Hi all,

Thought id introduce myself after browsing the forum for a few weeks. Just signed the documents for a ex-demo Scout 184tdi Dsg in Moon White with Polar Wheels, panoramic roof, bi-xenon, bolero, keyless and Canton. Car to be ready for pick up by the end of the week!

Coming from a b6 passat 2.0 tdi dsg, I'm sure I will find many of the passats traits in the Scout. Passat will be sadly missed but car is a write off due to a an accident (Woman driving 7 series confused the break with gas pedal and drove into me a 70kmh as I was stopped at a red light, destroying my back end and pushed me into a pajero with a very nasty tow hook which destroyed the front end too.) Needless to say I'm happy I'm alright but sad to see the car go.

But on to better and bigger things. Chose the Scout for the 4x4 as living in eastern Europe, the roads aren't great and the winters pretty harsH. Plus It became pretty annoying wheelspining in the 140hp passat in the wet.

Will post pictures when I pick her uP. I've got a few ideas already on how to dress her up a bit so many questions will soon follow!

X

Every cloud has a silver lining! Enjoy your new motor.

Good choice, enjoy!

Nice one on the new scout enjoy

Nice one, sure you'll love the car.  11 weeks and counting before my Scout turns up.

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Already planning my first mod! Currently have a love/hate relationship for the polar wheels, and if I had a choice would have specd the optional rims in anthracite. Thus my plan is to powder coat the wheels in a gunmetal semi gloss to make them stand out more. Seen this combo of metallic white and gunmetal wheels on an audi allroad and looks ace . I wonder if anyone has changed the alloys on a Mk3 scout yet?

Thought id attach some pictures of what I'm going for!

The Nivalis Antracite don't look as dark in real life as in the catalogue.

From experience of 18" two-tone, pollshed alloys on my BMW that are kerb magnets and cost an eye-watering amount to get refurbished compared to normal alloys, I reckon a fairly standard alloy design is a good thing.  As you suggest, get them coloured if you want to make them look a bit special; I'm sure they'd look great in a gunmetal colour.

I'm hoping the bigger sidewalls will save the alloys from being kerbed. Only a few days left now! I think I've read every possible thread on the forum now including the owners manual!

Just received a call from the dealer saying the car won't be ready today because once they started taking off the demo promotion stickers there was some left over residue from the glue. Hence they will buff and wax the car again so should ready on Monday.  Slightly annoyed as I wanted to do enjoy the car over the weekend and get the interior detailed, but I rather wait and have it all nice and shiny without any leftover goo, then having to go back after pick-up and complain. Sigh, another boring weekend with the workmobile.

 

SWMBO is really to kill me because i've been spending to much time on the forums and internet trying to read everything about the car.  I have a feeling those upgrades are going to be difficult to "authorized"!

So it's here! Picked it up yesterday and thus far have covered 150km. Over the moon to be honest, alot better than I expected. Power,steering,suspension are dare I say it better than my dad's f10 520d. So high praise!

Will cover some more kilometres and come back with a review.

)

Your car looks great x77r.

I'm looking forward to your next instalment, and also your wheel mods.

I made a move towards getting my Scout today, I went to the dealers at lunchtime and had a sit in one and a chat to the salesmen. Baby steps. They have only just been released in Australia (March 2015) and only now starting to show up at dealers.

So after 1000km of driving in 5 days here is my mini review which i am writing as my dads 5 series is being servised as i have a 3 hours wait in front of me, so here we go!

Exterior:

A good looking car! The colour makes the car stand out amongst the sea of grey and black cars around were i live so thats a plus. Also this particular shade of white (Moon White) is a very crisp color and other white cars in comparison seem dull and/or dirty.

The silver plastic accents give the car a rugged look that matched with the silver mirrors somehow make it a bit more special. The black plastic cladding and pano room again stand out on the white and I have received nothing but compliments from friends and guys a work saying thats its somehow more special than your regular family estate.

Bang on front the car looks great, has a really aggressive look helped by the black cladding ( makes car look wider), side profile looks like an audi allroad (no bad thing), and rear is decent but somehow the rear seems to be raised heigher than the rest of the car, might just be me.

Daytime running lights and rear leds look awesome at night, however a shame that the turn signals and number plate lights are also not LEDs as they blunt the sharp effect of the other LEDs.

Alloys and Stance

-After living with them for almost a week im starting to like them more. The jagged design suits the car, and again they are more interesting than other alloys available. Will I powder coating the alloys and run spacers on the back? Possibly, But for now im trying to enjoy what I have so I wont get bored so quickly.

The cars stance is pretty aggressive but the rears are tucked quite far under the fender and would look better with a spacer. However whilst doing a run down a gravel road I was happy that the wide fender stoped catapulting rocks. So maybe its not a bad thing? More time to think me thinks.

Interior

Looks like a golf/new passat - no bad thing. upper dashboard, instruments, vents, door handles, door trim are all up to scratch and feel great and well built. Only interior pieces which are odd/out of place is the central tunnel ( really low rent, scratches easy and moves if you push it slightly) and the glove box lid ( again scratches easily and in good sunlight the colour contrasts with the rest of the interior. Shame.) Shame skoda decided to save on these pieces.

The rest of the interior seems very well made, all the switches and buttons are tactile with good feedback. The seats are a perfortated cloth that hold you in bends and look like they are made to last. Scout emblem throught again make the car feel a bit more special. Rubber floor mates are very practical and look good.

I love the steering wheel - perfect size, button location, and doesnt get cold even after a cold night. Nice

Back seat accomodation is very very generous, somehow 185-190cm should be able to sit behind themselves comfortably. I dont have to worry though as im only 175cm and thus the back seems like a limo to me. Leg room by comparison is Better than dads 5 series (well done skoda). Also from the back you get to appreciate the pano room, and not one person resisted on saying how awesome and special it makes the car feel.

The boot - One of the main selling points of the car. Well, its massive. I havent got the variable boot floor so its even deeper, but with folded seats you end up with a little lip, due to height dofference. Not really a big deal, i would rather have a bigger boot all the time anyway.

Millions of strapping points within the boot and the net system works well. Double sided boot liner is great. Not much more to say really.. Its just very good siZe,shape,depth etc.

Canton

Overall - for the money is great. If your used to some kind of expensive merc or audi setup then you may be disapointed but overall its a very good system. Owners of mk2 octavias and b6-7 passats with stock 8 speaker system would probably agree that those systems were pretty good and better than the stock mk3 octavia setup by far. In my opinion the canton is as if they took the mk2 sound system, added a central speaker, amplificatiom and a subwoofer. I know that doesnt seem like much, but it adds that extra definition and low down bass my passat was missing.

Its not a rattle your windows type of system but its very krisp, very decently basey, and loud. Music at 320kbps sounds very clear and doesnt distort until you get to stupid volumes. If you listen to any vocal or electronic music you should be fine.

One note, the sub somtimes seems a bit muffled as its far away, and the drivers seems to hear the least of the base. Back seat passengers get the brunt of it. Drove around with the back seats down and that had a drastic improvement in bass.

Driving

The reason we all buy a car. To get from A to B. Well my first impressions are really positive. The engine and gearbox combo work really well and power is available all the time in every gear ( a massive improvement to my b6 passat 140 dsg.) its no super car but it will push you back into your seat no problem. Mid gear is where all the power is.

On a dual carriageway way when overtaking just nudge the gear shifter into sport mode and press the pedal 75% down and youve got a rocket. Overtaking 80 to 120 kph is dealt with in what feels like 3-4 seconds. Very quick. overtaking/merging is absolutely painless and stress free. This car gives you confidence, backed by the 4x4 system.

The steering and ride are also very good. The added ride height dosent seem to have impaired fast cornering and the car doesnt roll in the bends staying relatively flat. Something that cannot be said about a volvo xc70. The suspension is suple and composed and overall better than my dads 5 series on springs.( 5 series rolls more, and has very slow suspension travel so over large bumps tends to crash onto the road, not comfy!)

The electric steering weights up in fast corners, thus giving you more control and stability, plus it reduces the amount of lock you need to complete the corner. One of my favourite features. Yes its a bit artificial, but i like it. Again it somehow gives me confidence.

The added ride height overall is a joy as it means no more worrying about scrapping bumpers when parking and bad roads / pot holes can sod off as they do not bother me no more! Who would have thought that 31mm could be so good.

Day-to-day

Super comfy suspension, good sound insulation (very quite at motorway speed), added ride height, electric steering which is light whilst parking, good visability, 4x4, big boot, loads of space, loads of power and fast gearbox.

If you live somewhere with crappy roads and need a very good all road, all season, all day every day type of vehicle than the Scout should tick all your boxes as it does for me. But its only been 5 days, so things may change!

Excuse my spelling/grammer/punctuation. Im sure autocorrect has screwed something up!

For got to mention ive averaged 7 liters per 100 kms over the 1000km ( I believe that's 40 mpg to our English folk) that's 80% city and 20% highway and I don't drive like miss daisy. It's exactly the same as I got in the passat which was fwd, and less powerful and lower on sport suspension. To some that may seem like alot but I'm Happy with that result, plus my wallet is used to it too.

That will probably slightly fall after I stop driving like a numpty after the honeymoon phase.