Scirocco Central

i reckon its long enough you just will need to turn the bars and forks 90 degrees to get through the boot aperture, bikes not far off rising blue so hoping

stan_blade said hello to andre who was keen to update me on the r concept this morning, we was thrown when i said i gather you sold a white one and has grasped owners do talk

Hi Andy
Yes I must ring Andre to book the car in for them to look at the windscreen smear and boot release off the remote, that does not always work first time.

Following on from squareyes post I too had spent months test driving everything else I thought ticked the boxes prior to the three month wait on my VW dealer receiving their demonstrator.

In no particular order the boxes were;
Smart
Quick
Black
4 Seat minimum - I only have someone in the back a couple of time a year but there is the odd occassion I need to pick up two clients from the station.
Build quality
Looks
Something she could drive every day
Something I could spank the monkeys off
Comfortable especially on long journeys (London to Aberdeen twice a year)
Something that would make me smile every time I drove it
Probably most of all I wanted something different

A3 - Really good car but agree the stlying was a bit overboard and at around 6'2" I felt very cramped. Strange but the real show stopper was that I couldn't have a cup holder as this is now not an option!!!

TT - Ran very close and it is a truly excellent machine - Audi dealerships put me off as did the hairdresser appeal

BMW 125 - Loved driving the car but again have to agree that the styling is a bit marmite and I knew that I would wake up one morning and think what have I done. Also BMW 1 series and cockometer....!!!

Mercedes CC230 - Take my advice don't even waste your time. Boring boring piece of tat being sold by anally retentive morons

Mazda 3 MPS - Go on I dare you - take one out for a test drive!! Absolutley effing mental car but has enough torque steer to do it's own donughts, very very quick but no style and after 3 years of VW ownership the drop in build was noticible.

Alfa GT - Beautiful car and its an Alfa - took the 2 litre turbo out for the day and it is a fantastic car but I thought I would rather spend the instant 10k depreciation on wine and women.

Civic Type R - Great drive but Hondas are for car d!cks or old men and I would have gotten fed up with the sea of cheap plastic that represents the dashboard very quickly

Seat Cupra - One of my mates has one and although when his 3 years had elapsed and half of the interior trim was in a bag in the boot I still really liked it. Loved the styling but no jes ne ce qua and when push comes to shove it is the poor mans VW

Astra VRX - Terrible build qaulity on the demonstrator I took out but does look the part. However to me its a bit like an ars#hole - every streets got one!!

Focus ST - Brilliant car and goes like the preverbial but after my Ford history (explosions, broken gear boxes, non starteres etc etc) I just couldn't go there

Golf GTI - Excellent car what else can I say

Scirocco - Ticks every box for me.

Having driven all of the above prior to the Roc, I had narrowed it down to the BMW and the Alfa GT and had even taken the missus back so she could test drive them. When we went for our much awaited test drive she had fallen in love with the Roc even before I had parked in the forecourt.

The rest they say is history - absolutley lovinng it.

Roc On

andy wrote:does the bike mountain bike fit in (minus front wheel)? not tried mine yet

Getting my bike in is mostly a measure of how practical the car is. I have not tried yet either, as it is too chuffin cold to want to go out on my bike at the moment. I have had the seats down and there is a surprising amount of space just the narrow opening might be a problem. But there are dealer and after market carriers specifically for this car as well so that is always an option. It is just as an added bonus Volswagen managed to make a car that in addition to being great fun is, whisper it! actually practical. I had always tended to have 4 door golf sized cars so the two doors two seats thing took a bit of convincing. I'll let you know about fitting my bike in when I have got used to the current temperature!

I considered a Civic Type R for about ten minutes

As I still haven't ordered mine (money isn't in place just yet), I've been thinking lately about a Fiat 500 Abarth or Twingo RS...

The Twingo isn't being sold in Norway so I have to import one, dunno if I cba. Then there's the Abarth, which I just think is a bit too girly. The upside about these "junior" fast cars is that, in Norway, they are about 13k quid cheaper.

I'll prolly end up getting a Scirocco, but I just gotta wait. Really hoping that I can order it so it comes on summer tires. Would really blow to get it in the middle of july with almost the whole spring/summer gone.

considered a Volvo C30 T5, impressed with the engine, but it handled like a pig on ice. Could have had a VXR for quite cheap money, then thought, theres a reason its cheap.. its s***.!!

What else did I consider?

Not a lot really, I saw the first pics of the roc and made my mind up I had to have one.

Did briefly look at a 1 Series but just dull and the dealer was useless, Mini Cooper S is far too common, the Golf (Mk V or VI) aren't as good looking and a Z4 Coupe wasn't practical enough and in my opinion a bit poncey.

The wait's nearly over now.......

Just to let you know a large mountain bike fits minus front wheel and seat post (if your a lanky begger like me) with front seat forward a little, fits easier than I thought actually PHEW!

andy wrote:does the bike mountain bike fit in (minus front wheel)? not tried mine yet

Yep

I had my front bumper (part) re-sprayed and took the bike to go and pick the car up.

Luckly it fitted with the seat post and the front wheel taken off. This was with only one seat folded down as I had the baby seat on the other! Parcel shelf on the passenger seat. (Did get a bit of oil off the chain on the seat back but it came off)

As for other cars

I test drove the MINI Cooper S and the New TT both not enough room for me and felt the Roc was less common.

Super pleased with the Scirocco.

Took a quick look around the Renault Laguna Coupe yesterday. I thought the car looked great from the outside especially the rear (reminiscent of an Aston Martin). The interior was another matter. It felt like an old man’s car not a sporty sexy coupe. Absolutely awful automatic gear leaver which looked huge and felt cheap in contrast to VW who have been extremely successful marketing the DSG box as stylish, technologically advanced and even sporty with the paddle shift. Some effort has been made to give the dashboard an interesting shape but the dials were uninspiring and dull and the steering wheel looked too big. The stereo controls were fiddly and fussy in appearance. I’ve read a few reviews that say Renault have sorted build quality issues but in comparison to their German counterparts they are still worlds apart. I didn’t drive the Laguna but the reviews I have read have all reported disappointing handling and feedback.

The Renault salesman was very complementary about the Scirocco. Bet he wished he didn’t work for Renault.

.

I ended up with a choice between the Scirocco and an Alfa Brera.

"every petrol head needs to own an Alfa at some point".....


In the end, my 4 year trouble free life with my Mark IV Golf TDi, and a nagging doubt over the Alfa's reliability dragged me back to the Scirocco.

.

Well it seems the majority of you are very much German influenced and possibly don't look any further afield. The Scirocco for me is my first venture in to the German car market.
However before deciding on the Roc I did considered an Astra SRi 1.8 but after driving one for a week while my MG ZR was in the body shop I was well and truly disappointed. I also considered the Volvo C30 (looks good in white but not much else), Renault Megane Coupe or perhaps and Alpha (well maybe one day when I feel I could trust one).

No, to be honest I had already decided on the Roc after seeing it on the VW web site. I was just going thru the motions looking at all the other options really.

I had an A4 S-Line before so considered the A3 2.0T but thought it looked really old fashioned compared to the Roc and given that I need to keep it for three years I just know they will change the A3 shape.

Having been made redundant three times in the last two years I also considered the Leon FR 2.0T (drove the diesel 170, it was SO noisy) as a cheaper alternative but once I had seen and been in the Roc I couldn't resist.

I've done 250 miles in it today and she averaged 33.3 mpg!!! Not bad I reckon.