Rather surreptitiously and with little fuss, VW has dropped the Scirocco R from its range. We quite like the hot Scirocco here at PH so felt it needed a proper send off.
Not the best use of a decent engine...
But then a bit of investigative work uncovered the Scirocco R won't actually disappear totally. The current car had to be killed off because its EA113 2.0-litre turbo doesn't meet the Euro 5+ emissions legislation that's effective from the start of 2014. However, the Scirocco will be revised next year, where we can expect the R to make a return most likely with the EA888 engine from the new
Golf GTI
R
Bizarrely the Golf R cabriolet, which uses ostensibly the same engine and emits more CO2 than the Scirocco, meets the legislation and will remain on sale. Even the VW PR office didn't have an answer for that one! Furthermore, Audi will make no change to TT line up (the TTS uses a 272hp version of the EA113) so there is clearly some strange emissions criteria those cars comply with.
For now, a few Scirocco Rs are at VW dealers as all of them have to be registered before the end of the year. So off we popped to the classifieds in search of a bargain, only to be a little disappointed. This
2013 R DSG
would have been £33K new and is still commanding £29K after 5,000 miles so the car's relative rarity still accounts for something. The cheapest Scirocco R on PH is this
2010 DSG car
The EA113 engine was probably best known as that found in the Mk5 Golf GTI and also made it to the later Mk6 Edition 35 plus a fast SEAT or two. PH has some fairly extensive experience with the engine then, and mostly positive. Nobody mention fuel consumption...