When I had my xA (identical powertrain and platform), it made a GREAT daily driver. I'm in outside sales. . . which means I drive all day long. Part of my commute is from Santa Fe Springs to Glendale (about 20 miles each way, with some serious serious traffic, as well as driving all over the LA metro area. I spend about 4-8 hours in the car for any given day, and do a good 100 miles.

I had my xA for about 4-5 months with this job and I had to get rid of it. . . and let me tell you why. . .





. . . it was too small. Spending that much time in a car for sooooo long just made my leg ache not being able to completely stretch out my leg. Sure, if I moved the seat all the way back, I'd have room. But if I did that, I couldn't reach the steering wheel and maintain reasonable control (and no, the *gangsta* slouch doesn't cut it for me). I'm a control freak when driving, and need a proper driving position. Now. . . this shouldn't be a problem for the xB, since you the pedals are just a tad deeper. But to me, this is the catch of the upright seating position. True, you get tons of room and it is VERY comfortable on short hauls, or the occasional 6 hour drive. But when you drive that much everyday. . . it changes the story.

IMO, the tC I now have is still a bit upright for my taste, but the wheel juts out enough so that I can move the seat back enough so that I can still stretch my legs (if I stretch them sideways). . . then again, I guess I've just been spoiled by the GIGANTIC cars I've owned in the past.

Secondly, the vibrations, shock, and ride started to get on my nerves. Making sales calls all day, I get kinda short tempered at the end of the day. The occasional pot hole would cause me to go into a frenzy on the steering wheel. But blame me for that one. . . I had it lowered, so the ride wasn't exactly meant for comfort, but I couldn't stand the car's (xA) appearance at stock height.

How did the car hold up? I beat the living snot out of it and put nearly 100,000 miles on it (purchased in 05 and sold in 06) AND it was a manual transmission. If you've seen me drive, you'd know that 90% of my driving is at redline trying to pull the max G's in whatever direction I'm trying to go. The car never had ONE SINGLE mechanical failure. Hell, I'd even shift WITHOUT USING THE CLUTCH (by careful rev-matching) just for kicks. The powertrain is, indeed, bulletproof.

Gas mileage. . . well. . . again, partially my fault. Given my driving characteristics, and the amount of highway driving I do (I ALWAYS cruise at 80-85MPH+), well the gearing isn't exactly suited towards high speed runs. FYI, I've done over twenty 800 mile trips (round trip) from S.F. to L.A. as well as several Vegas runs (about 600 miles roundtrip) at speeds in excess of 100MPH (that means cruising near redline). ZERO overheats, ZERO problems. I even had a compression check done before I got rid of it, and it was holding up fine. Anyway. . . back to the point! The gas mileage sucks at high speed. @103HP, it's not designed for it. But my tC gets the EXACT same mileage on average, but I get 161HP instead!!!!!

If you can not be an impatient bastard like me, and can bear 65-70mph and slow starts out of a stop light, then you should be netting over 30mpg. I was getting between 26-30mpg highway or city.

And another note. . . since this will be a work related car, the small tank does get bothersome. Filling up every other day gets tedius. But I can knitpick for days and days. The car is a phenomenal value. There's no question to it.

 

I can't wait either. My first car was an '87 Mercedes 300 Diesel Turbo. Philadelphia to Albany on half a tank of gas. I didn't have the luck with maintenance that you did with your VW, which is why I'm driving a Toyota now.