Miles: 2185
Age: 4 months
Mph: 31.7
Costs: £0
Ok, a little over 2000 miles actually, but not much.
My average miles per week has reduced significantly as expected, and I'm probably at about the 100 miles mark now. Average fuel consumption has dipped again - now 31.7 mpg. I'm still very pleased with that, but will be less so if it keeps going down - especially if it ends up under 30. I'll be sure to let you know.
I am happy to report that the car is still completely fault free - everything works exactly as it should - and there are no rattles or squeeks that some other owners have reported. The car is noticeably loosening up, feeling much smoother through the whole rev range.
Having cleaned the car thoroughly a couple of times, I can see its picked up a couple of minor blemishes - 2 around the nose, one on an alloy and one on a door mirror. None of them large, but all will need sorting sooner rather than later.
So far i can wholeheartedly recommend the Scirocco, it's much faster than i expected, except perhaps off the line.
Thursday 30 June 2011
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Fuel Consumption
I'm not really sure what sort of fuel consumption figures I expected to get out of the Scirocco - Most cars I've owned have averaged around the 26mpg mark and the Jaguar I had before this only 22mpg. I checked Suzi's 7 year old 206cc 1.6 that we've had from new, and that claims an average of 33.6mpg.
So I was plesantly surprised to see that the Scirocco has managed 32.1mpg after the first 1600 miles, and that seems to be improving a little, I suspect largely because my driving is calming down after the first flush of getting the GT.
VW claim a combined 38mpg for my model - I'm pretty sure mine will never go quite that high - but I'm pleased so far that so much performance is available for that sort of economy.
But all this leads to another issue. How should modern cars report fuel range? The first car I had with a computer was a Vauxhall Vectra. Nice simple system that reported how many miles you could travel on the remaining fuel based on the average mpg of your last 12 miles. Once (in over 100,000 miles of driving it) I let it drop to zero, and guess what? It run out of petrol about a mile later. To my mind that was the perfect system.
The Corrado was awful - Not only no range on the computer but no fuel warning light or buzzer or anything. You literally had to look at the fuel gauge.
Suzi's 206 reports miles remaining until you get to 24, then it goes blank, but you can see that the gauge is still in the middle of the red, so you can keep going for a while.
So how does the Scirocco handle it? Not very well in my opinion.
Once the range has come down to about 35, the fuel warning light comes on, a message 'Please refuel' flashes up on the MFD and you'll notice that the needle is right on top of the red on the gauge. Fine so far.
But, after the 35 miles or so, with the range reading zero and the needle now firmly at the bottom of the red there is still a reserve of 5 liters, which is effecively unusable. I don't want to run out of fuel - I really don't - but this system is reducing my actual range from 385 to 350 miles.
So I was plesantly surprised to see that the Scirocco has managed 32.1mpg after the first 1600 miles, and that seems to be improving a little, I suspect largely because my driving is calming down after the first flush of getting the GT.
VW claim a combined 38mpg for my model - I'm pretty sure mine will never go quite that high - but I'm pleased so far that so much performance is available for that sort of economy.
But all this leads to another issue. How should modern cars report fuel range? The first car I had with a computer was a Vauxhall Vectra. Nice simple system that reported how many miles you could travel on the remaining fuel based on the average mpg of your last 12 miles. Once (in over 100,000 miles of driving it) I let it drop to zero, and guess what? It run out of petrol about a mile later. To my mind that was the perfect system.
The Corrado was awful - Not only no range on the computer but no fuel warning light or buzzer or anything. You literally had to look at the fuel gauge.
Suzi's 206 reports miles remaining until you get to 24, then it goes blank, but you can see that the gauge is still in the middle of the red, so you can keep going for a while.
So how does the Scirocco handle it? Not very well in my opinion.
Once the range has come down to about 35, the fuel warning light comes on, a message 'Please refuel' flashes up on the MFD and you'll notice that the needle is right on top of the red on the gauge. Fine so far.
But, after the 35 miles or so, with the range reading zero and the needle now firmly at the bottom of the red there is still a reserve of 5 liters, which is effecively unusable. I don't want to run out of fuel - I really don't - but this system is reducing my actual range from 385 to 350 miles.
Thursday 7 April 2011
First problem found, and now fixed.
I've never had any type of car kit for a mobile phone before, other than a cheap phone holder with a speaker years ago. in the days when I was a field service engineer doing serious miles it wasn't illegal to use a phone in the car, not that I did very often. But I did specify the bluetooth on this car to make sure I could alway legally and safely make or take a call whilst driving.
But, the only thing less than perfect I've found so far with the Scirocco was that the Phone menu disappeared completely.
It was there when I collected the car, as I made a half-hearted attempt to pair it with my iPhone - but later that day I tried again with confidence having read the relevent manual to find... well, to find nothing actually. The menu was gone. none of the phone related buttons worked.
I tried a forum post, but I guess I haven't successfully wormed my way into the right clique as my carefully worded question got only one single response from a Moderator, suggesting I take the car back to the dealer.
Well thanks, I hadn't thought of that...
So, last Saturday I found the will to pop back to Guildford and get my dealer to take a look. He pressed a few random button and then declared he hadn't seen anything like it (I forgive him though, he's a salesman, not a technician) and after 5 minutes in the workshop it came out working.
What was the fix?
Predictably, the fix was to unplug the bluetooth unit under the drivers seat and plug it back in. The 21st century car mechanic's equivalent of the three finger salute.
So now it works, what's it like?
Simple and brilliant. The pairing process takes a minute or two, but is perfectly logical as long as you read the infomation screen and the phone messages properly, and once paired the system has found my phone by the time the engine is running. The Phone info screen on the MFD screen displays useful stuff like the name of the phone connected, the signal strength and battery life, and the main touchscreen can be used for dialling numbers, or looking stuff up on the contacts list.
I should confess that I have yet to actually make or take a call through it yet, so look out for a new post called "Bluetooth looks great but...".
Edit 27/04/11:
I've used the phone through the system a couple of times and I'm happy to report it works exactly as you'd expect it to.
But, the only thing less than perfect I've found so far with the Scirocco was that the Phone menu disappeared completely.
It was there when I collected the car, as I made a half-hearted attempt to pair it with my iPhone - but later that day I tried again with confidence having read the relevent manual to find... well, to find nothing actually. The menu was gone. none of the phone related buttons worked.
I tried a forum post, but I guess I haven't successfully wormed my way into the right clique as my carefully worded question got only one single response from a Moderator, suggesting I take the car back to the dealer.
Well thanks, I hadn't thought of that...
So, last Saturday I found the will to pop back to Guildford and get my dealer to take a look. He pressed a few random button and then declared he hadn't seen anything like it (I forgive him though, he's a salesman, not a technician) and after 5 minutes in the workshop it came out working.
What was the fix?
Predictably, the fix was to unplug the bluetooth unit under the drivers seat and plug it back in. The 21st century car mechanic's equivalent of the three finger salute.
So now it works, what's it like?
Simple and brilliant. The pairing process takes a minute or two, but is perfectly logical as long as you read the infomation screen and the phone messages properly, and once paired the system has found my phone by the time the engine is running. The Phone info screen on the MFD screen displays useful stuff like the name of the phone connected, the signal strength and battery life, and the main touchscreen can be used for dialling numbers, or looking stuff up on the contacts list.
I should confess that I have yet to actually make or take a call through it yet, so look out for a new post called "Bluetooth looks great but...".
Edit 27/04/11:
I've used the phone through the system a couple of times and I'm happy to report it works exactly as you'd expect it to.
Sunday 20 March 2011
Got it! - First Impressions.
So, Thursday 17th March '11, I finally got my hands on the Silver Scirocco.
The hand over from the dealers took only 25 minutes or so, and then a quick drive over to Mum and Dad's for them to see it. Having checked the car over there are 2 minor problems - well one 'imperfection' with the Life Shine - a black sticky mark on the nearside rear wing, and one problem. I specified the Bluetooth handsfree telephone kit, and when I first tried to pair my handset (an iPhone)the menus didn't make perfect sense, so I abandoned the process thinking I'd sort it later having read the manual. But since then the whole telephone menu has disappeared from the MFD. Odd, to say the least. Fortunatly, the Garmin Sat-Nav I bought also has Bluetooth, so we used that for the weekend.
So for the first day we did about 40 miles making about 50 total on the clock.
My first thoughts on the looks are that I'm delighted - I think it looks great from every angle, even where it looks slightly awkward in some photos in the metal it doesn't.
I still haven't seen a Scirocco in Black Oak Brown and will have to reserve judgement until I do, but I'm very happy with the look of the Reflex Silver - especially when its clean. I'm also glad that I didn't spend any money on bigger wheels - the standard 18" look huge and the ride (on UK broken tarmac at least) is very good on Comfort - a little harsh on Normal and noticably uncomfortable on Sport.
I've read conflicting views as to the neccessity to run in new cars, but decided to stay under 4000rpm for the first 600 miles - and aiming to get those done in the first weekend.
That trip was to go from home in North East Surrey, around the motorways to South Wales, and then up to Mid Wales on A Roads, back to Telford for an overnight stop, and then home on a mixture of roads via a few interesting stops.
As it happened, we also got a mixture of weather, from fairly heavy rian to beautiful blue skies.
The hand over from the dealers took only 25 minutes or so, and then a quick drive over to Mum and Dad's for them to see it. Having checked the car over there are 2 minor problems - well one 'imperfection' with the Life Shine - a black sticky mark on the nearside rear wing, and one problem. I specified the Bluetooth handsfree telephone kit, and when I first tried to pair my handset (an iPhone)the menus didn't make perfect sense, so I abandoned the process thinking I'd sort it later having read the manual. But since then the whole telephone menu has disappeared from the MFD. Odd, to say the least. Fortunatly, the Garmin Sat-Nav I bought also has Bluetooth, so we used that for the weekend.
So for the first day we did about 40 miles making about 50 total on the clock.
My first thoughts on the looks are that I'm delighted - I think it looks great from every angle, even where it looks slightly awkward in some photos in the metal it doesn't.
I still haven't seen a Scirocco in Black Oak Brown and will have to reserve judgement until I do, but I'm very happy with the look of the Reflex Silver - especially when its clean. I'm also glad that I didn't spend any money on bigger wheels - the standard 18" look huge and the ride (on UK broken tarmac at least) is very good on Comfort - a little harsh on Normal and noticably uncomfortable on Sport.
I've read conflicting views as to the neccessity to run in new cars, but decided to stay under 4000rpm for the first 600 miles - and aiming to get those done in the first weekend.
That trip was to go from home in North East Surrey, around the motorways to South Wales, and then up to Mid Wales on A Roads, back to Telford for an overnight stop, and then home on a mixture of roads via a few interesting stops.
As it happened, we also got a mixture of weather, from fairly heavy rian to beautiful blue skies.
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Closer
The Silver Scirocco is on the last leg of it journey - just spoke to the Dealer, the car should land in Guildford this Thursday.
As long as everything is ok I'll get it soon after.
As long as everything is ok I'll get it soon after.
Tuesday 1 March 2011
Code 30...
Visited the dealer on Saturday to check progress face-to-face; everything is going to plan and the car is now "code 30" which apparently means that it has been built, and is now in transit from the factory to the port for shipping. Final stage will be code 36, Out for delivery.
Dealer say expect the car in 2 to 3 weeks, So delivery is still planned for sometime between 14th and 21st March.
Hopefully I will be able to post some photos to this blog very soon.
Dealer say expect the car in 2 to 3 weeks, So delivery is still planned for sometime between 14th and 21st March.
Hopefully I will be able to post some photos to this blog very soon.
Saturday 5 February 2011
Confirmed!
Had a voicemail from my dealer yesterday - excellent news, my build week has been confirmed - week 8. That means actual build around the 21st February and delivery about 2 to 3 weeks later. So despite concerns to the contrary, the car should actually be available on or around the 11th March - and that was the estimated delivery date way back in November when I ordered the car.
Suddenly gone from slightly irritated at having to wait to fairly excited.
Suddenly gone from slightly irritated at having to wait to fairly excited.
Sunday 23 January 2011
How much for a new Scirocco?
So thinking just about the GT model, how much does the new Scirocco cost?
Well that obviously depends what options you go for, so I thought I'd have a look at the configurator, and see...
So the base model GT with Manual and 2.0 litre 210 is £24,450. Although not too bad, this no longer seems like the cheap option it was on launch, although the rise is partly due to the increase in VAT.
I then worked through the options list and selected the best, or at least the most expensive of everything. No accessories at this stage, just factory options like DSG, Leather, Sat Nav, Xenon headlights... you get the idea. And the grand total? £34,624.
Ouch.
I know you'd get some discount on that, but there is no way you can describe that as cheap anymore. And just to compare, I specified a Nissan 370Z GT (that has a starting price of £33,000) with a similar set of options and it comes to £35,950. I can see the appeal of the Scirocco over the 370Z when there is a £10k price difference, but when the difference is £1,000 I think the Scirocco is in serious trouble. The only reasons to buy the VW in this configuration are if you need the back seats.
Anyway, I know as well as anyone that the reasons for buying one car over another are complicated and personal, but if VW don't keeep the Scirocco prices keen then people are going to stop buying it.
But perhaps they don't care so much - they already make fewer Sciroccos than they can sell.
Well that obviously depends what options you go for, so I thought I'd have a look at the configurator, and see...
So the base model GT with Manual and 2.0 litre 210 is £24,450. Although not too bad, this no longer seems like the cheap option it was on launch, although the rise is partly due to the increase in VAT.
I then worked through the options list and selected the best, or at least the most expensive of everything. No accessories at this stage, just factory options like DSG, Leather, Sat Nav, Xenon headlights... you get the idea. And the grand total? £34,624.
Ouch.
I know you'd get some discount on that, but there is no way you can describe that as cheap anymore. And just to compare, I specified a Nissan 370Z GT (that has a starting price of £33,000) with a similar set of options and it comes to £35,950. I can see the appeal of the Scirocco over the 370Z when there is a £10k price difference, but when the difference is £1,000 I think the Scirocco is in serious trouble. The only reasons to buy the VW in this configuration are if you need the back seats.
Anyway, I know as well as anyone that the reasons for buying one car over another are complicated and personal, but if VW don't keeep the Scirocco prices keen then people are going to stop buying it.
But perhaps they don't care so much - they already make fewer Sciroccos than they can sell.
Wednesday 19 January 2011
New Options.
I guess a lot of people who buy their cars new go through this, but its a first for me. My Scirocco GT is on order, but not yet confirmed - but VW have changed the list of available options, and I should be able to take advantage of any of these new things before my build date is confirmed.
Following on from my earlier post about Options, there is now a cheaper Navigation system available - but after a couple of quick checks, it cannot be specified with DAB. So that's still a no then.
The Bluetooth add on now appears attractive however - I'd written the old one off because it only worked on RSAP, effectively making sure that it would only integrate properly with Nokia phones - this has now been replaced with an HFP system which should work with practically anything. Will probably go with that.
Only other thing that I'm not sure about is the Multifunction Display now has a Colour option at £180. I'm going to dig a bit more... If it's exactly the same unit but in colour then £180 seems expensive.
Update 25/1/11:
Done it. HFP Bluetooth ordered assuming the order hasn't become confirmed - if it has a dealer fit option will replace it for about the same price.
While I was talking to the dealer, I also ordered the Autoglym lifeshine protection. The Dealer enthused about how good it was, especially inside - I know, he's supposed to enthuse about stuff like that, but he was more excited about me ordering the lifeshine than he was when I ordered the car. Mind you, I suppose its possible he makes more in commission for selling a car wash that a car!
Only other thing sorted was the number plates. I've asked for Euro marker plates.
Following on from my earlier post about Options, there is now a cheaper Navigation system available - but after a couple of quick checks, it cannot be specified with DAB. So that's still a no then.
The Bluetooth add on now appears attractive however - I'd written the old one off because it only worked on RSAP, effectively making sure that it would only integrate properly with Nokia phones - this has now been replaced with an HFP system which should work with practically anything. Will probably go with that.
Only other thing that I'm not sure about is the Multifunction Display now has a Colour option at £180. I'm going to dig a bit more... If it's exactly the same unit but in colour then £180 seems expensive.
Update 25/1/11:
Done it. HFP Bluetooth ordered assuming the order hasn't become confirmed - if it has a dealer fit option will replace it for about the same price.
While I was talking to the dealer, I also ordered the Autoglym lifeshine protection. The Dealer enthused about how good it was, especially inside - I know, he's supposed to enthuse about stuff like that, but he was more excited about me ordering the lifeshine than he was when I ordered the car. Mind you, I suppose its possible he makes more in commission for selling a car wash that a car!
Only other thing sorted was the number plates. I've asked for Euro marker plates.
Monday 17 January 2011
Progress?
Call from the dealer a minute ago (well, a call back from a message I left) and my car is still unconfirmed. For the first time he has now mentioned a build week - 8, and from what I've read elsewhere I should get the car 3 weeks after the quoted build week. But obviously I can't start counting weeks until its confirmed.
That isn't actually going to stop me counting though, Week 8 is the week of 21st February 2011, 3 weeks later being 14th to 20th March.
That isn't actually going to stop me counting though, Week 8 is the week of 21st February 2011, 3 weeks later being 14th to 20th March.
Thursday 6 January 2011
So when can I have it?
I called Colbornes in the week before Christmas to check on progress but my salesman wasn't in. Guy who answered the call said call back in the new year. Humph.
Called again today... Incredibly, they still can't give me a build week for my car. Not even a guess. This is not good news as I have no idea when the car will actually be made.
Called again today... Incredibly, they still can't give me a build week for my car. Not even a guess. This is not good news as I have no idea when the car will actually be made.
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