Volkswagen Scirocco coming at last
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After more than two years of hopes and promises, VW Australia tells Carsguide the sleek Scirocco will hit showrooms in 2012.
"Finally, it's happening. The Scirocco will be here in 2012," says Anke Koeckler, who took over the top job at VW Australia in July 2009. "It's been my ambition to bring Scirocco to Australia since I arrived, Australians will get their first chance to see the Scirocco in the metal at the Australian International Motor Show in Melbourne in July.
The good news also gets better as Koeckler tells CarsGuide that VW will bring the Scirocco in the faster R spec only. Exact equipment levels and pricing are still being finalised, but Carsguide understands specification will be similar to that of the Golf R, and the
Scirocco could carry a price tag as low as $50,000.
Australian fans of VW hot hatches have been crying out for the re-born Scirocco - a badge first seen in the 1970s - since it first launched in Europe in 2009.
"We have received a lot of requests for the Scirocco, so it's great to now be able to do it," Koeckler says. She says the challenge has been finding a way to fit it alongside the Golf range, one of VW's core models in Australia.
The Scirocco shares its basic mechanical structure with the Golf, but has unique and more visually aggressive bodywork. It is 67mm lower, 35mm wider and 36mm longer than the Golf three-door, is 67kg lighter than the all-wheel drive Golf R, and has a sportier suspension tune, all of which is said to endow it with more performance-oriented driving characteristics.
In Europe, the Scirocco is available with a range of petrol and diesel engines, but VW Australia has only ever been interested in the GTi and R models, which share their 155kW and 199kW 2.0-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder engines with similarly-badged Golf models.
One crucial area of difference is the way the Scirocco R and Golf R get their power down - the Golf R is all-wheel drive, the Scirocco R is only front-wheel drive. While the Scirocco R has a green light for Australia, making a case for the GTi was too hard.
"The Golf GTI is a very successful model for us, and it did not make sense to bring Scirocco GTI into that same space. As it was we had to make changes to the Golf R range to bring Scirocco in," Koeckler says. So Volkswagen is dropping the three-door Golf R model from its Australian range to make room for the three-door Scirocco R.
VW is expected to sell the Scirocco R with a choice of six-speed manual and DSG automatic transmissions in Australia.
Carsguide is unsure if the Scirocco R's turbocharged, four-cylinder engine will be detuned from 195kW to 188kW for Australia, as is done with the Golf R under a Volkswagen program to de-tune some engines for hot-weather and 'extreme' countries.
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