First Drive: 2012 Volkswagen Scirocco BlueMotion TDI

By John LeBlanc NICE, France – Whether they are hyper-French super minis, molto bene-Italian hot hatches or English-cottage-industry sports cars, Canadian driving enthusiasts have been forced to adopt a “look, but don't touch” stance towards a variety of niche European cars not sold in our country. Arguably the one car that elicits the strongest feelings of unrequited love, though, is Volkswagen’s Scirocco. Back in the early 1970s, the Scirocco was one of the German automaker’s key vehicles in getting customers to think of VWs other than archaic, rear-engine cars with cute names (that would be the gazillion-selling Beetle). Replacing the Beetle-based Ghia coupe in 1974, the 2+2 Scirocco was a sexier looking two-door of the radical-for-VW front-drive Golf compact hatchback. The car became popular with those looking for an affordable European coupe, spawning copycats like the Renault Fuego. But after two generations of Sciroccos in Canada, the more expensive Corrado replaced it in 1990. When the Corrado went away five years later, so did the idea of an affordable VW coupe. Flash forward thirteen years, and VW shows up to the 2006 Geneva auto show with its Iroc concept, a preview of an all-new third-generation Scirocco that went on sale in Europe two years later. Like the original, the latest Scirocco based on contemporary Golf mechanicals—but not in Canada. VW has never imported (it’s built in the same Portuguese factory as the VW Eos retractable hardtop convertible) the aggressive-looking hatchback coupe into this country. Yet after driving a 2012 Scirocco BlueMotion TDI for a day, in and around the French Riviera port of Nice, I’d say that’s a pity. Dimensionally, the Scirocco is wider yet lower than the Golf.  And if all you did was sit in the coupe’s driver’s seat, it would be easy to dismiss it as merely a Golf with one less rear seat and a more voluptuous body. The coupe uses the Eos’s dash design, but Golf owners will recognize every other knob and switch in the Scirocco. Swivel your head around, though, and the view gets very coupe-like. Instead of a three-across bench, a pair of bucket seats is buried into a cosy rear compartment. With the lower roofline, headroom for backseat passengers is obviously less than the Golf, but rear legroom is equal to the compact hatch. Like many VWs, the Scirocco is available in Europe with a wide range of four-cylinder gas and diesel engines, from a 122 hp 1.4-litre to a range-topping 265 hp 2.0-litre turbo four that is also showing up in the Canadian-market 2012 Golf R this year. My lime-green Scirocco was powered by the same 2.0-litre turbo-diesel found in Canadian VWs, rated in Europe at 138 hp and 236 pound-feet of torque. The “BlueMotion” part of the badging allows VW to claim this is the cleanest and most fuel-efficient Scirocco ever. With stop/start technology, battery regeneration, low-resistance tires, and a gearshift light to nudge you into changing gears up or down for the best fuel economy, the six-speed manual transmission scores an incredible 4.5L/100 km combined city and highway rating. My six-speed dual-clutch automatic model sips almost as parsimoniously at 4.9. Admittedly, acceleration in the TDI Scirocco didn’t blow my lederhosen off. Zero to 100 km/h takes between 9 and 10 seconds. Even when I selected the gearbox’s Sport Mode, which firms up the Scirocco’s Adaptive Chassis Control (see below) and adds steering heft, the revs drop slightly, but forward progress isn’t substantially accelerated. Illustrating its low-revving diesel engine nature, the party’s over around 5,500 rpm. If European buyers need/want more urgency, they can pop for the 265 Scirocco R, which will shave about three seconds off the TDI’s 0-100 km/h time. Whatever mill is powering the Scirocco, the car is a pleasure to drive. The Scirocco’s extra width and lower height deliver more sports cars driving experience than the Golf GTI. And, like our Golf GTI, there’s the typical Teutonic firmness and feedback that permeates the coupe’s steering, handling and ride qualities. But the Scirocco feels even more planted and flatter in the corners, never feeling tail-happy like the GTI can when being hustled through back-to-back twisties. Much of the credit goes to the Scirocco’s Adaptive Chassis Control. ACC offers three drive settings: Normal; Sport; and Comfort. Electrically regulated shocks are connected to a control that calculates the optimum setting for each wheel from information received from the steering, braking, engine, transmission and driving assistance systems. VW says, this allows the ACC to react continually, up to a thousand times per second. Alas, as much as I liked driving the Scirocco for the day, the chances of it going on sale in Canada are slim—for now at least. Some have argued the 2+2 would steal sales away from the similarly priced Golf GTI. Whatever. If VW Canada ever decided to sell a Scirocco, it won’t be this model. There’s an all-new Golf set to arrive within the next year. If a Scirocco ever came here, it would have to be the next generation model based on that new Golf. Although offering the Scirocco in Canada may seem like an illogical business plan, I think the coupe offers a different enough driving experience and lifestyle statement than the Golf GTI to warrant the move. If VW replaced the Eos with the more engaging Scirocco, driving enthusiasts wouldn’t shed a tear. But then love, especially the unrequited kind, is never logical, is it. First Drive: 2012 Volkswagen Scirocco BluemotionTDI WHAT I LIKED: Sexy bodywor; more stable handling than Golf GTI; Bluemotion TDI version offers hybrid-like fuel economy WHAT I DIDN'T: Not as roomy in the back as the Golf; TDI isn’t exactly fast off the line; can’t buy it in Canada—yet. Est. Base price: $32,000 Type of vehicle: FWD, four-passenger hatchback/coupe Engine: 2.0-litre diesel I4 Power: 138 hp Torque: 236 lb-ft Fuel Economy L/100 km: 4.9L/100 km combined Transmissions: Six-speed manual, six-speed dual-clutch automatic Competition: Audi TT, Mini Cooper, Volvo C30

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