Twelfth Monkey
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VW EOS 2.0 TSiReluctantly, here goes:
I can't pretend I'm overly-enamoured with the looks or colour. Roof up, the profile of the glasshouse looks poorly integrated into the overall shape.
Good points?
Rides well, and the body control, at least for how it'll be used, is OK. It's quiet and refined, and body flex hasn't been noticeable thus far. And the roof's operation is mechanical ballet. Barring a slightly obstructive sixth, the gearchange is very precise and pleasingly mechanical in feel. And with the sunroof open, the upper part of the rev band emits quite a nice fizz. Good traction, too.
The interior is less impressive. Quite a lot of hard plastics, particularly the dash top, and little purporting to be metal actually is.
The seats are comfortable, but not as supportive as I am used to, and the material is plain nasty.
Roof down, the boot space is bizarre:
Roof up, rearward visibility is amazingly poor, and the width across the bizarrely-shaped mirrors means parking it in the garange is a little tight. The Beast goes in easier, and so did the A8 I had for a week.
The driving experience is pretty joyless, though. The engine is refined, but I find no incentive to rev it out. And at idle it has a bassy resonace at odds with the rest of the car's character. It's fast enough (0-60 is 7.8, I believe), but has a horribly spongy brake pedal, with the first couple of inches of travel doing nothing. The steering is probably the worst I've ever encountered. I have no idea what the front wheels are up to, even though there is a facsimile of weight when loaded up. There are two or three inches of dead travel in the wheel too, which removes any confidence that I would otherwise have in it. Grip, after all, doesn't seem in too short a supply.
I wonder how long I'm going to be stuck with it for...
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Dr. Hfuhruhurr
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Surprised how poor it sounds given that large parts of it are basically Mk 5 Golf GTI.
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Gurney
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Goes to show the EOS is widely lauded as the best Origami top around but when your benchmark is the best thing Audi have made in yonks......
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Twelfth Monkey
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Funnily enough, if it was an unpretentious Golf, I'd have fewer gripes with it. Certainly be lighter than Autocar's 'as tested' at 1610kg. But in trying to be something more glam, its failings seem harder to forgive. And the Golf must have better steering, even in boggo form.
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Eff One
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| Twelfth Monkey wrote: | | And the Golf must have better steering, even in boggo form. |
The Golf GT TDi hire car I had last year certainly had better steering than you describe - surprisingly good, in fact. But I thought the interior, even with leather, was pretty low-rent for a £20k car.
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Twelfth Monkey
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Makes me wonder how VW can have got the steering so wrong, or, perhaps more likely, simply not bothered because the target audience isn't supposed to be concerned with such things. I have never driven a car with a front end so distanced from the driver, both by steering and seat of the pants. And like I say, the grip does appear to be there.
Still, it's a new motoring experience, encourages a different driving style, and it will not be with me forever!
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Eff One
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The '08 boggo Astra that I had in Scotland a couple of months ago was shockingly bad - absolutely no sense of what the front wheels were doing, either through hands or seat of pants. Even worse than that was the throttle - a nasty combination of lazy response and all-or-nothing delivery - and a vague, stringy gearchange.
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Twelfth Monkey
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Ah. Knew I'd missed something. It hangs onto revs too much when you ease off, too. I'm sure that this is massaging of the engine management for the sake of emissions, but it makes engine braking something of an unknown quantity.
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Mark
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| Twelfth Monkey wrote: | | Ah. Knew I'd missed something. It hangs onto revs too much when you ease off, too. I'm sure that this is massaging of the engine management for the sake of emissions, but it makes engine braking something of an unknown quantity. |
It's probably just a heavy flywheel.
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Mark
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| Twelfth Monkey wrote: | | Makes me wonder how VW can have got the steering so wrong, or, perhaps more likely, simply not bothered because the target audience isn't supposed to be concerned with such things. |
It's something that VAG are pretty famous for, no?
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Twelfth Monkey
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I'm not sure it is the flywheel, Mark. It gathers revs well enough, but seems reluctant to shed them.
I've driven quite a few VAG cars, and there have certainly been 'issues', but this car is the worst in respect of steering and braking.
I also reckon that VAG is changing, albeit more slowly than might be desired. RS product is better than it ever has been, with the odd blip. The GTi & R8 are well-regarded, and signs for the future, like that little diesel roadster, are good. It seems bizarrre to me that BMW's M division seems to be going away from its purist ethos, with the likes of the X6M and turbocharged engines.
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Mark
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| Twelfth Monkey wrote: | I've driven quite a few VAG cars, and there have certainly been 'issues', but this car is the worst in respect of steering and braking.
I also reckon that VAG is changing, albeit more slowly than might be desired. RS product is better than it ever has been, with the odd blip. The GTi & R8 are well-regarded, and signs for the future, like that little diesel roadster, are good. It seems bizarrre to me that BMW's M division seems to be going away from its purist ethos, with the likes of the X6M and turbocharged engines. |
Completely agree - was thinking of their more 'run of the mill' stuff, though.
Shame about the Eos - I quite like the looks/idea of it. I do remember the interior of the one I had a look at being pretty poor (for the money) - it was on a par with a Polo.
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Twelfth Monkey
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I remember my Passat (previous model, post facelift) with a fair degree of affection. Never going to be described as the greatest drivers' car, but there was little slack in the controls and no excessive servo assistance. And having a five-pot it at least made some interesting noises.
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scamper
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A lot of that, i can agree with driving my colleague's silver tdi version. The steering is too light, and the interior like any mark 5 golf is cheap - put it this way, the cheapest plastics on my impreza look and feel far better than the cheapest in a mark 5 golf.
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Skyhook
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The most important question is: how are the TLGP's going? 
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Twelfth Monkey
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It's fared better than you might think!
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Skyhook
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It's the driver not the car... 
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Martin
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It might be quite heavy, but it's still got a near 200bhp turbo engine. It's no RS4 when it comes to the TLGP, but it's hardly undernourished!
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SpecB
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| Martin wrote: | | It might be quite heavy, but it's still got a near 200bhp turbo engine. It's no RS4 when it comes to the TLGP, but it's hardly undernourished! |
There was one on front of me today - a 2.0 FSI and it seemed to be pretty perky exiting a roundabout.
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Jasper
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*****Saddo alert******
I think the engine fitted to the Jetta/Eos is 170bhp version of the GTi's full fat engine.
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Dr. Hfuhruhurr
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| Jasper wrote: | | I think the engine fitted to the Jetta/Eos is 170bhp version of the GTi's full fat engine. |
Not according to the VW UK website - it's the full 200PS.
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BeN
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I saw one today, with body damage along the left door and rear panel.
Poor guy. Other than that, the car looked fresh off the showroom.
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Jasper
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr wrote: | | Jasper wrote: | | I think the engine fitted to the Jetta/Eos is 170bhp version of the GTi's full fat engine. |
Not according to the VW UK website - it's the full 200PS. |
I sit corrected.
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TimR
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You're not as sad as you thought
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simonp
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I was behind one of these yesterday and we were both stuck behind a Volvo estate of some sort. It was a nice road where, if it'd been just me, I'd have been past the Volvo at some point, but overtaking the 2 would've been dicey. Eventually though we get to a nice straight uphill bit and Eos man overtakes Volvo man with me tucked right up behind him. He then pulls in and I sail past quite easily, despite the fact I can tell he still has his toe down.
Childish, but fun!
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