Volkswagen Golf GTI and Golf R are often thought of as the benchmarks of their respective segments, and the newest versions of each have finally begun rolling out to the public after their debut last year. But while we’ve already tested the two hot hatches together, we didn’t compare them to one another, which is what Throttle House does in their latest video.

The one similarity between the two is the interior (with a few minor exceptions), and as such the two can effectively be critiqued rather than compared. Certain aspects like the seats, steering wheel, and digital gauge cluster were all good, but there seemed to be a trend of frustrating infotainment controls, namely the haptic touch buttons found on the steering wheel and center console. That being said, they didn’t feel like any of those issues were a total dealbreaker.

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Moving on to the actual comparison, Throttle House uses the GTI as a baseline. The steering and shifter were solid-feeling, and the ride perfectly straddled the line between sporty and harsh, but one thing that wasn’t so great was the car’s ability to put power to the ground. Every time they launched it, it suffered from a significant amount of wheel hop, but its saving grace was the standard limited-slip differential. Overall, the GTI retained its sharp, tossable character from generations past, and added to it with a healthy bump in power.

The Golf R, on the other hand, takes everything good about the GTI and improves it even further with all-wheel drive. In previous generations, this wasn’t necessarily the case, as the AWD system’s heavy front bias did little to change the car’s driving characteristics. But now, thanks to a new system that cleverly sends power more rearwards, legitimate oversteer is now possible in the R. The ride of the car is also ideal for daily driving, being comfortable without feeling disconnected, and both the steering feel and usable power felt better than in the GTI.

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So what’s the verdict? This time around, thanks to VW fixing all of its shortcomings (namely those stemming from its old AWD system), the Golf R is now sufficiently more fun and capable of confidently justifying the price jump over the GTI, and it’s the one you should go for if you’re looking for the epitome of a practical yet fun daily driver.