Edmunds' First Drive of the 2010 Volkswagen Scirocco R

I haven't ever seen or driven one in real life, but if it's anything like the one in forza 3 it has absolutely painful understeer. With your foot entirely off the gas I would say it's worse than a mustang, with your foot on the gas the fwd amplifies the problem.

Like you said you have never driven it.

I have and i can tell you the Torque Steer is minimal.

Dude, I am not talking about torque steer, I'm talking about the car having 64/36 weight distribution LOL.

Joe_Limon
Here is an Idea, why dont you fly to Europe or the UK and drive one ?

Hertz London has them for 300GBP a week and you could test it for yourself.

Having driven both the Mustang and the Sirocco i can tell you that the sirocco is 100 times better than the Mustang in every aspect of Handling i can think of.

I'm sorry but I like cars that can turn, even if it's only when you're on the gas like a mustang. And you clearly weren't pushing the car if you think it handles wonderfully when only 36% of it's weight is on the rear tires lol.

Joe

I guess ill just ignore my Actual drive and rely only on your Imaginary test drive of the Sirocco.

Just because you cannot fathom how a FWD vehicle with Weight over the Driven Wheels can be made to Handle Brilliantly does not mean it cannot be done.

The world has already seen how the USA is no 1 for making Brilliant Handling Automobiles that are Rear Propelled.

Don't get me wrong it's nice for city driving being able to get that much more power down given the weight of the vehicle but if you are dumb enough to think that is all there is to handling you are really mistaken, take a hard corner in an emergency situation at highway speeds and you'll find yourself wishing you would have bought something else as this car doesn't want to turn.

YOU HAVE NOT DRIVEN IT

The 2.0 TFSI Sirocco cruises at 130mph with no fuss whatsoever. Drove from London to Liverpool and in that 4hr Trip i can Guarantee that the Useless Mustang will fall short on everything;
* Interior Quality
* Exterior Quality
* Engine Smoothness
* Steering Accuracy
* Audio Quality

I have driven the Mustang {2008 Hertz, Miami} and i am under no illusions of the utter-uslessness of the Mustang.

I also drive very hard so i know how good the handling of the sirocco is as opposed to the Mustang which would gladly kill you in anything but Extremely Dry Conditions.

Do you not understand the term understeer? It has absolutely no play in going straight any speed. Here... since you are being so ignorant, I shall enlighten you. For the most part cars either understeer or oversteer. Understeer is the term used when a car is limited in how hard it can turn... i.e. you crank the steering wheel and it will not turn any tighter. Oversteer is the opposite, with oversteer if you aren't careful the car will keep turning, causing you to slide and in bad cases spin out. What the scirocco falls short on is when you are hard in a corner the front end is so god damn heavy that the front end will start sliding do to centripetal forces, causing the car to horrendously oversteer. You can't simply tune out the oversteer for a 64/36 weight distribution. Most people don't have any idea what these two terms are, I seriously think you are one of them. You may push a car hard in a straight line, but have you ever pushed a car hard around a corner? I am guessing not. Argue as much as you like, but science is science and I can mathematically prove to you how bad a 64/36 weight distribution will understeer if you so desire to be proven that badly wrong.

horrendously understeer*

haha and *tune out the understeer*

As opposed to Nice Safe Oversteer ??

I think you will find most Manufacturers prefer to dial in initial understeer to warn drivers of the limit as opposed to oversteer which catches out even the best of drivers.

To quote the Ultra Stupid Sarah Palin; " Say it aint so Joe "{Wink}

And joe please try to refrain from Condecension, i am not an American Idiot.

My major was Aerodynamics and i loved Mechanics so there probably very little you could teach me in that field.

My experience has shown me that what makes sense in theory sometimes do not work in reality, for example, on a Dry Track the Mustang would be a hoot to drive, however on regular roads with all the moisture, standing water, slippery manhole covers, negative camber and snow cover the Sirocco would be the one i would choose 100% of the time for spirited driving.

My choice comes from Years of driving and few crashes i learned from, Oversteer is much harder to recover from than Understeer especially in a vehicle sporting such ancient tech as the Mustang. I think you will agree Electronic Gizmos help a lot with RWD vehciles to keep them in check, a lot more than in FWD vehicles.

Now i love BMW/MB/AUDI/Ferrari/Lambo as much as the next man {maybe more} but in everyday driving with all the conditions i mentioned earlier i am under no illusions of the advantages of Front over Rear Driven Vehicles. Of course 4WD is the Best Option i.e. Veyron/Murcielago/Gallardo/911 Turbo/R8.....

Why are you still comparing the mustang, I was stating that the mustang has bad understeer, this thing is worse. I wasn't stating that the mustang handles better overall. Now my question is, why are you attacking me about a point I am not supporting and totally ignoring my point. This car has bad understeer, period. This is not a comparison of fwd vs rwd, I am simply stating what is wrong with this car. And you are right, most car companies do incorporate a slight bit of understeer since it is safer. However to incorporate the amount seen in the Scirocco and then come out and say look at how amazing it handles is dumb. I am sorry for coming down as condescending, but when your first reply was dealing with torque steer, I assumed you hadn't a clue what I was talking about. Your further criticizing of the mustang after I criticized it of having bad understeer in the first place shows an even greater lack of tact. The reason why I compared the mustang in the first place was because it too has bad understeer, but at least in its case the rwd can compensate and somewhat neutralize it when you are on the gas.

That argument became pointless when the game Forza 3 was mentioned. Its an arcade game.

How so? It's a simulator which allows people to experience how hundreds of different kinds of vehicles handle in the comfort of their own living room. Hell, they even create live tire deformation and include it's effects into the handling of the vehicle. I would say anyone who has pushed a vehicle to its limit in the safe confines of this game would have 10 times the driving experience of someone who drove the car in everyday traffic for a few days. Just because something is fun doesn't discredit it as a source.

Oh My Goodness !!

I have been debating a Vritual Reality Driving Expert.

Joe_Limon
I apologise for my ignorance, i should have known that my Real World Experience would fail miserably when compared to your On Screen Experience.

*sigh*

Your sarcasm only makes you seem more close minded. You still have no argument in regards to the Scirocco's understeer and you brushed my argument under on the basis that you don't appreciate how complex modern simulators are. Driving any car in the city obeying the speed limits, hell even breaking them now and again will not let you fully understand how a car handles. I will admit I didn't fully understand my car that I have been driving for 3 years now until I brought it out to an autocross event *shocker, real world driving*. I stand by my statement, where if someone else where to have driven my car in a simulator for ten minutes, up to that autocross they would have known more about how my car handles then I did.

Please post more reviews of cars I will never see or get to drive in the states. They are so exciting, especially when it is called the best FWD street racer on Earth? I would beg to differ as a street racer implies a modified car, this is stock.

I vote we start an Autospies.eu so they can talk about cars staying in Europe away from me. It's disheartening and companies are retarded for leaving us out.

urm they arent leaving the US out because of any malice.. its simple economics. Edmunds donut eaters can gush all they want , but there arent enough buyers who will pay the 6 - 12 k premium on a VW GTI to buy the Scirocco, especially since it would compete with their Audi A3. Additionally they would have to set up another run in Mexico as sending over cars made in Germany would mean even at 36k , VW would have to eat a loss because of the strong EURO/ Weak Dollar.

But here is the thing. The Scirocco is made on the same assembly line as the Eos. In fact it's chassis is virtually the same. The Eos is more expensive to make because it has a folding top. In fact in Europe the Scorocco in 200HP guize sells for less then the Golf GTI(both Mk5 and Mk6).My point is if VW sells the Eos here for say 29 to 36 grand depending on options and is able to make money on it then there is no reason that selling the Scirocco at 27 grand in base 200 HP form and 32 grand in 261 HP form it would be losing money. Somthing does not make sense here.

You could not be more wrong.

NASCAR is still popular. bahaha :P

Badgewhore

I was replying to your statement about the Sirocco looking Dorky and Feminine. It looks nothing of the sort.

Over here it is mostly driven by men {Sub 30s men} and it looks quite unfriendly to put it mildly.

Feminine looking cars would be;
A3/Mini/Megane{Outgoing Model}/Eos/307/Focus........

Sirocco is Squat and wide with a serious frown, Very Unfeminine.