VW are lending me a new Scirocco!

By Chicane-UK
in The Neobahn

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Grand Master

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Been out for more of a drive and initial impressions are fairly favourable as you would expect.

The 2.0 TFSI engine is REALLY eager at low revs and pulls nice and cleanly though feels a little less potent once you hit the speed limit. It's nice and torquey in all gears so much so that you can often just forget what gear you're in - just leave it 4th for all but stop / starts and you'll be fine.

The sheer amount of technology in the car is bordering on bewildering. There are buttons, dials, and controls for everything - turning off the windscreen blower turns on another mode - it's almost like trying to play connect 4 as you press one button and another light comes on. Very distracting if you're driving so you really need to spend time getting familiar with the buttons - and read the handbook!

Visibility is superb at the front - you can barely see the bonnet (hood) as the drop is so sharp - so all you see is road through the windscreen. Views to the side are good but diagonal front isn't thanks to a chunky great A-pillar - it's something of a blind spot. Rear visibility is pretty woeful too thanks to large headrests front and rear and a small rear window.

More thoughts to come as I drive it around more :)

Grand Master

Chicane-UK Veteran

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Back now from the trip to Germany. Did 1,482 miles in total including some driving around at home, etc. The actual trip to Germany must have been about 1,300'ish.

Had an absolute blast and the car was excellent in all situations - be it in traffic, at speed on the autobahn, cruising at normal motorway / freeway speeds, or even on a cheeky lap of the Nurburgring. I debated taking it on all day but when the track opened in the evening and all the really fast stuff had gone out already I gave it a bit more of a think and threw caution to the wind and headed out. Gave the car a reasonable spanking (but without pushing myself too hard obviously as the track is a really serious circuit) and it was really rewarding with only a few twitchy moments where I was suddenly thinking that something bad was about to happen.

Would I buy one if I had ?21,000 spare? Yes.

I love how it looks and I love the attention we got over on the continent - drivers throwing on the brakes and then giving us thumbs up when they'd had a look. Interest at the event in Germany was fairly heavy too with lots of people crowding round the car whenever we went to it to get stuff out of it, etc.

Will sort out a few piccies soon! Still trying to get my life in order, tidying up all the crap I took away, etc etc!

Grand Master

Chicane-UK Veteran

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Just found a Flickr stream for one of the guys who was track side when I went out in the Scirocco - looks like he's handy with a camera as these pics are totally pro quality! You can see me behind the wheel in the front shot - can't see my two passengers who were hanging on! :) :)

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rathefeare

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The sheer amount of technology in the car is bordering on bewildering. There are buttons, dials, and controls for everything - turning off the windscreen blower turns on another mode - it's almost like trying to play connect 4 as you press one button and another light comes on. Very distracting if you're driving so you really need to spend time getting familiar with the buttons - and read the handbook!

I'm interested in your take on the amount of and ease of use of all the gadgets. We had earlier talked about a common preference for less gadgets and simpler interfaces. How has this area been treating you in this car after having lived with it for a bit?

Grand Master

revvo

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Great opportunity and pics! We want that car here :/ Damn Americans and their "This car would reduce GTI sales" bs

One thing though, all your comments seem to be too positive, like this car is da ****. I know you're not in any position to shout out opinions like Jeremy Clarkson, but surely you can find things that need improvements.

Grand Master

Chicane-UK Veteran

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One thing though, all your comments seem to be too positive, like this car is da ****. I know you're not in any position to shout out opinions like Jeremy Clarkson, but surely you can find things that need improvements.

There were plenty of things that I disliked about it. As mentioned by njlouch the wide A-pillar is dreadful for numerous reasons. It totally obscures your view on roundabouts and on the track you couldn't really aim for the apex of a corner as it was in the way - going back to my Corrado, the view was MUCH better and I could see clearly again.

The sat nav system was wonderful but the media system in general had a few gremlins - like where it just ignored the aux input or even hung on aux input about 4 or 5 times whilst I had the car.

Hydraulic brake assist was quite annoying the first few times you drive it if you're used to progressive brake feel - if you just quickly dab the brakes but only gently they throw themselves on and you find yourself almost causing accidents as the car behind isn't expecting such a sudden stop.

And I guess overall the build quality is fairly poor - you can see where costs have been cut. I didn't damage anything on the car but my mate (probably through being heavy handed) managed to crack one piece of interior trim and pull off a piece of foam in the engine bay. Slightly concerning.

I'm interested in your take on the amount of and ease of use of all the gadgets. We had earlier talked about a common preference for less gadgets and simpler interfaces. How has this area been treating you in this car after having lived with it for a bit?

After a week I had pretty much got it all sussed out but the aircon / blower system did seem to have something of a mind of its own. The problem was that each mode retained its settings - so if you didn't have the aircon on, and had the blower on full then switched on aircon and dialled it down, when you took aircon mode off, suddenly it'd go back to its last setting with the blower on full. It was just a bit annoying and what with the complication of windscreen clearing mode being another button and dual zone climate having another, I just longed for an easier "on / off" and speed / heat button.

The media and sat nav system was quite clever but again frustratingly easy to go into the wrong thing and was quite complex. We couldn't find a way to just stick in a post code on the system as it insisted on only allowing you to specify the first 4 letters of a 6 digit UK postal code and then expected you to specify a street / house number to finish it off. Of course if you had that it was massively accurate but on the last day we wanted to go to an industrial estate to pick up some car parts and only had the postcode and the name of the unit - trying to find it was a real pain in the backside.

Overall it was a clever system that worked well together (sat nav would just turn down the volume on aux input when it wanted to speak) but there were some definate design quirks that really needed working out further.

Edited by Chicane-UK
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splicer707

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Now I'm not a car expert, no where near.

But I did just want to say that the Scirocco looks more Japanese than German.

The front view of it, made me react with 'It's a Toyota' then I squinted and though, 'No maybe a bit more like a Mitsubishi'.

One other thought. With the Scirocco, are WV looking at replacing the Golf? The Scirocco looks better and seems to have better options than the Golf, easily. But the dashboard and seats look - meh and the boot is a bit small.

Grand Master

Chicane-UK Veteran

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Fair point on the styling of the Scirocco - it was a point that was made by a number of people in Germany. The front end is VW'ish but the back end could just as easily have been styled by Fiat or someone else.

And no - the Scirocco isn't meant to replace the Golf. The Golf is VW's biggest seller as far as I know - it'd be like Microsoft stopping making Windows!

Fifth Gear just had a good review of the Scirocco, check it out.

Annoyed I missed it but planning to catch up on that one!! :)

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