[arjithin]

Mods: This thread is about certain features of CC. Since the car is not yet available in India, I am posting it in the International section. Please move if it doesn't belong here.
__________________________________________________ ________________

My job requires me to travel to many towns in the 100-200 miles range and I use it as an opportunity to rent and try out new cars. Even though I have many car rental vendors in my town, I always rent from the 25 miles away airport as they have the variety I am looking for. I use my CRV for all local drives.

Some of the recent ones I tried are 2012 Fiesta, 2012 Ford focus, the 2012 Chrysler 300, Nissan Juke. But this time I enter the Alamo lot, I see a Volkswagen CC parked and waiting for someone to pick up and immediately made up my mind that I going to take her. Its not very frequent that you see a VW in a rental car lot. The formalities were quick; The agent at the counter was able to give the CC to me with a $5 premium per day which I gladly accepted.

I am 6 feet 2 tall. Getting into the car was tough. The seating position is very low and the previous customer has raised the driver seat to the maximum height position. But once I put the driver seat to the lowest level, it was OK to get in. But the surprise was the horizontal movement this seat offers..it literally touched the back seat in its farthest position and in that position, my legs were completely flat...The first car where I found so much 'leg room' !!!

Other surprises were the leather interior and in dash GPS navigation..again first time I am seeing an in dash GPS in a rental car !!!

Started the engine and I was greeted with the fine growl of the 200 hp V4 engine. The steering is one of the best I have experienced in terms of feel and finish. Full torque comes in just 1750 rpm, not turbo lag, 0-100 kmph in 6 seconds, accelerating from 40 mph to 70 is really quick (which I hate to do in my CRV due to its zero response and multiple down shifts)...overall a great partner for a week long 1000 mile drive. My wife has no interest in cars and first time she said that he enjoyed the acceleration..she said she felt like a theme park ride when I accelerated hard.

Some features I liked/disliked. Here they are

1.Entry/exit - very difficult for 6 feet plus. Once inside and in front seats, there is adequate room. But rear seat is a pain, see the photos below

2. Head lights - Once the steering wheel is turned more than halfway, a side light comes which makes that whole side illuminated. Imagine you are in a T junction with a STOP sign and turning left, once you turn the steering almost 20 degrees, this light is automatically switched on and you can see the whole left side illuminated while the car is still facing the original direction. See the pictures below. Wonderful feature !!!

3. Accessing the trunk from the rear seats. This is a 4 seater car. The middle part is either a cup holder or can be used as a hand rest. The hand rest area can be opened to access trunk. There is locking mechanism to restrict access. Though I liked the idea of accessing trunk from rear seat (why I like station wagons more than Sedans), the usefulness of this feature in CC is limited due to small opening provided. People normally keep bags in trunk and none of the bags can be taken to the rear seats via this small opening. Only items like bottles or small boxes can be taken.

4. The Volkswagen entertainment system - Usability is not up to the mark. The integrated touchscreen display handles too much functionality and distracts the driver while driving. The digital gauges has a 0.5 -1 second lag before displaying the actual values. For eg, if I am accelerating hard, my analog speedometer may show 30 mph during my first gear shift at around 6000 rpm, where as the digital mph display next to the analog one will be showing 10 or 15 mph.

5. The head light/indicator/wiper/cruise control sticks are overloaded with functionalities and every direction or slight tap is an input. Very easy to get into a wrong operation during driving. I prefer to keep it simple and have rotary switches in the sticks instead of moving it in every possible direction!!!

6. GPS unit - The GPS unit has many map errors, Though the car is just 3 months old, the maps felt like very old. The turn warnings come just 0.4 miles ahead of the actual turn, which make the exits from highway a panic procedure if you happen to be cruising at 75 mph in the left lane. A simple 60$ GPS will do even better. The fun part was the errors showed on screen. For an east - west interstate like I84, it was sometimes showing direction as I84 North . This was my first experience with a in dash GPS unit and I found it very uncomfortable. Every time I have to take my eyes off the road to look the GPS. Also the small 4 inch screen means, more milliseconds to search or the read information from the screen.

7. Rear or blind spot visibility – very poor due to the thick C pillar and coupe styling.

[Zed]

Originally Posted by arjithin

Mods: This thread is about certain features of CC. Since the car is not yet available in India, I am posting it in the International section. Please move if it doesn't belong here.
__________________________________________________ _______________
2. Head lights - Once the steering wheel is turned more than halfway, a side light comes which makes that whole side illuminated. Imagine you are in a T junction with a STOP sign and turning left, once you turn the steering almost 20 degrees, this light is automatically switched on and you can see the whole left side illuminated while the car is still facing the original direction. See the pictures below. Wonderful feature !!!!

Thank you for the short yet informative write-up.
I find the side illumination feature extremely helpful in my VW. One of those simple but very effective solutions. Would make a lot of sense to have this safety feature as standard, especially in the Indian context of pot holes, pedestrians and ill lit roads.
I really like the exterior styling & proportions of the CC.