Volkswagen Arteon Coupe (2017 - 2024) Elegance 1.5 TSI 150PS DSG auto 5d Owner Review

I don't normally leave reviews, you could say I'm a quiet grumpy customer, in so much that if I'm happy, I don't normally say much and if I'm unhappy I don't normally say much but never buy again, but I felt it was time to leave a review for something that I'm truly impressed with. I'll be honest, I never even thought of the Arteon until I was browing lease cars, yes I am a lease customer, but it's personal lease and I went that way because I was fed up of problems with used cars, my last car was an Audi A5 fastback, 2ltr quattro, it was just over 3 years old when I bought it; loved it; but it was a nightmare, needed a turbo from delivery, lots of minor niggles but ended up with a coolant fault that was impossible to diagnose, so it had to go, lease became the way forward for me simply because of the price. After many a trawl looking for 4x4's and BMW's which all my mates told me not to bother with, I ended up with an Arteon, I'll be honest, it's because it was on special for around £200 per month, far cheaper than PCP etc. the downside was it was for the 1.5 model, which I'll be honest is a little underpowered if you want to race around, but that isnt so important to me and also means it's more economical, don't get me wrong, its adequate but not exillarating. My family and I travelled to Spain in this car within a month of delivery, we had our 15 year old son in the back, he had masses of leg room and our black lab came too, she was also very comfy on the back seat. The boot space is like a cavern for this type of car, its almost an estate size in a very sleek looking fastback. The ride was great, crusing was good, the toys on this thing are excellent once you get used to the active cruise, there is nothing I can complain about apart from the centre console being made of quite hard plastic, so on a long journey, it can be a little uncomfortable on your left knee when you rest against the plastic, VW, use something a bit softer please, but lets face it, we did 3600 miles in a 3 week holiday, 850 miles in one day, so would probably find something to moan about in any car, this really is a great drive. The toys are quite handy in some respects, and useless in others, but the things you dont need, like a lap timer, are just ignored. There is a blue drive economy app which tries to train you to drive more economically, to be honest after watching it for 2 minutes I got bored, if I want to drive carefully, I'm happy I can make that conscious decision myself and I'd rather use the centre console for other things. The digital dashboard is in my opinion a great thing, it has pretty much everything you need and the only changes that I would like to see will probably come around after the designers learn from their experience and comments form drivers, on the whole, it's a nice addition. The adaptive cruise control is a really impressive and useful device, dont get me wrong, it takes a bit of getting used to and it also changes the way you drive, instead of concentrating on what you are approaching, you find yourself concentrating on indicating at the right time to overtake on the motorway, this is to keep your speed constant as the cruise slows the car down dramatically if you dont proactively indicate in time, but like I said, once you're used to it, its not a big deal and the feeling the car is just trying to keep you safe makes up for any feeling that it's bugging you. The car looks great, feels great, drives great, is virtually fully loaded, has loads of room in every respect and is economical, it took us to Spain and back with no issues at all, granted it's new and who knows what it will be like in another 3 years, but by then it will have gone and be replaced by another new car, if the Arteon is still on a reasonable lease offer, I'll definitely have another one. Since I got mine in June 19 I've only seen another 4 Arteons on the road, including all the way through the UK, France and Spain, why? probably because they're too expensive, too close to an Audi A5 or BMW 4 series price point, but given the choice of the 3, knowing what I know now, I'd probably go for the VW.