Scirocco Central

Hi all,

4 weeks ago I purchased a 2011 Scirocco R. I use my cars as effectively company cars and do around 25,000 miles a year which is probably quite unusual for a car of this kind so I thought it might be quite useful for me and anyone who's interested to document the next 18 months/2 years I’ll own it for.

The car is a 2011 R in Rising Blue with 31,000 miles on the clock. It has pretty much most of the boxes ticked so has black leather heated seats, Panoramic roof and the RNS510 with Dynaudio. As I said I bought the car 4 weeks ago after not being able to get comfy and becoming bored of an Alpina D3. I’d ran a Megane RS250 a couple of years ago which I loved so wanted something comparable in speed and size. After drawing up a short list (very short) I began looking for a Scirocco R. The R pretty much ticks all the boxes I look for in a car – Rare, quick, great looking and has the added bonus of being available with the DSG box which is really useful with the amount of city centre driving I do. The drive home was about an hour of motorway driving down the A1 and initial impressions were largely positive. The engine is fantastic! Really torquey low down without losing too much at the top end like most turbo charged cars do. It also sounds and feels smooth for a four pot and I love the ‘bumf’ noise on full boar up-shifts. The interior is great and I love the seats, the only downside was what felt like a very cramped driving position (the pedals seem far too close even with the steering wheel as far back as it will go) but I’m now getting used to that. Since then covered I’ve covered 2000 miles, swapped the number plates (along with the front holder) for some plane ones with number plate holders I found on eBay and clay barred, sealed and waxed it. As I mentioned I will try to document my time with the car so any comments are greatly received and thank you for reading!

Just a couple of pics after I valeted the car at the weekend............

And...............

A couple of weeks in to ownership I finally got round to sorting out the wheel alignment. Due to the amount of driving I do on the motorway (and the cost of 19” tyres) I’m a bit OCD about wheel alignment. That said it amazes me how far out people let their cars get out of alignment to the point where on the Scirocco it wasn’t just pulling to the left but visually the wheels looked all over the place. This apparently this is quite common with 3 year old cars as the suspension has now settled throwing out the original alignment, the previous owner has probably just got used to it or was coming up the end of their time with car and didn’t bother. As I was busy I tried VW first who explained that they wanted £100 just to look at the car then there would be an hourly charge after that for any work???? I’ve just come from owning a couple of BMWs and that takes the mick. Anyway, I got in touch with a guy (Gary Tams) I’ve used several times before expecting a long delay. Gary is a mobile wheel alignment specialist who uses local garages lifts to do the alignment. As luck would have it he had access to a ramp round the corner from where I work in Bradford and I was booked in. I explained to Gary what handling problems I was feeling through the steering and my backside and this was confirmed by his measurements. Gary aligned the car and informed me that all the bushes and suspension components were in excellent condition – Good! After 30 mins and £50 Gary had finished and the car is now transformed. The wheels now fill the arches as they should and the handling feels much more precise, with the car flowing much better from corner to corner.

Looks fantastic mate, great colour too!! Another R owner that I'm thoroughly jealous of haha