2009 VW Eos 'Komfort' joins the corral

Well, the original CFC plan ended up not working (due to an issue with the way NV handles secondary trades and tax credits), HOWEVER, we did end up getting 'something'.

The net results of the last few weeks: minus two 1989 XJs, plus one 2009 VW Eos.

Overall its a nice little car. My wife loves it of course. My older son likes watching the retractable hard top go up and down (he calls it mama's 'transformer' car). Power delivery is acceptable, handling is acceptable, comfort is good. Interior bits are pretty decent (even if it is the lower level 'komfort' model). Seating ergonomics seem to work very well for me (short at 5'8") and I even fit in the +2 section reasonably well.

Not to be a MT vs. AT snob, but the DSG seems to be a bit confused at times, with a tad bit of surging at take off. Looking about the bloat-web, I've found several stories from other 2.0T DSG drivers (in various VW models) that have commented similarly, so at least I'm not alone. Hey, at least when you put it in 'manual' mode and tell it to shift, it actually shifts! As opposed to my IS350 which thinks about it, then may shift if it decides its the right thing to do (seriously).

The new Eos has the updated 2.0T engine (CCTA vs BPY if I have my codes correctly). Supposedly the new 2.0T largely does away with the oil consumption issues related to the older BPY 2.0T. I'll have to comment on that over time. I have to admit from a DIY maintenance sort of person doing a simple oil change on the prior-gen 2.0T looks to be a mix of torture and circus-contortion. On the new engine the oil filter sits right on top of the engine. How convenient ;) Of course, VW has 'no expense' maint for 3 years, but waiting until 10K for my first oil change is just not going to happen.

Speaking of oil, finding the oil required for the VW engine was a bit of a hunt. The local box-shops (WM, PepBoys, Autozone) did not carry any of the euro-spec stuff so I had to track it down elsewhere (which is always more expensive). Of course, a week later I go to another WM an find a whole line of Mobil1 0w40 with SuperSyn...which is apparently only carried at a few stores (at least here) for nearly half what I paid for it at "Dewee, Cheatum, and Howe".

Best surprise feature? The "Bug Catcher". It is actually a diffuser that pops up on top of the windscreen across its entire width. Unlatched it stands about 3" high and is filled with black mesh material. I'd never even noticed it on other test drives and just happened to find it whilst we were taking the car she was going to buy out for a pre-sale test drive. Unlatched it really looks like some kind of perverse bug catcher...and I'd warrant in a more pest-ridden environment that it probably does a pretty good job of snatching flying pests out of the air whilst driving about with the top down!

Oh, and my wife says that "You're not allowed to drive it" ;-0