Ok, drove a 2010 mt 6spd and have pretty mixed feelings about it as compared to my 08 Saab 9-3 and other Saabs I've driven. The CC had more low frequency road noise. The interior felt more echoey and, japanese like. Reminded me of my old Mazda 3. It DID suck up potholes at low speeds better than my Saab.
Seats..this is a tough one. I was in the car for about 30-45 mins driving and I kept adjusting the seat. It never felt "right". This was the seat with the lumbar massage etc. I got it to a point where it seemed ok, but I have serious concerns about whether it is something that would make me hate the car. Google search CC seats uncomfortable and there are lots of people with issues with them.
Power and transmission. Nothing wrong with the power in the 4cyl, felt faster than my 2.0t automatic saab. On the other hand, the engine sounded tinny to me, even more so than my Saab which isn't a particularly great sounding engine..
The manual shift in the CC was fine. I didn't like that the steering felt like WAY too much power assist..felt very little road feel. There is nothing really wrong with it, the car handles fine and sticks in the turns, it's just the steering didn't feel "fun".
It is an easier car to drive than my Saab though. What I mean by this is that everything feels "lighter". Some may like that, some may hate it..I'm not sure where I stand on this as I'm so used to the Saab. One other note, the brake pedal is MUCH more touchy than my 9-3. I really like the 9-3 pedal, feels more modulated to me. The brakes in the CC are super touchy, just like my old Mazda 3.
Visibility, driving position and beltline. I prefer the higher more panoramic view of the Saabs. The CC feels "sunk down" inside. It's not terrible and I'm pretty sure I'd get used to it, but it's a totally different driving experience.
Rattles!! The car had rattles. I was surprised as this was a 2010 with 20k miles.
Back seat doesn't fold down??? I read this somewhere, which if it's true could be a show stopper. Why wouldn't they fold down?
Anyway, just thought I'd update this thread. It may sound like I didn't like the CC, to the contrary I DID like a lot about it. I'm someone that is overly picky about seat comfort and road noise though and with the saab's I had no concerns..with the CC it would take a few more test drives to really know. I'm pretty concerned about the fact that I had to keep adjusting the seats as they never really felt right.
One more thing. The car said it had the "premium" sound system but I thought it sounded like crap. This really surprised me. This is because other VW's I've been in always had surprisingly good stereo's. The one in the CC just had a cheap sound to it. I spent about 10 mins trying to find out how to adjust the eq and GAVE UP. It's a touch screen interface and I couldn't see any way to adjust it. So, it may have sounded much better when eq'd up. My 9-3 has the regular stereo, which I think is "mediocre" but the CC sounded more mushy. This could also be attributed to what I mentioned earlier, that the inside of the CC sounded more echoey than the 9-3.