-Well, here it is the fabled car VW brought back from the dead in '08 but left it in the grave for us here in the US.
Thanks for that.
We get a few days though for an after-life experience.
Let's drive this 2014 Scirocco R-- no, still not coming to the US, and check the tech.
Now I love the first generation car, one of the best thing [unk] ever did.
Here is the new Scirocco, very
different.
It's hardly a corner on the whole thing.
And notice the re-strength this car has.
Most little cars when they wanna get sporty, get really Goddy.
They really try hard.
This one doesn't care if you notice it.
Very subtle but a design you don't see a lot in the US, sort of the short but long, low, sleek hatchback kind of cars we just don't buy here very often.
Maybe that's why they don't bring it here.
Now, while the Scirocco looks real different on the outside, it doesn't look unfamiliar at all on the
inside.
You've seen this VW design language in just about all of their cars, especially on the Golf.
Couple of nice crisp gauges up there just being a Euro-car, it's kilometers only.
You've got these VW controllers on the wheel for volume and changing some of the displays in the center or the dash head unit.
This is I think the top-of-the-line model right here.
It's got navigation, optical disc, SD card-- the way you do your portables is via one of these MDIs.
They call it a multi-device interface.
I'm not crazy about it because I rather have USB that have to go by proprietary
pigtails all the time and you know I hate the fact that you can't actually put your portable in there and close the door.
But what really matters in this car is the driving hardware starts up here with a comfort, normal or sport selector for your suspension.
This is an adaptive suspension you've got on this vehicle called the DCC, the name of the chassis control.
It runs independently of your drive mode.
This is the dual clutch DSG gearbox.
In Europe, it's also available with a 6-speed manual back for drive.
One more D10 for sport up and over
gets you into an manual gate that holds the red line.
Now, this is gonna be a key part of this vehicle personality especially when you got a small turbo-charge motor.
Your gearbox has to be really good because the engine can't just grunt its way through any situation.
And I noticed when I put this guy on reverse, all I hear is a bunch of beeping because we've got an optical sensor system in the back-- interestingly the R model does not seemed to be available with a rear camera.
I think other Sciroccos are, so we're a little omission.
But that kinda gets us to the theme that this vehicle has very little in the way of driver-assistance.
There's no blind spot detection.
There's no lane departure.
There's no adaptive cruise or just the cruise control.
This is actually a very simple car even loaded.
I was tuning-around the radio here and it just raises through all the frequencies because it uses a bunch of odd numbers.
So when I tried to get to 740 KCBS here in San Francisco, the best I could do was 738.
Station list.
-There is no station list for the AM band available.
-She would beat your ass over a school of band if you said the wrong thing to her.
I love that.
Now under the very low snoop on this car, you've got a very nice little motor, compact have 2-liter inline 4 sitting side saddle TSI.
It is a turbo-charge motor, direct injection, variable valve timing, of course, all the usual modern tricks of motoring.
The numbers are 261 horse, 258 foot pounds of torque.
Nice torque number because of that turbo in there.
You're sitting side saddle
and driving the front wheels only big differentiator from a Golf are here in the US, which would have all-wheel drive.
This guy does not come that way.
5.80 to 60 for a car that weighs about 3170 pounds.
Don't have a really good translation of MPG from Euro standards to US but a Golf are, for example, gets about 1927 with a similar layout.
You know what happens when I drive this car?
I hate it because it reminds me what we don't get in this
country-- really sharp European cars that are not sports cars but a more sporting than a lot of sports cars, if you know what I mean.
Three things you'd come away from in this vehicle.
First of all, best implementation of a turbo I think I've ever driven.
Secondly, when you're in sport mode on this DSG, at least for my taste, it shifts exactly as I would shift it.
And the linearity of the steering I find real good.
I'm not sure if it's variable or how it's mapped.
All I know is it feels right in every part of the clock on
just about every radius of turn.
I really enjoyed driving this car.
Okay, it's a little hard to price a car.
They don't sell here.
But let me give it to you in pound Sterling and don't just do a currency conversion, it doesn't work that way with cards.
Twenty-eight thousand pounds for the Scirocco R with a manual 6-speed gearbox, that matched roughly to our Golf R is in the US market so we're in the rough ballpark.
It's held back only by its lack of 4-wheel drive for today's modern purist.
But this is the
vehicle I would buy if they brought it here-- maybe.
