After 18 weeks, today was the big day, when we took delivery of our Scout 2.0 TDi CR, in Cappuccino Beige. Having waited so long, and spent far too many hours browsing this forum, I was quite anxious that the reality of collecting the car might not match my high expectations. Well, I'm delighted to report that nothing could be further from the truth. The whole delivery process was fantastic. The VW/Skoda dealer in Christchurch, Miles Continental, were totally professional throughout the whole purchasing process, from the test drives, agreeing a sharp price, ordering, keeping me abreast of the build and delivery time-scale (which was accurately forecast from the outset), and finally today the handover of the car. Matthew (Mat) spent 90 minutes with us, going over all the functions of the car in a really pleasant and professional manner. So top marks to the salesman and the dealership.

Turning to the car itself: I am delighted with it, completely living up to my high hopes, The Cappuccino colour is really nice - slightly more silvery-grey (and less beige) than the photos and brochures suggested, and that suits us very nicely. I'd describe it as an understated, but very classy colour. The Alcantara leather is lovely. I'd read somewhere on this forum that it wasn't that flash and possibly not worth the money, but I personally think Skoda have done a very nice and complete job, with all areas in the car normally covered in cloth (such as the armrests) replaced by leather. The seats also feel firm, but supportive. All of the other options I'd requested were there, from electric, heated seats, to the sunroof, raised boot floor, front parking sensors, DRLs and Xenons. A real bonus was bluetooth which worked perfectly first time with my BlackBerry 8900, importing my address book, showing signal and battery strength on the Maxidot display and integrating seamlessly with the stereo for full hands-free use without any further hardware being needed. The moment I step into the car and put the key in the ignition, it pairs with the phone still in my pocket - very cool. Also scoring highly on the wow factor was opening the car with the remote control and winding all the windows down automatically, or locking the car and automatically closing all the windows, the sunroof and pulling in the door mirrors.

I ran out of time tonight to take any photos (give me a couple of days and I'll rectify this). So far, my first impressions of the car, with all of 25KMs on the clock, is that it's a quality vehicle, well worth the long wait and we're so pleased that we took what was a slight risk and went with the Scout over the more conventional option in this part of the world of a Subaru Outback. Add to this that the Scout is a very rare car in New Zealand, so it's nice to be driving something different to the masses.

Another happy Scout owner, All I can add is 6 months & 12500 miles later ours is still fantastic

I think you can look forward to many miles of happy scouting ( & many hours of reading the manual )

Welcome yo the club buddy

nice to hear ur over the moon with ur decision

my day will come (hopefully in 6 weeks time), when i finally get the keys handed over to me

As promised, here are a few photos taken today of my new arrival, for anyone interested in what a Cappuccino Beige Scout looks like. Sorry, nothing arty farty here, but they give an idea of how the car turned out. 10 days into our ownership and I remain delighted with my purchase.

Looks the business - very smart. I was wondering about the DRLs - do people get as aerated in NZ about leaving foglights on as they do in UK? There are several threads on here which seem to advocate capital punishment for this apparently minor offence! I'm just wondering whether you'll get grief from other drivers thinking you've left them on by accident. Are DRLs common in NZ?

Edited 16 October, 201015 yr by London Les

Very nice. Reminds me of when mine was clean and shiny, instead of coated in a thin film of farmers mud.

I was wondering about the DRLs - do people get as aerated in NZ about leaving foglights on as they do in UK? There are several threads on here which seem to advocate capital punishment for this apparently minor offence! I'm just wondering whether you'll get grief from other drivers thinking you've left them on by accident. Are DRLs common in NZ?

DRLs are rare in NZ - only to be found on upmarket Mercs, Audis and suchlike (and now a very occasional Skoda ) . I wish they were not fitted in the fog light hole, because of the possible confusion from oncoming drivers, but they do throw out a much brighter white light than fogs and I've yet to be flashed for having them on. AFAIK, there are no plans to make DRLs mandatory on new cars here, nor do I think it is an offence to drive with fogs on all the time (although it's discouraged). It is an offence to drive only on sidelights at any time.

Very nice Simon - you'll enjoy that

That looks the bees knees, congratulations

Lovely car

The Cappuccino colour is really nice - slightly more silvery-grey (and less beige) than the photos and brochures suggested, and that suits us very nicely. I'd describe it as an understated, but very classy colour.

I couldn't agree more - it's an underrated but top choice colour that particularly suits the estate format. It doesn't show the dirt half as much as a darker colour either so less washing required

Glad you're happy, Simon, and good luck with the Scout.

We loved our holiday in NZ last year, especially the South Island, but don't you find the universal 100 kph speed limit rather restrictive? A good performer like your Scout is up to that speed in a few seconds.

I think that if I lived in NZ permanently I'd have something like a Prius.

Edited 16 October, 201015 yr by Zdenek Fibich

Glad you're happy, Simon, and good luck with the Scout.

We loved our holiday in NZ last year, especially the South Island, but don't you find the universal 100 kph speed limit rather restrictive? A good performer like your Scout is up to that speed in a few seconds.

I think that if I lived in NZ permanently I'd have something like a Prius.

Yes, particularly on some of the open road stretches of the South Island where traffic volumes are so low, 100 kph is a pain and the Police are pretty zealous. We have an appalling driver fatality record considering our small population. Driving standards here are low by first world standards. At the risk of sounding racist (and I'm not), in my experience, the majority of poor drivers are Asian immigrants, of which we have plenty. Honestly, most NZ drivers would have a nervous breakdown driving on the narrow congested roads of the UK [sorry, way off topic here].

As for the Prius? Yes, maybe if they produced a 4WD off-road version .

Looks the business - very smart. I was wondering about the DRLs - do people get as aerated in NZ about leaving foglights on as they do in UK? There are several threads on here which seem to advocate capital punishment for this apparently minor offence! I'm just wondering whether you'll get grief from other drivers thinking you've left them on by accident. Are DRLs common in NZ?

Not usually over here. The Police actually have roadsigns on state highways advising you to drive with lights on during the day now so they seem to encourage it. My legacy is dark blue so I drive with the fogs on out of town all the time as it's a hard to see colour. My Scout is silver which is an even worse colour to be seen so I'll definately be using the DRL's on that in the same way.

"We loved our holiday in NZ last year, especially the South Island, but don't you find the universal 100 kph speed limit rather restrictive? A good performer like your Scout is up to that speed in a few seconds."

That's an interesting observation because most of the main roads over here can be quite poor with not many opportunities to pass if you have an average car and 100kph is probably enough as a lot of drivers aren't that used to driving on windy dual lane highways with opposing traffic. Public holiday weekends over here are pretty bad especially in the North Island with the higher population and drivers skillset variability. I drive a fair bit out of town as we go skiing a lot which is a 450mile round day trip and some of the stuff we see there is crazy.

Although to be fair the Scout compared to the legacy is a snail overtaking wise when you say good performer though (103kws/320nm vs 206kws/343nm) but at least it could make up on the average speed by not having to stop as often, legacy only gets 420miles out of a tank. I'll be chipping the Scout to make up some of the lost ground or at least make it VRS comparable. When is Skoda going to make a 4wd VRS, that's what i'd want over here as 350nm via just the front wheels is 'entertaining' on wet days and even uphill starts. This is my 5th AWD car in a row, would never go back to a 2wd.

Edited 17 October, 201015 yr by snala

...the Scout compared to the legacy is a snail overtaking wise when you say good performer though (103kws/320nm vs 206kws/343nm) but at least it could make up on the average speed by not having to stop as often, legacy only gets 420miles out of a tank. I'll be chipping the Scout to make up some of the lost ground or at least make it VRS comparable.

I know where you are coming from. while not in Legacy GT territory, I'm on my 4th 4WD in succession, coming from a Subaru Outback 3.0L H6 motor, which was quick, but spectacularly thirsty.

My Scout gets its MTM remap this coming weekend, taking it to 125kW/360Nm. That said, I've been pleasantly surprised already by the sheer amount of torque available low down from the standard 103kW/320Nm. You don't have to rev the bo***cks off it, with max torque available from a lowly 1750rpm. Talking of low revs, the maxidot suggested gear display encourages you into a higher gear unbelievably early, and coming from an exclusively petrol engined background, I look at the rev counter and suggested gear and think "no way", but the car happily runs in 6th gear at 1100rpm (yep, you read that right - 1100rpm!).

"My Scout gets its MTM remap this coming weekend, taking it to 125kW/360Nm. That said, I've been pleasantly surprised already by the sheer amount of torque available low down from the standard 103kW/320Nm. You don't have to rev the bo***cks off it, with max torque available from a lowly 1750rpm. Talking of low revs, the maxidot suggested gear display encourages you into a higher gear unbelievably early, and coming from an exclusively petrol engined background, I look at the rev counter and suggested gear and think "no way", but the car happily runs in 6th gear at 1100rpm (yep, you read that right - 1100rpm!)."

Yes - I'm gradually getting used to this. I started by ignoring the gear change recommendation, but after a couple of trips following salvishly, it actually does help improve fuel economy. The only time I ignore it now is if I know some power is going to be needed a short notice. The recommendation for a downshift is at about 900rpm, so you need to be pretty careful to avoid stalling. I wish remaps were warrented in the UK. The thought of having to fix a gearbox or turbo at my expense (even if completely unrelated to the remap) is big deterrent.

Les.

Simon - I hadn't seen that you'd taken delivery - congratulations! I'm interested in hearing more about the upgrade, but am also very happen with the standard torque on hand.

I hope the most recent earthquake didn't affect you much either - and I envy you driving your car on lovely Kiwi gravel roads!

Talking of low revs, the maxidot suggested gear display encourages you into a higher gear unbelievably early, and coming from an exclusively petrol engined background, I look at the rev counter and suggested gear and think "no way", but the car happily runs in 6th gear at 1100rpm (yep, you read that right - 1100rpm!).

I'm looking forward to that part as do a bit of motorway up here. Pickup from those revs must get even better as the engine gets worn in with some more kays on it etc. Although another 40nm will help too.