I want to believe that there's a deeper meaning to a black Scirocco in this Honda video. But something like "the ghost of a past rival" is way too crouching tiger for the smart buyer. Maybe our readers from the Land of Smiles can help us out with a translation.
Still, Honda Thailand made this commercial for the brand new Civic hatchback, and it shows a blacked out Scirocco in pursuit.
The handsome-looking Civic driver tries to shake him off, while creepy music plays in the background. But he's not too busy to notice the incoming train that could have killed him.
The Scirocco is one of the oldest surviving Volkswagen models, having entered production in 2008. It's based on the same architecture as the Beetle, Eos or Golf 6. It gets a lot of bad press for being heavier than a SEAT Leon SC without people noting that it has standard independent suspension, which only the top Spanish models get.
If the Honda commercial suggests the Civic is one step ahead of the Scirocco, we have to investigate that claim. In Thailand, the five-door hatch is available in a sole 1.5L Turbo CVT variant, priced at 1.169 million baht or around $34,000.
As far as we can tell, it's got the L15B7 turbo-four produces 173 PS at 5,500 rpm, so it's going to get to 100 km/h (62 mph) in about 7 seconds. The closest thing the Scirocco has is a basic 2.0 TFSI with 180 PS which takes 7.5 seconds to 100 km/h (62 mph). Of course, there are faster, more powerful Scirocco models too.
However, the Civic has a much clearer advantage when it comes to practicality, boasting about twice the cargo space and two extra doors for easy access. As standard, the Thai models come with push button start, remote engine start, cruise control, auto brake hold, 60:40 split-folding rear seats, reverse camera, and powered front seats. The paint in the video is called Black Burgundy Night Pearl, by the way.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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