I have booked my first major service at TAFE for Thursday morning. Before that, I wanted to update the thread.
This post will take no particular order as it’s just a collection of thoughts I have on various aspects of this car.
The TSIs are famous for drinking oil in the first 15k kms or so. Some say it’s about 5-10k ,some say it’s more. In my case, I have never had any issue. I changed the oil around 8000 kms and a few days back, when I checked, the oil level was perfectly fine. It was in the middle of the notched portion on the dipstick. I still topped up about 300ml and it reached the top of the notched portion. I guess it was not strictly necessary, but did it as a precaution as I was leaving on a long work trip which would cover 1200 kms in total.
Went on a long drive to Chennai, worked in Chennai for 3 days, then went to Pondicherry and returned to Chennai, worked for another day and then returned to Bangalore.
The car looks stunning. This lovely blue shade with the spectacular Kamikaze ISM and Miyabi coats really turns heads wherever I go. On the highway, I can see people give me a second look, at traffic signals, people stare and once in Bangalore, a young bloke on a red R15 actually turned around, waved to me and gave me a thumbs up!
What was truly amazing was the fuel efficiency. BLR to Chennai, 337 kms and the car returned 12 kmpl! At the end of the day which included about 40kms of driving within Chennai, it still showed 11.3 kmpl!
On 21st, the day I drove to Pondicherry and returned, 316 kms at almost 12kmpl.
Return journey to Bangalore on the 22nd, which included a lot of driving within Chennai on work:
What I really liked was the great FE in the city. Chennai city traffic isn’t as bad as Bangalore and I was consistently driving with the occasional stop for a traffic signal.
What this demonstrates is that the car can give great FE as long as the car is moving. Sit in traffic for a long time and the numbers start to drop rapidly!
For the entire trip, 1200 kms, 31 hours of driving, avg fuel economy of 10.6kmpl.
After spending so much time in the driver’s seat, I am happy to report that the seats are very comfortable. Absolutely no discomfort or back ache or any other problems.
The suspension is still too hard if you ask me. I’m a big old softie it looks like. It’s fine, but it can get tiring on bad roads. Some parts of Chennai have terrible roads (the main road through Maduravoyal, the interiors of Ambattur,) and the suspension really makes it’s intention clear. It is not really as compliant as my Civic’s and my colleagues were also complaining. They were asking if I have modified the suspension. When I said no, they asked me why it was so uncomfortable.
They then got a lecture about what a sports suspension is supposed to feel like.
The exhaust starts to feel a bit drone-y on long drives. Usually, the music is good enough to drown it out. However, there are times it’s audible. Even when accelerating hard in the city (without revving above 3k rpm), the exhaust makes it’s presence felt.
I do not like this. I would much rather have a silent exhaust that pops when I upshift but remains silent at other times. I would also rather hear the turbo whine rather than this drone.
The torque is addictive. Especially when running on Power 99. There is a noticeable difference with 99-RON fuel. The car seems much more torquey and pulls harder. This torque is what makes the car a brilliant mile muncher. It can easily cover intercontinental distances. Without tiring you out.
However, my original grouse remains: The car is not exciting. It’s fast and that is exciting in it’s own way, but it doesn’t make you laugh like a madman or scare your passengers when you floor it. Your passengers may have a heart attack when they see the speed but it doesn’t feel fast. Unfortunately this is something I have to live with.
Other minor stuff:
The beautiful touchscreen Head Unit is a delight to use. I mentioned this earlier but it bears repeating. The touch interface is as good as a high end tablet. However, there have been 2 occasions when it just remained blank. I could control the music through the steering mounted controls but the display was blank. I changed the climate control settings and that came up on the screen, but rest of it was blank. I had to hold the Power button for 15 seconds or so to do a hard reset.
No big deal, but just though I would mention it. I guess this is the usual with electronic stuff nowadays.
The small MaxiDot TFT Screen between the Tacho and the Speedo is very useful. It’s quite easy to control a well on the road and not as distracting as I expected it to be. The two scroll wheels on the steering wheel now feel like an extension of my body and I’m very comfortable using them.
The creaking from the door beadings has definitely reduced and now it’s quite audible from the sunroof. I need to give the sunroof rubber beadings a quote of the gummipflege as well.
A coupe of lovely photographs taken by two different friends of mine
Below pic taken by Robesh Vasudevan
A phenomenal pic taken by Abu Abraham.