Part of the reason for choosing a coupe over a more practical hatchback is to make an impression

First impressions count, and the vibrant Viper Green paint on the latest addition to our long-term fleet certainly makes a statement. So far it has divided opinion, with as many people loving it as not, but there’s no doubt that it makes this Scirocco stand out from the crowd. Besides, part of the reason for choosing a coupe over a more practical hatchback or saloon is about making an impression, so I don’t see the point of choosing a car like the Scirocco over the mechanically similar Golf or Jetta alternatives and then going for a dull, sensible colour.

The styling options on our Scirocco don’t stop at the £410 metallic paint. We’ve also gone for the 19in ‘Lugano’ alloys (£630) over the standard 18in rims and added a panoramic sunroof (£660). These extras all add up to give the already handsome coupe much more visual clout, and to my eye make it look more like the Iroc concept than the standard car, which is surely no bad thing – I drove a blue Scirocco for a few days after eCoty 2008 and it passed unnoticed by most people, but this one gets stares, comments and even the odd thumbs-up from other drivers.

OY59 HPF arrived with only 58 miles on the clock, so I needed to take it easy for my first couple of weeks behind its wheel. The handbook suggests not exceeding three-quarters of the top speed, not using full throttle and avoiding high engine speeds for the first 1000km (600 miles). However, with a daily commute of over 100 miles, and several trips to various airport car parks, it didn’t take too long to rack up enough miles to allow me to start making full use of the 2-litre turbocharged engine.

The hours of motorway cruising during the running-in period allowed me to become better acquainted with some of the other extras fitted to our car, too. These include a touch-screen DVD sat-nav/radio system, complete with a six-CD autochanger, 30GB hard-drive and eight-speaker Dynaudio soundpack (£1850). Then there’s cruise control (£220), leather upholstery (£1605), folding door mirrors (£130) and a winter pack that brings heated headlight and windscreen washers (£225). Altogether the extras brought the 2.0 TSI Scirocco’s basic £21,945 price up to £28,035.

So far it’s been the leather seats that have made the biggest impression. They are heated – which is a godsend after standing around outside for a photo shoot in the cold winter months – and also have electrically adjustable lumbar supports. Along with the rest of the driving position, this took me a little while to get right, but once adjusted the seats provide superb comfort, even if they do seem rock hard after the armchairs in my old Range Rover Sport long-termer.

As for early driving impressions, well, it’s not the most characterful coupe on the market, but the smooth and torquey 197bhp engine is great in day-to-day driving conditions. With the Adaptive Chassis Control (ACC) in Sport mode the handling is surefooted, although it seems to prefer a smooth, fast cornering style to being thrown into bends. But for now that’s just fine, and in the coming months we’ll find out if the Scirocco is as adept at coping with the rigours of carrying all my gear as it is cutting a dash in the evo car park.