Looking forward to what you think of it Michele.
Will it be an unaccompanied drive?
Do you know the spec on the car?
Best advice I can give is spend a few minutes fiddling about with the infotainment and drive menu crap before pulling away. Switch off lane assist, familiarise yourself where the gear nugget is in case you need a quick burst of acceleration (it’s not as intuitive as tugging back on the lever shifter but you soon get used to it) and then put all that stuff out of your mind.
My first impressions were how different the three quarter view across the cabin looks, everything seems lower and looks more sparse in a Bauhaus type design. Some of the plastics will shock you but you soon get used to them.
The engine will feel familiar but the steering immediately felt significantly sharper to me, but not in a pointy way and in fact the turning circle seems almost as oil tanker like as a mk7 R. It was the steering that gave me the best first impression. The more you push it the better it gets. The car’s talents way outweigh mine.
As an anecdote, I took a corner early on Saturday morning about 20mph quicker than I normally slew around it half asleep at around 5am. I’d just overtaken an annoyingly erratic early morning rural dawdler on the one short straight I deem it safe to do so so was approaching the corner way quicker than I usually do. At first I thought about scrubbing a bit of speed off but decided to hell with it, “it’s a good day to die” as the old Red Indian said in Little Big Man (not seen that film for a few decades!), and just barrelled the car into the corner. Ok, that’s dramatising it a little but damned if the car didn’t just shrug the cambered uphill bend off like it wasn’t there. I had full faith in it but some days the chassis just staggers me with its confidence and ability.
One thing I will say is I’ve previously stated the ride is quite good, and to me it is in general semi-rural or dual carriageway use, but yesterday I spent quite a lot of time doing city driving and the ride can be very bumpy on 19’s. I doubt DCC would make a massive difference as the sharpness of the potholes and violence of some badly patched roads would still beat the shock absorber valving but if you do a lot of urban driving the ride quality is something to be aware of before buying.
A last note, a very personal view, if you’re going to push through the £40k barrier with a Clubby I’d have a really good think as to whether an R with Performance Pack wouldn’t be a better place to put your money. I know what I’d rather do.
A basic spec Clubby puts a real smile on my face every day for many reasons, but if it was optioned up I’d be asking myself serious questions as to its relative value next to an R as far as ultimate dynamics and ability goes.
Oh, and you do get used to the haptics and absence of buttons. It’s still a bit pants but it’s workable.