The only R with 18" wheels in the world, seemingly

[robrain]

I proudly announce the arrival, this morning, of my new Scirocco R, replacing my much-loved MINI Cooper S. More photos tomorrow, taken with a proper camera, after the first ceremonial cleansing.

Full spec: RB DSG 18" SatNav/DynAudio/Parking sensors/Folding mirrors, Premium HFP Bluetooth.

First impressions: entirely positive, except the DSG really does like 6th gear. The '-' paddle will be knackered by the time the car's run in properly.

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[Chungster]

yay it's arrived!

Yeah glad i got manual cos the gear indicator says "6th please" even if im in 3rd at 2k rpm!!!

I ignore it for the most part and just keep the revs in the right place for what i wanna do.

[Shaun]

Looking good, very rare with 18" on, any particular reason for that ?

[robrain]

Bad back, bad roads, not really a ten-tenths kind of driver. I've always gone with the standard wheels on my cars, working on the assumption that the engineers sort the suspension with them in mind.

[panhandle]

I too will have 18s and to honest cannot wait. Currently got a BMW with 20" run flats and every bump drives me crazy (especially as I do 30k miles pa), so I hope a bit of downsizing will help my anger at potholes and of course my back! It wont look as good, but I will be a far happier driver!

Enjoy, 3 weeks till mine arrives.

[Strat]

Lovely!

Mine has 18" wheels too, although it won't stay like that for long

[essexbloke]

18" on mine to many pot holes for anything lower !

[Jim Mitch]

Very nice. Congrats!

I'm off to clean and polish my new baby for the first time now!

[ayc1985]

I have 18 inch alloys on my car, but they are black and look a bit bigger! Nothing wrong with them.

[robrain]

If nothing else, my message, which was obviously inaccurately titled, has flushed out all the other 18" owners.

Impressions after a few days of use:

1. Comfy (but I'm coming from a MINI Cooper S, so everything is comfortable);
2. Quiet (see above), but a pleasant burble from the exhausts at low speeds and a determined note when accelerating.
3. No rattles.
4. DSG's 6th gear obsession is irksome. It won't be a problem when it's run in and I can boot it away from junctions and off roundabouts, but at the moment I'm using the paddles to make sure I don't find myself in top at 30 mph or less.
5. Getting used to the rear visibility and switched over to van-driver mode for manoeuvres (ie I use the wing mirrors more than the rear-view)
6. Plainly a lot of performance potential - it feels like it will be quicker than my old MY2000 Scooby.
7. Importing addresses into the satnav should be easier. vCard is a standard (albeit a flexible one), so why can't the Import Destination option just get on with reading it? I spent an hour writing a converter in Ruby which produced exactly the same format as produced by the NavSync, but it still wouldn't import all of them. I ended up having to do them manually in the web page.

These are minor grumbles. Overall I'm delighted with the car and very pleased I persuaded myself (with this forum's help) that I 'needed' the R.

[ayc1985]

Glad you're enjoying it.

Rear visibility does take some getting used to, rear sensors make it a whole lot easier!

I find myself thinking the same about the 6th gear obsession which was the same on my TDI, but because it tries to be as efficient as possible. You have to use the paddles more often.