[anandpadhye]

The photos comparing stock bulbs with NightBreakers:
You moved the car forward when you clicked the NightBreaker photos? Or did you zoom? The view is not the same! The building, the cars, the manhole - everything appears farther away with stock bulbs! Come on, the stock bulbs can't be so bad optically :-) On a serious note, do you really see any perceptible difference?

Regarding the cabin light mod - what's this mic stuff? Is it for taking calls on bluetooth?

No oil consumed in 4000 km? Strange. But good.

They don,t even clean the air-filter during this 7500 km "free check-up"? I think they should re-reimburse the to/fro fuel expenses to the owner for this pointless mandatory trip to the service center. I feel this free-checkup is added to the schedule as just another opportunity for VW to void warranties - for those who don't make this trip, they are on their own and VW will not be responsible for anything that fails! He he he...

[radek]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

I feel this free-checkup is added to the schedule as just another opportunity for VW to void warranties - for those who don't make this trip, they are on their own and VW will not be responsible for anything that fails! He he he...

This reminds me of incidence I heard. It seems VW voided warranty because denting, painting was done at 'unauthorised service center'. You can imagine customer's reaction. Even folks at BU Bhandari thought it is going too far. Finally, dealership done that job on their own (goodwill).

[anandpadhye]

Yes, calling customer for doing "nothing" is ridiculous. And if some customer did not do "nothing", his warranty can be in trouble :-)


BTW, just saw on the online shopping thread - the Osram NightBreakers cost Rs.1900? I bought Phillips XtremeVisions for Rs.1200 from a local shop in Pune. Why are NightBreakers so much more expensive?

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by radek

Great! So one more mod coming up for instrument cluster. Waiting for the details.

Not immediately radek but it will happen this year. The GTI cluster is retailing for cheap from Czech but unfortunately I don't have anyone to get it to India from UK/Germany. I am thinking of alternatives.

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

You moved the car forward when you clicked the NightBreaker photos? Or did you zoom? The view is not the same!

I was wondering why wasn't anyone nitpicking over that.

Yeah the car went a bit ahead while clicking the snaps later. We couldn't get a good reference on the street to stop the car precisely at one point and click the images.

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Come on, the stock bulbs can't be so bad optically :-)

Oh absolutely not! The stock bulbs are also from Osram (the make is Bilux) and has a good output for a stock setup but the throw is limited.

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

On a serious note, do you really see any perceptible difference?

On low beams not much. But on high beams, yes. A notable difference with a white light compared to the stock yellow throw. The throw is also improved and farther objects are now visible. I am assuming during the night drives this will be useful. We would know this weekend.

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Regarding the cabin light mod - what's this mic stuff? Is it for taking calls on bluetooth?

The rectangular slot is for the BT mic harness which is used with the RCD 510/RNS 510 system. This is that mic:



It is indeed for answering calls over BT.

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

No oil consumed in 4000 km? Strange. But good.

The SA said a top-up now isn't required. As per the dipstick the level is halfway there. Anyways, we have a 1L bottle of Castrol Edge 5W-40 available for emergency.

[shk 8896]

Superb review Gannu_1. Really loved reading the review. Belated congrats on the hottest diesel hatch on sale in India. Loved your DIYs and pictures.
OT: Which camera do you use?
Updates awaited
Sreehari

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by shk 8896

Superb review Gannu_1. Really loved reading the review.

OT: Which camera do you use?

Thank you Sreehari. Appreciate it. I use a Canon 600D with the stock 18-55 IS II lens and an additional EF 50mm prime. Picasa for some basic editing.

Well, we wrapped up our Udaipur trip during the Holi weekend successfully. fantastic drive! No hiccups or troubles experienced during the commutes. The car was a hoot to drive especially on the expressway. This has also been the longest drive I’ve managed so far - 510 km in under 8 hours towards Udaipur (including a 30 min break for breakfast, 2 stopovers for tea-stretching and 7 tolls) and the return journey in under 7 hours. Less traffic, descending slopes in the ghat sections, no queues at the toll booths and no diversions in the NE-1 meant we saved slightly more than an hour during the return leg.

We were averaging 100-110 kmph (permitted max. speed being 100 kmph for cars and 80 kmph for heavy vehicles) in the Baroda-Ahmedabad NE-1:



The best of both worlds IMO - good fuel efficiency and a decent average speed.

The car clocked 5000 km during the return leg of the journey:



Here are some of the stats of the trip as indicated by the MID:

An overall distance of 1040.6 km covered in 14 hours and 43 minutes (i.e. the engine ON time) :



At an average speed of 71 kmph:



This includes all the stops for breaks.

And an average mileage of 19.9 kmpl:



This figure was around the 21 kmpl mark during the onward journey. The moment we entered Surat city, the figure started dropping gradually due to the stop-n-go traffic and frequent gear shifts.

At the end of the trip, the odo read 5394 km:



Finally, the toll ticket holder was put to some use during the trip:





And well here’s the funny part not related to the trip! I had mentioned that I had given my car for the 6-month/7500 km free checkup prior to departing for the journey, about 2 weeks back. The car wasn’t washed when it was returned back. So when VW called me up to get the feedback after the service, I told them that the car wasn’t washed when it was delivered but the rest was okay. It appears they took the feedback very seriously! I got a call from the local dealer 2 days later and the lady over the phone said she is willing to send a couple of guys to my home for getting the car washed! That felt a bit awkward considering I have already washed my car twice over. So I requested her not to do that and instead, ensure that the car is always delivered back after a quick wash and wipe. She appreciated the feedback and confirmed it wouldn’t happen again. It hardly takes about 10 minutes for these guys to do a quick wash and the customer would walk away with a smile when the keys are handed over.

Here are some parting shots we had taken in the expressway at dawn:

[deetjohn]

The GT looks lovely! I have the same LCLC sticker on our black A-star at the same place.

And glad to see that you are putting the GT to good use. Spirited long-distance driving is what a GT is for.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

...Here are some parting shots we had taken in the expressway at dawn:...

What a beautiful road! I would NOT think twice if I need to sleep on it; of of course on a bandh day or so!

[Hells_Fury]

@Gannu_1 This is a brilliant thread, very informative for fellow Polo owners. Like you I too have got a bigger RVM and the My-Shaldan Squash air-freshener. Did you get the shark-fin antenna from aliexpress? Mind sharing the link (sorry if you have already posted it and I missed it)?

PS: One thing that I will not be getting is the Philadelphia.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by Hells_Fury

Did you get the shark-fin antenna from aliexpress? Mind sharing the link (sorry if you have already posted it and I missed it)?

No I sourced it from ECS Tuning, US.

AliExpress retails a lot of these aerials which resemble the OEM sharkfin aerial. The connector is not a FAKRA connector and you might end up splicing the connectors. Not a good idea IMO.

Anyhow, everything is detailed in this DIY thread - DIY - Installing the OEM Sharkfin Antenna on a VW Polo

Hope this helps!

[Gannu_1]

Slowly but steadily, completed 6000 km:

I know this is a rather shameful figure for a diesel car but I’ve not been able to go for many long distance trips due to the lack of offs from work.

Swapped the headlight switch for the one with the chrome-based knob:

This is perhaps the most easiest swap-job and doesn’t require any tools. Shall post a DIY thread shortly on swapping the dome light, headlight switch and installing footwell lights.

While washing the car on a weekend, recovered this screw stuck within the treads on one of the tires:

Turned out to be extremely lucky!

Had been to Saputara last weekend with a few friends/colleagues and this was clicked at the sunset point:


A Surat-Bombay-Pune-Satara-Karad trip might be coming up this week! Looking forward to it.

[Gannu_1]

Installed the footwell lights yesterday







The driver side has a slot for the footwell light beneath the steering, adjacent to the fuse box:





But VW comfortably missed it for the co-driver side! The Euro-spec Polo has the same slot beneath the glovebox:



I had to use 3M's double sided VHB tape to stick the light to the back of the glovebox:



12V tapping was taken from the cabin light's central lamp so the footwells light up when the car is unlocked using the keyfob and they fade when the key is turned. The red LEDs are not obtrusive and gel well with the stock red backlighting of the car's other switches and buttons.

No stock cables were spliced or cut so warranty is not going to be a problem. Besides, the cabin light and all the footwell lights have 1W LEDs (cabin light - 1 C5W festoon LED, 2 W5W LEDs; footwell light - 1 W5W LED each) so no worry of the fuse blowing up. More on these on the DIY thread.

[nakul0888]

My god this is truly an incredibly well done ride. Its been great going through all your DIY jobs. I think all these little changes you have done come together to make a big difference to your car and also the way everything you have done, this might as well have come with all these extra goodies from the VW factory itself. Terrific job indeed!

[Kanasu]

Congrats Gannu for all your mods and completing 6k Kms. I too have been meaning to start an ownership thread for my white GT TDI, but couldn't get the time to do so.

My odo is at 4.6k Kms after I started to drive in Jan 2014. I work in Night Shift, so not much stop-go traffic(1.2k) and the remaining distance have been on good highways. So, should I wait for it to complete the 7.5k/3 months check point or should I go earlier, for the free checkup. Being my first car, I've had little to no experience regarding the servicing part
Guess, I have too much to learn.

[Rakkum13]

Great review and snaps! Thanks. I read with interest your reasoning against Indian and Korean manufacturers. BTW, did you give the 1.2 TDI a miss only for the low end safety features or did other considerations help tip the scales?