If you want an inexpensive German convertible with the team lead its pretty short list. The Volkswagen Eos its eight thousand dollars cheaper than the equivalent Audi A3 cabriolet, which has exactly the same engine and a fabric roof. Is this the perfect wind-in-the-hair compromise? Here's car adviser and road tester Anthony Crawford.
What is the whole attraction on being on display in traffic. Well the Eos has a folding metal roof that incorporates a glass sunroof, believe it or not. So you get the best of both worlds? You get the best of both worlds, and no one has come close to matching the Eos in performance, ride.
I mean it's a big step up in price to get up to there to Mercedes Benz SLK which is a similar kind of proposition.
Yeah, it is probably a good 20 or 30 thousand or more. I don't think you need to with the EOS because it offers quality that's second to none in the class. The beauty of the EOS is that 4 adults canget in this car and drive comfortably. That's quite unusual for a folding metal roof car anyway, or a convertible.
If you have the roof up, then you have a ton of boot space. If you have the roof down, the boot space is probably cut in half, but still enough room for a couple of soft bags. It is a car for all seasons.
And how does it compare to a Golf in the whole riding, handling, driving dynamics department?
Look, pretty similar. In fact, I was just about to say that you don't get any scuttle shake that you do from some convertibles with the roof down.
Because that is so horrible.
It is horrible and it's caused by the lack of stiffness in the chassis or torsional rigidity. This car has neither, so you really, again, I've got all but praise for this car. The entry level is a TDI 2 liter deisel engine, which runs okay at three hundred and twenty newton metres, but the pick of the crop, in the Eos, is the GTI engine.
This is a performance car. Steers well, drives well, accelerates very well. And you know at the touch of button in 13 seconds you've got a roof up. You don't get the DSG with this engine do you? You do, you can get the DSG in both diesel and the Golf GDI engine and you're happy with the DSG? I am, I think for the extra two grand, you'd be mad not to have it.
It makes life really easy. The DSG is just like an automatic. to drive, although if you are a rev head, you can pedal shift whenever you want, right? Yeah, absolutely. And it's got a sport mode, which even shifts quicker. So for that sort of money, are we compromised on safety, we compromised on equipment, how does it all work, how does [sp?] it all stack up?
Yeah, you get a full inventory of airbags and electronic safety aids, ESP and electronic the whole works basically. So what about inside the car. Do we come fully loaded? You don't come fully loaded in any German car. They usually have an extensive options list. I'd like you to tick the box. Exactly.
And one of the ones I would tick would be the 600 watt ten speaker dine audio system. That is an epic sound system, and well worth probably the two thousand
