The Volkswagen Comfort Coupé (CC) grabbed a fair amount of attention at last year’s Jo’burg motor show — a svelte, four-door coupé à la Merc CLS, but without the price tag and Mafioso image.
That was nearly a year ago and, considering the frosty economic climate since then, you can understand VW’s delay in getting it on to showroom floors.
Yes, the CC has frameless front windows, but on the concept car it was supposed to have frameless back ones as well. What happened to those?
It’s stunningly comfortable and all the switch gear falls exactly to hand, which is fine. The wing mirrors have been specially shaped and the windscreen is double-laminated to reduce wind noise. And how can you criticise a car for being perfectly thought out?
But there’s little mystery to it. You can’t help but feel you’ve mastered it 30 seconds after climbing in.
What’s it like on the road? Well, it drives like a VW. That is to say, it all feels weirdly familiar. That has a lot to do with VW’s fondness for sharing its massive parts bin with Audi.
The 2,0-litre TDI, 2,0-litre TSI and DSG gearbox have all been plying their trade for years in both marques and they are just as good as they’ve ever been, but it doesn’t make them interesting.
The 147kW 2,0-litre TSI petrol engine with a manual gearbox gives you that wonderfully elastic acceleration and the 2,0-litre TDI, although a bit slow, does at least sound remarkably like a petrol engine and comes with VW’s ultra-smooth DSG gearbox.
My overall impression is that the VW CC is a very, very good car. Pretty in a Kate Winslet way, dignified, civilised, well priced and worthy of sitting in anyone’s garage. But there is a sense of compromise to it that is disappointing in a flagship sedan, especially when you cast an eye over the concept drawings of the low, wide ripsnorter of a sedan it was meant to be.
The VW CC ranges in price from R348 754 for the 2,0-litre TDi to R365 400 for the 2,0-litre TSi.