Scirocco - Goes Like The Wind (VW Scirocco)

Member Name: joannavos

Product:	VW Scirocco
Date:	29/06/01 (1470 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great acceleration, Solid and reliable, Fun Fun Fun

Disadvantages: Lack of leg room in the back

Before I start, I admit that the car is not technically mine! It’s my husbands but I used it to get to and from work for about six months before I got my Vectra. The main benefit I have found from the scirocco is its brilliant acceleration ability. I travel 100 miles per day, only 40 of which is dual carriage way or motorway. The other 60 miles is excrutiatingly slow single lane. It’s mostly 60mph limit but generally you don’t get much above 40mph, and that’s if you’re lucky. I guess it’s the same everywhere – loads of very slow moving lorries.

Volkswagon produces notoriously well-built, reliable, solid cars. Parts can be expensive but luckily I have family in Germany who can get the parts cheap and fit them if it's beyond my hubby's admiral ability with engines. Anyone not this fortunate would likely be able to buy cheaper parts over the internet though as we've also done this in the past.

Anyway, back to the car. Mine (his) is a 1989 G plate. It has colour-coded skirts and wing mirrors etc and looks very tasty. It’s a 1.8 GT 2 and although its top speed isn’t huge (but still plenty above the legal limit!) its best asset is the torque. We took it to Germany last year and had a fast cam and a K&N filter fitted, which has consequently perked it up a little more. It also went on the rolling road a few months ago and its torque was around 95. (Doesn’t mean that much to me but I’m sure it will to someone.) I believe it has around 120 bhp, which I’m told is pretty good. But enough about that, I’ll tell you how it drives!

Like a dream. I love it! It hasn’t got electric anything, but that’s fine. At least I know it won’t go wrong and if it does, it’s easier and cheaper to fix. It doesn’t have ABS, it doesn’t have power steering. No airbags. No side impact bars. No sunroof. But I love it.

It can be quite hea
vy on the steering (no PAS) but I even like that (apart from parking) as it feels solid and I feel like I’m in control. The seating position is quite low so shorties (like me!) could find this awkward. But it does have a pump up the seat action, which is useful. It handles like a dream and it sticks to the road like glue, which is a bonus when you like to go round nasty corners at high speed like me! It just feels so safe and solid. I’ve done some of the same corners in other cars but have never got anywhere close to the speed I can comfortably do round them in the scirocco. In fact most of them have felt decidedly unsafe.

So, are there any disadvantages? Yes. But not many. The main one is the lack of back seat leg space. If you have a long legged driver, passengers behind are squashed. The front seat passenger can of course adjust the seat for more space in the back but this inevitably reduces leg space in the front. But hey, I don’t often have back seat passengers anyway so who said it was a problem! It’s a sporty three-door hatchback after all so it wasn’t really meant to be a spacious family car!

Insurance isn’t too bad. Around the £500 mark fully comp for two 26 year olds. And considering it’s a GT, it’s not too bad on the old fuel consumption. Between 30 and 40 mpg, depending on where and how etc you’re driving. All in all I couldn’t ask for more in a sporty kind of car. I love it and I recommend you buy one right now. I now you’ll be addicted in a very short space of time!!!!

Happy motoring! (I am).

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