It's not for us, but Volkswagen's moving ahead steadily with readying their new coupe. Heading a car for the showroom means that all the ancillary materials need to be created, too. They're likely shooting pictures of some preproduction model in an exotic locale as we write this, and the mundane things like owner's manuals need to get done so they can be lovingly tucked into gloveboxes. Some quick thinking with a digital camera has netted the interweb some closeups of a Scirocco's instruction booklet, which coincidentally carries closeups of an uncamoflaged Scirocco. The shots are small, out of focus, and not terribly informative, so we studied them for hours, naturally. You can see the final shape of the headlamp and down the flank, some fuzzy images of the interior and details like the rims, HVAC controls, and switchgear. We wish there was a shot or two of the rear, but at least we now know that the headlights are going to have an underbite that reminds us of the early '70s 412. [Source: LLN]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
rouse42 @ Jan 30th 2008 7:43AM
looks like 4 window switches.
we need to start a petition that the USA wants this car.
epilonious @ Jan 30th 2008 8:13AM
*yawn* Yet Another GTI.
Things that would make me want this car that will probably not be there:
-RWD (or Rear-biased AWD, but it has to be there in even the base model)
-The turbo or FSI in the base model
And most importantly:
- 10 year/100000 mile warranty from VWUSA
I got a REALLY bad golf a few years back. It seems that they were making 80% perfect little darlings and 20% hideous goblin infested turds... hence how there seems to be a large cachet of "I love my precious vee-dub, it's been perfect" against a smaller cabal of "God those cars sucked and VW USA was horrible about fixing all the $600 parts that kept falling off."
Needless to say, VW hasn't been topping any long-term or initial quality surveys for about a decade, and they keep trying to make more Audi-ish cars when Audi already exists. I'll be interested in VW again when they make reliable cars and back them up with a bigass warranty, until then, I'm just going to see a bundle of expensive, over-engineered parts waiting to give their owner trouble, and slowly watch as their owner succumbs to Stockholm syndrome.
Ian @ Jan 30th 2008 8:18AM
VW Warranty's are useless because no matter what, they'll tell you whatever is wrong isn't covered, unless you know someone at the dealer. I love VWs, and I've owned 25 of them, and have a VW tattoo... but I hate VW. Get that? Love the cars, hate the company. Such bastards.
I also have this theory that VWs don't really break any more than any other car, except that when a Corolla breaks, Toyota fixes it and sends you on your way, whereas the VW dealer wants to argue with you, tell you its your fault, and then charge you $2000 for a $200 part and 1 hour of labor.
epilonious @ Jan 30th 2008 8:38AM
No, A VW definitely breaks more than a Toyota. At least my Golf did. Literally once every two months, something would go wrong... and not little things like window switches... big things like the coil pack, the alternator, the CV Joints, the Power Steering... Things that shouldn't really go bad but do because VW decided to take some high-powered fancy part and cheapen it for their 'economy' model. When I finally got rid of the POS it still had problems with the security system and the trunk latch, both of which were insanely overblown for what was supposed to be a cheap car, and both of which eeked close to $1000 to fix and really could only be done by a dealer.
Frankly, there are other cars that are better and more reliable. Audi is the prime example... it's like VW with a dealer network that /doesn't/ hate you, the extra price seems worth it. Mazda is another big competitor that comes to mind. For every model of VW, there is a Mazda that has more HP, most of the same options, and costs about $2000 less. The things that VW has over the Mazda seem to be flibbertigibbet maintenance nightmares (DSG Transmissions, soft touch plastics that rip off if you touch them wrong, plush crayola leather) completely out of place on generic 'supposed to be the cheap brand' VWs. I mean, if one hates the look of a Mazda or needs a turbo-hatch to have only three doors then whatever... but until then I politely ask the ambiguous VW fans to enjoy their car and also ask them to refrain from trying to convince the people that got bad ones that the problem was with the owner/dealer/cosmos and not the car.
Gooch @ Jan 30th 2008 10:12AM
Man, that's the best explanation of the reliable/unreliable VW quandary I've seen here. I'm one of the people who have been lucky enough to have two reliable GTIs, but what I went through with my POS Catera more than made up for the reliability I've had in my other cars.
epilonious @ Jan 30th 2008 12:07PM
I guess the saddest thing about the whole scenario is I loved that Golf. I got it with 30K on it... and it was devoted and delightful and only had one or two minor quirks that were in no-way dangerous and I didn't mind dealing with. It had great mileage, looked wonderful, was one of the last cars on earth to come in a shiny dark green, was peppy and fun to throw around corners, had all sorts of neat safety features, and I saw no reason why I wouldn't want to keep it until at least 200,000 miles...
Then around 65,000 miles, really expensive things important to making sure the car kept moving forward started needing to be replaced... and taking it into service shops and dealers revealed all sorts of emerging problems, and I finally ditched it after it started setting off the alarm and shutting down the car in the middle of intersections despite the other $5000 in repairs.
It was like a lover that had been with me through most of my college years decided to try drugs one day and developed a crack habit and started stealing my money.
Now I see that VW doesn't even offer ANYTHING like the old MK IV golf. The new MkV golf (ahem, Rabbit) has a starting cost of 17,000... and is so heavy it needs to be pushed around with a gas-hungry 5-cylinder and has squishy handling. I keep hearing more and more reasons about why VWUSA will bring over expensive crap like some new Phaeton and the Tiguan and the Passat coupe and the Scirocco and will only grudgingly sneak in a few Polos for CAFE standards.
Who knows, I hear rumors that SEAT will be coming to the US... maybe they can be the new cheap euro car and leave VW in that uncomfy "middle brand" position like Mercury and Buick and (formerly) Plymouth and Oldsmobile.
Ian @ Jan 30th 2008 8:21AM
I also want to add about VW Warranty's, my friend has a mk5 GLI Jetta that just STOPPED running on the highway and would not restart. At 50K miles thats unacceptable. When he got it to the dealer, after 2 weeks of the 2 months it was there they, in not so many words, said to him 'We can't find whats wrong... but whatever it is, its your fault, and therefore not covered under warranty.'
Menice @ Jan 30th 2008 8:22AM
I feel like I'm looking at porn......like bad homemade porn.
geo.stewart @ Jan 30th 2008 8:22AM
I just got rid of a 2005 Jetta GLI. got a heck of a lease deal on the thing as it was the end of the Gen IV. is one of the top3 cars I've owned in terms of fun and having people come up and admire it.
but service costs were Audi level on a 'people's car' (dont know how they can get around that) and there were gremlins aplenty. all the gremlins were covered under waranty mind you but no way would I own a VW not under warranty.
probably could have lived with the service costs if I'd known it would be reliable.
rgseidl @ Jan 30th 2008 10:52AM
I think "break wind" would have been more apt.
tiexano @ Jan 30th 2008 9:07AM
As much as I appreciate the correct capitalization, spelling and grammar, are you guys sure you meant: "Lick like the wind"?
Dan Roth @ Jan 30th 2008 9:17AM
HAHAHAHA! No - internet translators strike again! I was trying to say "Leak like the wind." Got a better translation?
Sean Flanagan @ Jan 30th 2008 9:54AM
Dan,
Try "An Die Öffentlichkeit Dringen Sie wie der Wind". That's the kind of leak you mean. It doesn't translate literally very well, but it means "leaking of a secret" or "getting out to the public". I don't speak German fluently, but a Google search for "German English dicitonary" is your friend! :-D
Dan Roth @ Jan 30th 2008 10:04AM
That's a little too long - I just popped the english version in there, perhaps it's less mysterious all around, anyway.
Thanks for the help, though!
Markus @ Jan 30th 2008 10:07AM
Nah, change it back to "lick like the wind". That one at least was grammatically correct (albeit weird). The new one's neither funny nor correct. "Leak like the wind" just doesn't translate, won't work. If all else fails, you can always resort to "Fahrvergnügen" - or "Fahrtwindvergnügen" if you absolutely want the wind reference ;).
Miguel @ Jan 30th 2008 11:38AM
Do you see any similarity?
http://www.uploadfilesystem.com/archivos/08/01/30/2kL00559.jpg
MAOR @ Jan 30th 2008 1:21PM
Wow, just read many of the posts. VW USA, ARE YOU LISTENING?? Seems like everyone or someone they know has major reliability issues. Ive known a few people personally as well including my dad who had warranty repairs done on his NEW Passat but got SO tired of fighting with the dealer he sold the car and vowed NEVER to own a new VW. He had NO such problems getting his Audi TT fixed under warranty though it, like the Passat, had its share of issues. I gotta say, having driven these cars...that it at first seems a miracle that you can get a German car with its technology, solidity, and driving refinement for comparatively SO CHEAP! But you quickly realize that, as is usually the case, you get what you pay for.
MAOR @ Jan 30th 2008 1:22PM
You know, I, like many people, love the Golf GTI for all that it offers at its price point. But I refuse to buy it because an enthusiast car needs to look like one and a the shrunken-down minivan looks just dont do it for me. So they go out, update what is largely the same car, make it look much better, and decide, hmm, lets not bring it to the states??? Nice work VW.
GTX141 @ Jan 30th 2008 2:34PM
This "brochure leak" is BS. Its an Eos bruchure:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3658903&page=2
Dan Roth @ Jan 30th 2008 3:00PM
It's not an Eos brochure. The two images look very similar, but the headlamp in the "leaked" version is different, as is the picture of the wheel, next to it. It's reasonable to expect that some of the pictures and the layout of the manual are identical. The Scirocco and Eos will share a lot of pieces like HVAC controls, switches, etc.
I've seen the image you linked to, and it appears different than the one we posted.
Now, the 4 window switches, I dunno, I'm as puzzled as you are