Joe now that you've seen the car in the flesh are you under or overwhelmed or what are your thoughts. Any further information gained from Vw Ireland relating to number of vehicles they hope to
Bring into Ireland.
Donster, the car was fantastic looking to be fair. The red paintwork really stood out, TR is such a great colour, you wouldn't lose it in a carpark! The black Warmanaus really set it off too, they work well with the red brake calipers. The Akra exhaust really sets off the rear end too, looks mega, even if it doesn't sound much different to the standard exhaust.
They gave me the keys too and I sat into it and started it up. The Alcantara wheel is very nice. I'm a little on the fence to be honest on the seats, I think the seats in my current car are arguably as nice - and maybe nicer in some respects! E.g. my CS seats are almost all the "art velours" material whereas on the 50, the seat base and most of the seat back are a hard scratchy fabric, albeit with the distinctive "50" pattern.
They've also done some other strange things in the interior. They seem to have given it the "Black" treatment - the bits that are bright silver on the standard GTI (steering wheel trim, interior door handles) are all black or very dark grey. But then the main piece of trim that runs across the dash and into the door cards is silver, whereas thats a dark "carbon effect" grey on the standard car!
Overall, very nice, but was I really blown away? No. But I'm too spoiled, my current 8.5 is so fresh and pristine. I parked right next to the 50 and my own car was getting as much attention as the 50 was.
As for asking questions, the stand was being run by a group of young women from the marketing dept in VW Ireland, they were sound and very accommodating but they've no more insight into the car's availability than I have. They did say it's been very popular though, lots of them sold / on order.
