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The Scirocco's cabin is a very nice place to be. Everything around you has a quality feel and the driving position is surprisingly well sorted. The seats in the test car came trimmed in Anthracite Vienna leather and proved to be very comfortable and supportive. The driver's seat featured electronically adjustable lumbar support which ensured that my back was amply supported at all times.

Both front seats were also heated, which comes as part of the £1,560 leather package. Nestled in the centre console are two dials for controlling the level of heat seating for both the passenger and the driver. With settings ranging from zero to five, you should be able to find the perfect temperature to warm your cockles. And of course it allows the driver and passenger to heat themselves independently of the other.

The centre console houses controls for climate control and heated seats

Continuing with that theme is the dual-zone climate control that comes as standard on the Scirocco GT. On the centre console you'll find two temperature displays that indicate how warm/cool it is for the driver and passenger. Once again this allows the driver and passenger to be comfortable without that comfort coming at the expense of the other. Of course if you are both in agreement about the cabin temperature, you can disable the dual-zone function and have a single temperature for the whole cabin.


The Scirocco also features Adaptive Chassis Control as standard, which allows the driver to alter the characteristics of the car at the touch of a button. ACC has three options, Normal, Comfort and Sport - Normal is suited to general driving, Comfort to motorway cruising and Sport to more focused B-Road or track driving. Changing the ACC settings will alter the damper rates, the level of steering assistance and the throttle response. I have to admit that I rarely switched the Scirocco out of Sport mode, and even then I found the car a little soft. However, I'm probably more hardcore than the average potential Scirocco customer, and I imagine that many will be happy to leave ACC set to normal most of the time, perhaps flicking into Sport for the odd blast round some country lanes.

The steering wheel is another highlight. VW and Audi have both adopted the flat bottomed steering wheel design for their sporty models, and although there's no practical reason for the design in a car like this, it looks great. The wheel is also beautifully tactile and just the right thickness for a solid, yet comfortable grip.

The steering wheel also comes equipped with an array of controls. On the left you'll find buttons for volume control and telephone functions, while on the right you can access the in-dash display menus and control the audio system. Just like the rest of the steering wheel design, the button placements are ergonomically perfect for thumb control - assuming that you drive with your hands where they should be.


The in-dash display is also a welcome addition, giving you access to information without having to look down at the centre console. Here you can view what the audio system is doing with the track and artist information displayed, along with the selected source device. You can also display navigation instructions here, again saving you from having to look down at the main map display on the RNS 510 system.

The sunroof may not open fully, but it really lifts the cabin

The test car came with a panoramic sunroof, which will set you back £640. Now, I'm not generally a fan of sunroofs - structural rigidity and all that - but having all that extra light flooding into Scirocco's cabin really does make a difference. The sunroof only tilts up rather than opening fully, but it lets in a decent amount of fresh air without causing too much wind noise, even at high speeds.

Auto-dimming rear view mirror stops you getting blinded at night

You also get automatic headlights, rain sensitive windscreen wipers and an auto-dimming rear view mirror as standard, while a cooled glove box and tinted glass in the rear windows are nice touches too.

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