Volkswagen CC 2013

[kd3pc]

I was able to test a new 2013 CC "Sport" this past weekend.  It was a much better experience than I had hoped for.  I had it for a couple of hours and did a good mix of interstate and East TN rural driving.

 

My daily driver is a 1999 C280 with over 250K miles.  I provide that only so you can see what I am comparing the new VW against.

 

The over all build quality of the CC (German made 68%) is OK, and I mean just OK.  While it is as nice as similar priced Mazda and oddly as nice as the 2013 Mercedes CLA, it is nowhere near as solid as the now 14 year old C280 I drive.  The panel fit is OK, but the paint will likely not hold up for a decade, as I would expect.  The model I drove, with less than 100 miles, already has a paint chip on the hood, that appears to have been by a stone hitting the finish, breaking the bond between the paint and the primer below.  There is no dent or scratch, just the bond compromised between the paint and the primer.  There are other suspect "spots" but the sales droid attributed that to "acid rain" trapped between the car finish and the protective coating applied in Germany.

 

There is a LOT of "non-metal" used on the exterior build.  Some OK, some flimsy from the factory.  The rear underbelly pan all but procludes the use of an aftermarket hitch for a bicycle carrier that would kep bikes from contacting the car finishes.  We LOVE the aftermarket one our C280.  Checking on line after the test shows some kludges to install a hitch, none of which will pass the Spouse test.

The trunk lip is just high enough and protrudes enough to garner every scratch possible. 

Driving the CC is a change.  Even at the end of the session, I was not sure about the "DSG" transmission.  While it performed well, just not being able to feather the clutch myself left an odd feeling on my person.  I guess you will get used to it?

The engine is powerful enough, but quite noisy if you summons that power too quickly or unexpectedly.  There is a lot of "noise" from the engine, from the initial start all the way through a day of driving.  Some "normal" as the sales droid says about the initial cold start racket the louvers/doors/valves/gates/etc that the engine control manipulates to get things going in the most EPA friendly way.  The idle settles down fairly quickly but with out the radio playing, you hear every one in the car as you settle in.  The push button start is nice, unless you have a wife who has spent thirteen years starting the car from the passenger side, while her slow spouse scrapes snow, loads the car and gets things settled.  You can NOT start the car from anywhere else unless you are sitting in the drivers seat, with your foot on the brake and then push the button.  I am not sure how they remote start the car, if you have the higher option CCs or an aftermarket system?

The drive was good, I had some power steering vibes that went away within a few minutes, but then came back on the I-40 portion of the drive (Again the sales droid says that can not happen, as the system is entirely computer controlled?) and was quite pronounced when it happens.  The tire noise is attrocious and again, after drive forum searches turn up quite a few "tires" issues with the CC.  Gas mileage was excellent, as reported by the engine management system.  Driver comfort was good but no idea what the seats would be like on a 10 hour road trip.

Post session research shows some interesting items of note about the Volkswagen.  A lot of people are having to pay for "carbon" buildup removal, which requires the manifold to be removed and media blasting to remove the build up....some in cars with less than 25-30K miles.  While not entirely a VW issue, but a direct injection issue, it is a costly maintenance event, one that VW is not covering.  The DSG transmission requires a service, again fairly costly at 40K miles, so starting setting aside $$ now as it is in the $625 range as a dealer item.  And then there are the tires.  Continental's "contact Pro" that apparently do not play well with the CC's geometry.  Whether it is a VW issue or a Continental issue, it needs to be resolved so that the customer is not in the middle. 

 

And then there is the iPod interface, or lack there of.  On our short drive we used three different vintage APPLE players all with which annoyances ocurred.  The worst is that the first few seconds of every song are stuttered and then the system picks up with music.  This happens if you let the player interface advance songs, skipping them with the touch panel results in 100% music.  The system did lose it's mind with the "media player", yet the music continued - just that the system failed to notice and presented only an "AUX" message.  We had nothing plugged in to AUX?  Sales droid says it just needs to have the SW updated.

I hope this is helpful information.  For my wife it was enlightening and we chose to not buy this car, almost entirely because the "media" player precludes using the near flawless APPLE interface/hardware/music. 

[Drew Dowdell]

Thank you for your review!  I agree with you about the DSG... once you get moving it's great, but not so great in stop and go traffic.

[G. David Felt]

Nice review, thanks for posting the experience.

[JulianWilliams]

I haven't tested it myself, but it's exactly the sort of thing one would expect from a VW CC. German quality and reliability with Italian sexyness. The lack of an ipod interface would annoy the heck out of me as well, though, to be fair, I have a couple of local radio stations I really like.

[G. David Felt]

I haven't tested it myself, but it's exactly the sort of thing one would expect from a VW CC. German quality and reliability with Italian sexyness. The lack of an ipod interface would annoy the heck out of me as well, though, to be fair, I have a couple of local radio stations I really like.

Welcome JulianWillams, Please check in at the New Member checkin thread and tell us a little about yourself. Welcome.

[Hengista]

The Volkswagen C 2013 packs quite a punch with a very reliable and powerful engine and a very safe security system. It also looks incredibly elegant, has respectable fuel economy, and for its price range and type, it is one of the top options, really.