That red stripe running through the headlight cluster is really the only thing styling wise that really bothers me. I wish the front air dam looks more aggressive than what it looks to be now, since I think it looks more similar to Golf than what it is now(or MK5). But it is not bad looking. The new wheel options looks nice. Though they are probably still weighs a ton and probably have to be ditched at some point.
The interior is same-ish but different, which is nice. Still hate the lack of mechanical e-brake. Interesting they went to top-hinged throttle pedal. I had to get used to the bottom hinged one in MK6, now I have to do the opposite...lol
Power level increase is expected, the number sounds a lot more impressive in US version since ours is only rated at 200 now. The bump in torque is significant. This probably matches the power of the Audi EA888 A4 now, I wonder if the new engine has VVL like Audi's. The performance pack adding 10 extra horses isn't that impressive, but the rest of the bits is interesting. VAQ sounds interesting with ability to overdrive outside wheel, means it has to be an actually mechanically based system with electronic control(guessing some kind of clutchpack controlling a gear set), which should mean pretty significant handling improvement under power. Uprated brake is probably going to be GolfR/R32/TTS style caliper and disc package. This should address the need for heavy duty brake for track duty. The standard caliper seems to different now too in terms of design. The EU car shown also has adaptive damper, which looks to be different than the current system available in EU. I wonder what system it has now...
Overall I am pretty impressed, now I want to know the timing and price to see if I might go to it....