A mis-specced Scirocco?

[sotonjoe]

A long story but I'd appreciate your advice so please bear with me.

I went to my local dealer Wednesday and ending up getting a Solutions quote on a Scirocco. They happened to have a 'pack' car in stock. I'm not sure if you'll all be familiar with this terminology so I'll give you the story they gave me. Since they are a dealer authorised to sell the Toureg (sp?) and Phaeton (sp?), they are authorised to buy packs of vehicles direct from Volkswagen UK at cheaper than usual prices. The catch to the dealer is that they have to commit to purchasing a large volume of vehicles and pay for them up front in cash as opposed to ordering showroom vehicles and not paying for them up front etc. The upshot for the consumer is that theser vehicles are then available under list price with no wait for factory order etc.

This particular 'pack' car looked a good deal. It is an unregistered Scirocco in metallic silver ( i forget the exact colour name, sorry). It is badged as a 2.0tsi and appears to be a gt spec vehicle with black leather and the upgraded sat nav / hard disc stereo unit. It is being offered at some £3k under list price.

All seemed to go well, I had a drive and fell for it as you do. I decided to go home and have a think but noticed the wheels looked odd as I drove away. I was certain they were different to the showroom model so went back to have another look at them today. Sure enough, it looks as though this car has been equipped with the 17" Donnington wheels if i have my details correct (see pic below).






Now, what on earth does this all mean!?!?!?! I think this essentially appears to be a gt spec car but with the smaller wheels!?!!?!? If so, what would be your approach if you were interested in purchasing the car? Would you try and get more money off for a 'mis-specced' car or would you be asking the dealer to swap the 'wrong' wheels for the 'right' ones (they do have a set on the showroom vehicle).

All advice appreciated.

[SuperJB]

Hi Sotonjoe,

I have one of these "Pack" Sciroccos, bought back in January. As you correctly identified, it will be a GT spec 2.0TSI, but fitted with "Spa" alloys. These are not the same wheels that the non GT cars come with, and in my opinion they are nicer than the Donnington wheels. I have been told that these wheels are the standard spec on GT's sold on the continent - the Interlagos wheels are an option (but this could be wrong info).

In my case I ended up having my wheels swapped for Interlagos wheels at no extra cost in order to seal the deal. I feel that if I hadn't gone down this road then I could have wangled an extra £500 to £1000 off the sticker price.

So, dependent on how keen your dealer is to shift this car, I would say that these are your options. More likely to get the extra discount than the uprated wheels though, and it's worth considering that the "Spa" wheels are pretty rare in the UK, and so could be a plus!

I have pics in the Sirocco Central gallery of my car if it helps with your research!

[Evil Derboy]

.

[sotonjoe]

Interesting to learn that there appears to have been a whole batch of these Sciroccos floating round the dealer network. This vehicle may have been in stock for quite a while seeing as many of the earlier posts about the cars are from the beginning of the year. I think they may have taken the car towards the beginning of quarter 1 as they are calling the pack the quarter 1 pack and therefore they're probably quite keen to sell it now.

So these are 'Spa' alloys then ... are these the ones that come on the lower specced models or something completely different? I'm not sure how I feel about the different wheels to be honest, admittedly I do really like the look of the Interlagos wheels.

My main concern at the moment is that the different wheels were never mentioned to me. I feel the car was described as a standard gt but with the black leather and sat nav. This either means the dealer isn't clued up about what spec the cars should be or that they are deliberately trying to mislead about the spec of the vehicle.

I think I may be waiting for a call back before discussing the wheels and seeing if my minor disappointment is a cause for them to offer further deals. Although the extra toys would be nice, I'd be just as inclined to get a standard ex-demo car or similar as these seem to be available at just under £19k now.

[sotonjoe]

Evil Derboy ... I'd be interested to hear what you paid for your car seeing as it is exactly the same spec as the one I was offered. My dealer was trying to shift his one for £20995. Would you mind pm-ing me if you don't want to broadcast the price? Thanks!!!

[Evil Derboy]

.

[biglol]

i've got one too. GT with Metallic paint and rcd 510 dynaudio. £225+vat per month leased for two years.

Give away price.

[sotonjoe]

Good to know the 17" alloys won't associate the cars with the 'lower spec' models! Does anyone know if they've featured on other vehicles or have they just turned up on these sciroccos? I'd be interested to know their history.

[bianco]

Over here on the mainland the 17" Spa rims are standard on the top model, and principally You can not buy them for the 1.6 or diesel models. Interlagos are an optional extra.

[sotonjoe]

Cheers!

Seems these cars are well known amongst the dealers. I saw anotheer dealer today and asked about them. He was aware of them and said that VW simply made some gt spec cars like this before deciding upon the final spec for the uk gt. The ones made still need to be sold! Still not sure how I feel about the wheels myself though.

[gggg!]

A long story but I'd appreciate your advice so please bear with me.

I went to my local dealer Wednesday and ending up getting a Solutions quote on a Scirocco. They happened to have a 'pack' car in stock. I'm not sure if you'll all be familiar with this terminology so I'll give you the story they gave me. Since they are a dealer authorised to sell the Toureg (sp?) and Phaeton (sp?), they are authorised to buy packs of vehicles direct from Volkswagen UK at cheaper than usual prices. The catch to the dealer is that they have to commit to purchasing a large volume of vehicles and pay for them up front in cash as opposed to ordering showroom vehicles and not paying for them up front etc. The upshot for the consumer is that theser vehicles are then available under list price with no wait for factory order etc.

This particular 'pack' car looked a good deal. It is an unregistered Scirocco in metallic silver ( i forget the exact colour name, sorry). It is badged as a 2.0tsi and appears to be a gt spec vehicle with black leather and the upgraded sat nav / hard disc stereo unit. It is being offered at some £3k under list price.

All seemed to go well, I had a drive and fell for it as you do. I decided to go home and have a think but noticed the wheels looked odd as I drove away. I was certain they were different to the showroom model so went back to have another look at them today. Sure enough, it looks as though this car has been equipped with the 17" Donnington wheels if i have my details correct (see pic below).






Now, what on earth does this all mean!?!?!?! I think this essentially appears to be a gt spec car but with the smaller wheels!?!!?!? If so, what would be your approach if you were interested in purchasing the car? Would you try and get more money off for a 'mis-specced' car or would you be asking the dealer to swap the 'wrong' wheels for the 'right' ones (they do have a set on the showroom vehicle).

All advice appreciated.

Τhese "spa" wheels are standard when you have your rocco with leather seats only in 2.0 tsi.
The standard 2.0 tsi rocco has the sport pack with alcantara seats and donington wheels.

[Evil Derboy]

.

[sotonjoe]

As Derboy said, I've seen nothing on the uk car configurator or promotional literaturre to say that is correct so I presume it's a Euro thing if true?

[gggg!]

A long story but I'd appreciate your advice so please bear with me.

I went to my local dealer Wednesday and ending up getting a Solutions quote on a Scirocco. They happened to have a 'pack' car in stock. I'm not sure if you'll all be familiar with this terminology so I'll give you the story they gave me. Since they are a dealer authorised to sell the Toureg (sp?) and Phaeton (sp?), they are authorised to buy packs of vehicles direct from Volkswagen UK at cheaper than usual prices. The catch to the dealer is that they have to commit to purchasing a large volume of vehicles and pay for them up front in cash as opposed to ordering showroom vehicles and not paying for them up front etc. The upshot for the consumer is that theser vehicles are then available under list price with no wait for factory order etc.

This particular 'pack' car looked a good deal. It is an unregistered Scirocco in metallic silver ( i forget the exact colour name, sorry). It is badged as a 2.0tsi and appears to be a gt spec vehicle with black leather and the upgraded sat nav / hard disc stereo unit. It is being offered at some £3k under list price.

All seemed to go well, I had a drive and fell for it as you do. I decided to go home and have a think but noticed the wheels looked odd as I drove away. I was certain they were different to the showroom model so went back to have another look at them today. Sure enough, it looks as though this car has been equipped with the 17" Donnington wheels if i have my details correct (see pic below).






Now, what on earth does this all mean!?!?!?! I think this essentially appears to be a gt spec car but with the smaller wheels!?!!?!? If so, what would be your approach if you were interested in purchasing the car? Would you try and get more money off for a 'mis-specced' car or would you be asking the dealer to swap the 'wrong' wheels for the 'right' ones (they do have a set on the showroom vehicle).

All advice appreciated.

Τhese "spa" wheels are standard when you have your rocco with leather seats only in 2.0 tsi.
The standard 2.0 tsi rocco has the sport pack with alcantara seats and donington wheels.

Not in the UK they're not.

In EU they are...Any how in UK the options and the version choices are very odd

[pimp my roc]

Solution...buy my 18inch Inter's <see buy-sell section>

[true]

I've got one of these too. Standard UK GT spec apart from the wheels but for a lot less money. No brainer really!

[Nobby]

Never mind the quality, feel the width !

Hi all

Not sure about UK spec but in France these are the base spec wheels called "Long Beach" they are 7J X 17 rims with 225/45 R 17 Tyres

Next spec is "Donnington" 8J X 17 rims with 235/45 R 17 Tyres

Then standard on the 2.0 TSI or as an option on other engine choices the "Interlagos" 8J X 18 rims with 235/40 R 18 Tyres

One consolation is at least the tyres will be a lot cheaper on these than on the interlagos !

[bianco]

... these are the base spec wheels called "Long Beach" ...

No, the "Long Beach" wheels look like this

VWLongBeachNew.JPG

[Nobby]

Indeed they do !

My mistake

Cheers

[Tallguy]

Not sure what all this fuss about alloy wheels is about? I have seen the 3 wheel types 'in the flesh' and they all look good. Interlagos are probably the nicest but against that suspect they will be the least easy to keep clean.
Doubt if 3 years down the road 17 inch alloys on a 2.0 litre will make any real difference to the car's trade-in value.