Not much new to discover about the new VW Scirocco coupe — we’ve already published our own pics — except whether the unpromising-looking new VW corporate nose looks better in the flesh. This new model appeared first as the Iroc concept in 2006 pretty much as it is now, except that its eye-catching ‘mouth’ grille has given way to a treatment consisting of a conventional under-bumper airscoop with a few lateral flutes above.
The reasons are well argued: VWs were starting to look too emotional and ‘premium’, they were acquiring the upmarket character of Audis, which have frontal treatments that aren’t that different. And just for good measure, the Iroc’s trapezoidal grille looked eerily like the new Ford grille, already in production.
So VW’s reasons for changing Iroc treatment make sense. The only problem is the production car simply doesn’t have the impact of the concept. We’re back to the age-old problem of a car looking better as a proposal than it does in production. If this is the new corporate nose for VW, then it is... well... dowdy. Don’t expect things to stop here for very long.