3200 kms in 1st week of ownership of Scout

[duderduderini]

Hey
Well its been a big week. Got the car, drove to Adelaide and back for a wedding from Albury nsw. Went in Sunday morning (got back late sat night) to pick up dogs from the kennells and the numbskulls had failed to see one of my dogs had bloat which is a critical emergency. Surgery Sunday morning and because the twisted stomach can damage the nerve which controls the heart, off to Melbourne at a moments notice at 9pm Monday night arriving at midnight.. What a week its been.
What can I report of the Scout?
In a word Astonishing.. because of the rush to get to Melb I hadnt filled up (you always had a full tank In the Shytebaru) i was amazed I had like 450 k's range on 1/2 a tank!!! Fuel Consumption from 4.4 to 5.9 L/100 kms over the 3200 k's.
The handling is brilliant, the steering just great.. I had bilstein struts/king lowered coils whiteline swaybars on the Sooby and the Scout just trounces it. The ride is so german in that it is stiff but comfortable on bumpy roads and when we where hooking along in the middle of nowhere on the way to Adelaide the firmness showed its mettle.
The brakes? Ask the joey that decided to sit on the road between moulamein and Deni.. saw some roos up ahead and then I see the joey cause it just jumped out a few hundred metres in front of the pack and I hauled the anchors on real quick and as hard as i could .. didnt weave, didnt do anything except stop.. got to eat my dinner a second time courtesy of that manouvere. No Fade at all.
I bought a 6 speed as I read too many bad things re dsg and apart from the dmf (which whilst new will go the way of all othr dmf's and require changing in a year or 2) the gearbox is slick, easy to engage (you know after 7 years with the Shytebaru, engaging reverse was still always difficult no matter what technique you tried.. how many times would it grate into 1st from 2nd as you changed down to negotiate a driveway the worst manual box in any car i have driven in the last 35 years)
The car is just great to drive.. once you figure out chasing anything past 4000 rpm is fruitless overtaking is very quick. start out in 4th then change up as you are alongside the car and let the torque just do its bit. It hums along quite nicely.
The sound system is great out of the box.. doesnt need a sub or more power and the mfd quite handy.
Seats comfy and all contols at hand.
Gripes?
I didnt buy one years ago... thats it although I must say I am amused the mfd starts at a random spot each time you start upand the air con fan seems to have a random starting speed.
So if you are thinking about buying one do it. I have had A benz 89 300te, pugeot 505, the aforementioned heap as everyday road cars and this is a universe in front of them all.
I cant help sniggering each time i see a Passat wagon or Audi knowing this brand is better, more reliable and better looking.
Thanks for listening to the Rant
Nick
ps.. what I cant believe that given this cars mettle why VAG dont go after Subaru.. How many outbacks do you see.. well the Scout would beat the pants offa them and how could you buy that such a fat and ugly car like the current Subarus anyway? perhaps the (VAG) dont want Skoda to beat VW?
pps The dog is ok so far

[ox518]

Great review mate, can't wait to pick up my Scout next weekend (if the leasing company can sort out all the paperwork next week). I got DSG as my wife can only drive auto, finger crossed for that. Should be better than the 7spped DSG as I read so far form other guys.

[woofy]

The MFD shouldn't start at a random spot....however, if you are switching keys it may well do as it remembers your setting for each key including anything like auto door locks, follow me home lights. Our Skoda behaves quite differently depending on which of us are driving it.

[duderduderini]

Hi
I am not switching keys but will go and see the dealer.. I am more amused by it.. i reminds me of watching playschool as a kid and you had to guess which windows they would look thru.. so its a little random . if i cant figure it out, its no biggy given the car is so darn good.
Will let you know once i figure it.
Oh and I forgot the standard headlights are outstanding.
I might actually make a bumper sticker for this car and on it it will read "I used to own A Subaru" that'll get them thinking (whoever them is)
Anyone else own a shooby and loathe them (mine was a 2006 5 speed liberty 2,5)?

---------- Post added at 11:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:43 PM ----------

Great review mate, can't wait to pick up my Scout next weekend (if the leasing company can sort out all the paperwork next week). I got DSG as my wife can only drive auto, finger crossed for that. Should be better than the 7spped DSG as I read so far form other guys.

I hope you find it impressive... Dont forget to run it in properly .. dont molly coddle it or let it warm up idling.. you will glaze the bore.. drive it like you hate it. Once the oil has reached 99 degrees or so (you check that on the mfd with the thumbwheel on right side of steering wheel) and the water temp is at operating temp. Do look at the thread in the diesel section of the forum.
ONE OTHER THING
Brief your wife on this as well. When the diesel particle filter decides to clean itself for the first time it smells like the car has caught fire.. no shyte. It happened one night in Adelaide to me.. the radiator fans will go flat out and the car runs rough for a while. In the manual you are meant to run the car at 2000 to 2500 revs for 15 minutes as the dpf cleans itself. The car burns extra fuel to ensure the dpf gets hot hence the smell. I am not sure if the dpf regeneration will smell like that a second time as I do a lot of country kms but if you are in the city it will happen more often as far as I can gather

[Ocy_RS_TDi_Kombi]

Glad we have another happy Octavia/Scout owner.

Have done @59k in my Octavia RS TDi DSG and havent had a DSG problem to date (fingers crossed). The DSG oil will be replaced at the 60k service in a couple of weeks. I think you'll find the 6 speed DSGs are better than the 7 speeders reliability wise.

I luv the way the Octavia's eat up country km's as we've now done 13 trips back & forth to Mildura/Melbourne in our Ocy. So much grunt for passing its awesome. The seats are very comfy too. Our average fuel consumption for the trips are just below or smack on 6l/100km but the average speeds are mostly between 100km/h & 103km/h and the car gets quite loaded at times with 2 kids under 5yr & 2 adults and all the crap for the kids.

The fans kick in and run after I turn the car off at least once a week for me and it's not cause I push the car either. Had the dealer check the car once with no fault found and have since got use to it.

[ox518]

I hope you find it impressive... Dont forget to run it in properly .. dont molly coddle it or let it warm up idling.. you will glaze the bore.. drive it like you hate it.

Thanks mate. Do you mean drive the Scout TDI to hard in the first 1000KM or every time you jump in it?

[duderduderini]

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/foru...tdi-70122.html
Thats the url of the thread in the diesel part of this forum. I remember I glazed the bore of my go kart rotax engine cause i uded to let it idle for 10 to 15 minutes every time.. Read the thread i referred to above. It seems the 1st 40 kms are important. The engine once warm of course needs to be loaded to allow the piston rings to bed into the bore. The rings do this because gases during combustion force the ring apart into the bore. Without too much load the ring does not bed in all the way round its circumference. So give it stick ie load it up go up steep hills. Perhaps someone could chime in as to how to achieve this in a dsg model. Whatever you do vary the revs.. constant revs is not what you are after for the first 200ks anyway cruise for a bit the slow down and then bring the revs up under load.
Please read the thread I mentioned .
Good luck I will be interested in reading your impressions of the scout. What did you have before it?
Nick

[dArK5HaD0w]

Anyone else own a shooby and loathe them (mine was a 2006 5 speed liberty 2,5)?

i wanted to buy the gt or 3.0r version of the liberty before........then i came across the RS - never looked back again!
i still like the looks of the liberty - not the current shape though.
a mate of mine had a black 3.0rb. nice to look at. nice inside. but not fun to drive, nor was it "light" when it came to fuel!!
he sold it within 2 yrs.


glad ur enjoying the scout. the octavia's r such easy cars to drive - b it in traffic, or out on the open highways.
and the fuel economy is even a better reason to smile. the TDi just keeps on going, n going, n going........
i don't drive like miss daisy with my TSI, yet i'm getting 8.2l/100 around town, and 6.0l/100 with monthly highway driving between canberra n sydney,.
can't complain about that

[Mysticality]

I strangle my TDI, and get 7.5L/100 town and 4-6L/100km highway.
Honestly, I get constant 4L/100km from the Southern Highlands all the way to the Sydney CBD. Its crazy!
I read somewhere that the VWaG engines are pre-run in and I worked off that premise.
I just drove it like I would any other day and so far - zero issues. (only at 14,000, though)

Also - my Oil Temp likes to sit around 90-94 on highway. It climbs to around 100 when I thrash it, though.
Then again, around here you get -^C in winter, and 40^C in summer.
I love the seat warmers.

[duderduderini]

4l/1ook's is around 65mpg.. its simply stunning. Mate i loathed my Liberty so much at the end, the way it guzzled petrol and had no poke whatsoever. It couldnt even reverse my kart trailer up into my garage without having to rev the b son of god (bejesus) out of it. I have grown up on a diet of european cars and I have come to the conclusion that the Japs cant build great cars.. sure they do every now and then like the toyota 2000 gt datsun 240z and the Honda NSX but the liberty on paper had it all but was a poor handling gutless soul less car.. I hated it. Now for its bad points!!!