eskimo0101
Member
- :
- 2012 Mazda CX-9 Touring AWD
For the past 9 years I've been daily driving a 6 speed 2005 Pontiac GTO that I bought in 2006 with 1850 miles on it (guy bought it, lost his job and almost immediately traded it back in for a loss). It's been a great car, loads of fun with 400hp/400tq but recently some issues had started popping up that signaled major repair bills likely in the near future. My plan had been to hold onto it 2 more years when my home equity loan would be paid off and move into an Audi S5 convertible but having to make the trade now that car wasn't really in the budget. I started looking at vehicles I could trade the GTO on and just pay cash for the difference and walk away with something still fun and interesting but likely reliable for the next 2 years. Lots of Camrys, Accords, Fusions in that range but those have about as much soul as your refrigerator. They're appliance cars. Enter the Volkswagen CC. Basically a VW Passat in what they call "executive seating" (2+2 with a nice console between the two rear seats). 2.0 turbo, DSG gearbox 200 hp (factory rated, we'll get back to that).
So after test driving one I was really impressed. It had all the feel of that German sedan engineering but for way less than that Audi I really wanted. Coming from a 400hp car I was really concerned that 200hp was going to a letdown but I really surprised how quick it was. Like alarmingly surprised because I've been around racing and sporty cars all my life and no way this thing was 200hp at the crank. A little more research to make sure I wasn't looking at someone's modded car they dumped on a dealer and I found out CC's consistently put down around 220hp to the wheels on a dyno, meaning it's really a 260hp at the crank car. VW underrates the 2.0t because they sell the VR6 as the "upgrade" engine.
After a bit of searching I found exactly what I was looking for 3 hours away in OH. A quick day trip and the GTO is no more and a 2012 VW CC now sits in it's place in the driveway. It's light brown metallic, a cool color that goes anywhere from silver to light gold depending on the light and the angle you're looking at it from. The interior is call cornsilk and everyone that's seen it has loved it. I had it 2 days and one of the guys from our local car forum already lent me his vagcom cable so I could play around in the computer a bit. It let me turn off the DRLs and enable the feature to put the windows up and down from the keyfob. I was attempting to get something called rain closure, where the auto sensing wipers will detect rain if you leave the car parked with the windows down and roll them up, but haven't got it working yet. Have to do some more reading because other CC owners have been able to enable this.
And one of the GTO... doing what it loved best tearing up Nelson Ledges Raceway. Going to miss that car.
So after test driving one I was really impressed. It had all the feel of that German sedan engineering but for way less than that Audi I really wanted. Coming from a 400hp car I was really concerned that 200hp was going to a letdown but I really surprised how quick it was. Like alarmingly surprised because I've been around racing and sporty cars all my life and no way this thing was 200hp at the crank. A little more research to make sure I wasn't looking at someone's modded car they dumped on a dealer and I found out CC's consistently put down around 220hp to the wheels on a dyno, meaning it's really a 260hp at the crank car. VW underrates the 2.0t because they sell the VR6 as the "upgrade" engine.
After a bit of searching I found exactly what I was looking for 3 hours away in OH. A quick day trip and the GTO is no more and a 2012 VW CC now sits in it's place in the driveway. It's light brown metallic, a cool color that goes anywhere from silver to light gold depending on the light and the angle you're looking at it from. The interior is call cornsilk and everyone that's seen it has loved it. I had it 2 days and one of the guys from our local car forum already lent me his vagcom cable so I could play around in the computer a bit. It let me turn off the DRLs and enable the feature to put the windows up and down from the keyfob. I was attempting to get something called rain closure, where the auto sensing wipers will detect rain if you leave the car parked with the windows down and roll them up, but haven't got it working yet. Have to do some more reading because other CC owners have been able to enable this.
And one of the GTO... doing what it loved best tearing up Nelson Ledges Raceway. Going to miss that car.
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