2015 Volkswagen Scirocco R Review
What’s Hot: Cracking engine and chassis, racy interior
What’s Not: Mk VI Golf origins
X-FACTOR: Enormous fun on the road and with enough 'rarity factor' to turn heads
Vehicle Style: 3-door small sports hatch
Price: $TBC
Engine/trans: 188kW/330Nm 4cyl petrol | 6spd manual
Fuel Economy claimed: 8.0 l/100km | tested: not recorded
OVERVIEW
The Scirocco R is an all-too rare sight on Australian roads, and it has nothing to do with its qualities as a car.
It may be based on the older Golf V/VI platform, but it looks good, drives well and holds its own against the Renaultsport Megane.
Being an R model, VW has fitted it a with a firecracker turbocharged engine, tightened suspension with adaptive dampers, fat tyres and whopping brakes.
The 2015 facelift is, as is Volkswagen’s wont, very mild, but there's now a sharper, more masculine look with a clear link to the Golf VII.
Under the skin, things have barely changed. There wasn’t a lot of reason to do so.
It won’t be here for a while, though; early 2015. VW won’t even tell us the price, although you can bet it’ll be north of the current $47,990 starting point.
The carmaker did invite us to take it across some of the best roads in the country, though. So we did.
THE INTERIOR | RATING: 4/5
- Cloth and alcantara sports seats
- 6.5 inch screen with reversing cameras
- Trio of dash-mounted auxiliary dials