Volkswagen CC GT - New Name For Stylish Four-Door

A niggly, intermittent problem distracts from improving economy.

At first I thought I was imagining it: a barely noticeable loss of power while cruising on a steady throttle on the motorway, as if I’d lifted my foot off the accelerator by a millimeter or two (except I hadn’t). Then a few miles later it happened again. It felt a bit like someone was switching the CC to a subtly different throttle map, then switching back to normal. I’m assuming they weren’t, unless someone at Volkswagen had taken remote control of the car’s engine management system.

Volkswagen CC GT

Over the next few days the mysterious, momentary power loss increased in frequency to the point that I called the nice people at VW and told them their car might have a problem. On the day in question, during my 36-mile, mostly motorway commute to work, it was happening every couple of miles for the whole journey. But that was then. Trouble was, it didn’t happen all the time, and by the time the CC was back at VW HO for a look-see, it had decided not to play up at all. So after a few days they sent the car back, only for the delivery driver to report that he’d noticed the very same problem on the way down...

Average fuel economy has crept up to the 50mpg mark

Since then it has happened again, but only a handful of times. In the meantime, I’ve likened the slight drop in power to driving through a long puddle of standing water - the car holds back momentarily, then surges slightly as normal service is resumed or even like very slight clutch slip. That it first occurred under load on a long uphill stretch raised my suspicions of that, and I thought that perhaps the dual-clutch gearbox’s coasting function with its regular declutching might be causing some undue driveline grief. But since there’s no corresponding increase in revs, it can’t be clutch slip. At least, I don’t think it can.

But for the time being, the problem isn’t proving to be much of a problem, although the looming specter of it escalating into a more serious issue hangs like a distant cloud over every drive, much as the occasional second-gear rattle from my own Fiesta’s gearbox does. Trouble is, it’s one of those really annoying problems that makes people look at you a bit funny when you explain it to them, especially after they’ve driven the car and didn’t notice it (either because it didn’t happen while they were behind the wheel or because the power loss is so slight at times that you really have to be paying pretty close attention to notice it). In the meantime, I’ll keep you, and VW, and my local dealer, posted.

Tim reckons something’s slightly amiss under here

In other news, the overall fuel economy has skipped joyously over the 50mpg hurdle. Well, at 50.0mpg precisely, it has skipped up to the 50mpg hurdle and is now perched precariously on top of it. I’m treading carefully to ensure it keeps creeping up, but it’ll doubtless slide back down into the 40s if my leaden-clogged colleagues get behind the wheel any time soon. So if you’re reading this, colleagues, keep out of the CC. You’re not welcome.