My First Drive - MKVI Scirocco

[jamesatfish]

I'm in the UK for 48 hours, and thanks to the kind people at Hertz (and my company account) I've got my hands on a 2009 Scirocco 2.0 TFSI for the first time.

I don't know if anyone else is interested, but I thought I'd share some photos and my experiences with the car as I've never had the chance to drive one (or even see one in the flesh) before today.



The 3-door Golf should really look like this - this is such an aggressive shape for a hatchback. Given this is cheaper than the equivalent Golf GTI here in the UK, why you would choose the Golf is beyond me.




The driving position is immediately familiar to anyone who has driven a MKV Golf or similar recent VW. The 6-speed DSG has flappy-paddles on the steering wheel itself (behind the left and right spokes), which work well once you're used to them but when you're learning it's quite easy to flash your high-beam or wash the windscreen rather than changing gear.

Like most VW DSGs the changes are rapid and it won't down-shift in manual mode when you floor the throttle (which can be very annoying when you want the car to stick to a specific gear), but the car doesn't seem to have any engine braking ability - for a corner where I would usually just change down from 4 to 3 in a manual car to scrub some speed and balance the car, the Scirocco needs a touch of brakes to achieve the same.

The exhaust note is fairly subtle, but it has a very nice note - just a bit meaner than the Polo GTI I'm used to driving. There is a back-pressure blip when the DSG changes up a gear, which I thought was a great touch for the first few hours but it actually got annoying after 7 hours. I'll see how it grows on me with some more driving.

The Scirocco has adjustable suspension - the comfort setting is very 'floaty' but with a full car load of passengers it's a nice balance. Driving by myself I left the car in 'Sport' - but then again I leave the fully adjustable coilovers on the Polo in their firmest track setting for everyday driving.




The back seat of the Scirocco is strictly a 2-person affair - two bucket style seats and two seat belts. I don't know how many people use the back seats of their 2-door Golf models, but with 4 adults in the car tonight it was a very cramped place for driver and all passengers. The seats don't go all the way to the sides so there's even less width than you might imagine.


The radio is a very nice touch-screen double-din unit - changing stations and selecting options is a breeze and it's only a matter of time before this type of system becomes standard. No sat nav in this car, but it does have a SD media card slot, USB port (for a flash drive with MP3 files, I assume) and an Aux-In port for an iPod / iPhone.

The car also has dual-zone climate control and heated front seats - not sure if these are standard or not.



In a services parking lot next to a couple of stable-mates from VAG - the one closest to the Scirocco is a new V10 R8, the other is a 'normal' V8.




I don't know how common the Scirocco is in the UK, but it certainly seems to turn heads on the motorway, especially from GTI owners taking a closer look.

[qsilverza]

Nice one Did you see any tuned Tiguan's there ? and would you have the Scirocco vs. Golf GTI if space was a problem ?

[sir_camel]

Great review and a great looking car. I sure hope they start to bring them out here. For someone who hasn't been following, have they just had the update from the MkV to MkVI?

[drbass]

Why would anyone want a Golf indeed? No wonder VW Australia is concerned about cannibalising Golf sales should they decide to make the Scirocco available here.

The inside is pretty much identical to our MY09 Eos (except we have a manual). Very functional, immediately familiar.

Great vehicle but I'm hoping for the BlueSport Concept .

Seeya,
Michael

[phaeton]

Agreed with the above good review

Exactly how small is the rear seating area ?

[jamesatfish]

The rear seats are quite a bit smaller than in a Golf - not only is the shelf to the sides of the rear seats about an inch wider on each side, but the shape of the seats with the bucket base means that it's a tight squeeze for 2 adults rather than the flat bench of the Golf allowing 3 adults to fit in the same space. Those two seats are quite comfortable though.

The boot space seems about the same as our MkV Golf, even with the different rear lines in the Scirocco.

If I was in the market for a 3-door Golf I'd certainly buy the Scirocco - but if I needed the space or regularly had more than 2 people in the car I wouldn't buy a 3-door, so I don't think the Scirocco is more of a compromise than a 3-door Golf GTI is.

I haven't seen too many Tiguans yet - but I did follow a MkV Golf 2.0 TFSI (non-GTI) with a '4-Motion' badge. Shame they don't make those in Australia either.

[dubbed]

Stunning cars. I really want one in CW.

[gti]

I love them!

[Lima]

Thanks for sharing!

The back seat of the Scirocco is strictly a 2-person affair - two bucket style seats and two seat belts. I don't know how many people use the back seats of their 2-door Golf models, but with 4 adults in the car tonight it was a very cramped place for driver and all passengers. The seats don't go all the way to the sides so there's even less width than you might imagine.

That's interesting. I've ridden in the back of our 3dr GTI from Berrima to Canberra and there is heaps of room, it is quite comfortable really. Because there are no doors there's actually slightly more shoulder/elbow room than in the 5dr.

[mtj007]

Like most VW DSGs the changes are rapid and it won't down-shift in manual mode when you floor the throttle (which can be very annoying when you want the car to stick to a specific gear)

I'm not sure if I've misunderstood or not but to get it to downshift when you floor it in manual mode you have to push it into kickdown. If you push the pedal to the floor it seems like it stops but if you push harder you will feel it go further, you will feel a bit more resistance from the pedal than normal but this will get it to drop down and then resume to whatever gear it was in when you've had your fun/overtaken. Eg driving along at 100 in 6th in my TDI, floor it into the kickdown position, it will drop into 3rd and then change up through the gears at each redline and go straight back to 6th when I ease off

Back on topic, that's one sexy looking car. I hope VW brings them here even though I'd probably still take a 5 door GTI for convenience.

[jamesatfish]

I'm not sure if I've misunderstood or not but to get it to downshift when you floor it in manual mode you have to push it into kickdown. If you push the pedal to the floor it seems like it stops but if you push harder you will feel it go further, you will feel a bit more resistance from the pedal than normal but this will get it to drop down and then resume to whatever gear it was in when you've had your fun/overtaken. Eg driving along at 100 in 6th in my TDI, floor it into the kickdown position, it will drop into 3rd and then change up through the gears at each redline and go straight back to 6th when I ease off.

Sorry if I didn't explain my comment completely.

With the VWs I have driven that have a 'tiptronic' style transmission with a Manual mode, the kickdown switch on the throttle remains active when the car is in Manual. That is, even though you are choosing the gear you want using the gearshift or steering wheel paddles, when you floor the throttle to the kick-down point the car will drop down to the lowest possible gear, as if it were in Drive.

By contrast, Porsche's Tiptronic gearbox (and no doubt others) ignores the kickdown switch when in Manual. That is, if you select 6th manually and floor the throttle, the car stays in 6th and you get full throttle acceleration in the gear you have selected. I prefer this mode of operation as once you've got the car balanced in a particular gear through a corner and you floor the throttle to exit the corner it is unsettling for the car to change gears of its own accord.

My observation was that the Scirocco, as far as my limited driving revealed, behaves in my preferred way - ignoring the kickdown switch when in Manual mode.

[mtj007]

Re-reading your original post I understand what you meant now. I thought you were saying you wanted it to kickdown like it was in D but it wouldn't.

[RolfGolf]

Thanks for the write-up. Just wondering what the rear visibility is like through that hatch window?

[jamesatfish]

Thanks for the write-up. Just wondering what the rear visibility is like through that hatch window?

It wasn't too bad, although I'm used to driving cars with smaller rear windows so perhaps if you're coming from a wagon you might find it a bit unusual. Certainly for motorway driving there was plenty of visibility to see vehicles approaching from behind across 3-4 lanes of traffic.

With 2 passengers in the back there is almost no visibility out the rear window so you'd need to rely on your wing mirrors instead.

[tentacles1]

Thanks for the write-up. Just wondering what the rear visibility is like through that hatch window?

The wide hips of the car also make parking slightly more difficult than in a golf and reduce visibility, parking sensors are definitely a necessary option.