[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Goodbye to Gujarat!

I hate to share this update with mixed emotions but let me do it regardless. I have been given a transfer of employment to Chennai along with some of my colleagues starting 1st of April, 2016. I do not intend to take my car along to Chennai at the moment until I get a hang of the roads and the traffic sense there. Besides, from what I heard, parking space in a rented apartment comes at an extra price!

Alright, that’s about it. Wish us luck for the homebound trip tomorrow! We start at 3 AM:

Attachment 1490408

All the best Gannu and have a safe trip. So getting into a big bad metro city.

If you plan to take the car to Chennai at some point why reregister now in palakkad?

[vinj14]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Goodbye to Gujarat!

I hate to share this update with mixed emotions but let me do it regardless. I have been given a transfer of employment to Chennai along with some of my colleagues starting 1st of April, 2016.

Chennai could do with a VAG expert. Welcome! Feel free to ping me if you need any help here

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Goodbye to Gujarat!

I have been given a transfer of employment to Chennai along with some of my colleagues starting 1st of April, 2016. I do not intend to take my car along to Chennai at the moment until I get a hang of the roads and the traffic sense there.

Welcome to Chennai!!!! Unusual yet a very wise move!! In Chennai, all you have to worry about are the autos, bikes and Tata Aces(and the like).
Buses here are far more saner than the ones you see in Kerala though.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Welcome to Chennai, Gannu! I look forward to meeting you

[anandpadhye]

Good luck Gannu! It was nice meeting you in Surat, hope to meet you in south now :-)
The picture with the service center guys is awesome.

[graaja]

Safe travels, Gannu. Looking forward to seeing you sometime soon. Let me know if you visit Coimbatore.

BTW, if you plan to take the car to Chennai sometime in the future, wouldn't registering in Coimbatore much convenient? That way you could ride in Palakkad as well (I am guessing riding in Palakkad in a CBE registered car would not be an issue).

[Aniruthan]

Hello Gaanu. Welcome to Chennai, Tamilnadu. First of all wishing you a safe road trip buddy. Put your woes to rest buddy. We Tamil Nadu BHPians are always there to help you anywhere, anytime. The roads up here are nice, broad and big except for Metro work here and there in the city. Like few members said you have to be careful with auto walas and bikers up here and people up here honk more frequently. Peak hours are from Morning 8:30 to 11:00 and evening 6 to 9. So at these timings expect traffic jams and slow traffic. Otherwise it's generally smooth flowing except for any event like a breakdown or other stuff here and there. Regarding the parking space I think it's not so true. No idea about it which apartment gives that particular type of service. And finally for the care of your humble Polo, there are two well reputed service centres in Chennai (there are 3 actually but 2 are good and 1 ain't so good according to feedback). One is VW Mount Road and other is Abra motors in Ambattur. So get your car serviced up here and it's better to take an appointment and go since they'll be crowded. So Gaanu, rest assured you'll definitely have a great stay up here. Once again I welcome you from below my heart to Chennai and if you need any help don't hesitate to shoot me a PM. Always happy to help anytime anywhere .

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Goodbye to Gujarat!

All the best at the new haunt and hope you had a pleasant trip.

I think the product manager for the Indian Polo challenges his team with "What can we add on the Polo that Gannu hasn't?" Well so far they've failed miserably. You are now even nicking body parts!!

Drive on,
Shibu.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Goodbye to Gujarat!

I do not intend to take my car along to Chennai at the moment until I get a hang of the roads and the traffic sense there.

I don't know about the traffic sense in your place, but I can say that Chennai Traffic is much more disciplined than Bangalore. And traffic flows: so covering distance is never a problem.

Besides, from what I heard, parking space in a rented apartment comes at an extra price!

But that price maybe worth for the sweltering heat there.

[iliketurtles]

All the best for the shift man. Hope you take the car along sooner rather than later, it's looking beautiful and you've worked too damn hard on the car to just let it sit around and wait for you. Love reading this thread, keep 'em coming.

[digitalnirvana]

Best of luck for the future Gannu, and wish you a safe journey. I have been glued to your DIY thread and I do not even have a Polo. She is a beaut mate!

[Freewheelin_KD]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Goodbye to Gujarat!
...
What an amazing bunch of guys! I wish them luck. It was also good to catch up with BHPian Freewheelin_KD at the service center today.
Attachment 1490408

Likewise Gannu_1 and the pleasure was all mine. It was awesome to see your Polo with all its updates in the flesh. Man, it gave our Jetta a serious complex

The service center guys were equally enthralled with you and Umesh (SA) and team mentioned that they have learnt a lot from you. Wish you the best in the new city and hope you find a similar playground so that we continue seeing and learning more about the Polo and the VAG family from you.

[Gannu_1]

Thank you so much guys! We had an amazing drive back home! I am looking forward to meet some of the BHPians from this part of the country now. Sharing some bits of our drive.

First up, the entire boot and the rear seat space was occupied with the remaining goods to be transported. Only the rear windshield through the IRVM was visible clearly - the rest of the space was occupied completely. As a result, the car suspension nearly sat down after being loaded to the brim.

A 40" LCD TV wrapped in a blanket and secured to the rear seat-back using seatbelts cross-strapped:



Tata Sky dish antenna dismantled, stereo amp, PS3, clothes, books, utensils, tool boxes, tools, car parts etc. loaded into the car:







Unloaded at home:





The goods arrived in good shape without a nick. Some of them were wrapped in curtains, and some were shrink wrapped so the car's plastic trims aren't damaged. GT Packers and Movers helped immensely!

Now, the drive:

• We started from Navsari at 2:45 AM and we took a tea break at a dhaba near Vasai Road around 5:00 AM.
  
  
• Reached Ghodbunder junction (Hotel Fountain) at 5:45 AM. Bypassing Bombay in the morn was never this easy - the roads were practically empty!
  
  
• Hit the Mumbai-Pune expressway at 6:30 AM and took a tea-break at the food joints after the first toll booth. While ascending the hairpin curves where the trucks crawl, I noticed a biker on the oncoming lane (i.e Pune to Bombay side), falling off his bike after his bike slipped! Luckily he had a helmet and poor guy, was skidding on the road for a good distance! Hopefully, he's fine.
  
  
• Crossed Pune and stopped for breakfast at Kamat's after the Pune outskirts around 8:45 AM. Man, this place is a rip-off - 2 plates of masala dosa, 2 plates of vada and 2 tea - Rs. 320!
  
  
• Crossed Satara around 10:15 AM.
  
  
• Paused for lunch at Sankam Residency, Belgaum at 1:30 PM. Very nice restaurant - just a bit off the highway but we decided to have our lunch at an AC restaurant instead of sweating it out at a dhaba.
  
  
• Covered 940 km on the first day and stopped our drive at Sankama - The Boutique Hotel, Davangere at 6 PM as recommended by BHPian Klub Class earlier on the Bangalore - Pune - Mumbai Route Updates thread. Rs. 2400 for a double occupancy AC room, this was a kickass recommendation! Thank you so much Amith!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Based on the suggestions from BHPians Klub Class and Parag, we had the famous benne dosa from a local outlet close to the hotel where we were staying. This seems to be a specialty here at Davangere.
  
  
  
  Amazing crispy dosas (for Mallus, this is essentially our thattu dosa fried in butter) served with chutney and baked potato (or is it tapioca?):
  
  
  
• Checked out at 4:45 AM, cleaned the front and rear windshields of the car with some diluted Colin and microfiber and we set off at 5 AM.
  
  
• Paused for a tea at a roadside shop (don't recall the place), resumed the drive and reached Pavithra Idly Hotel at Tumkur bypass at 7 AM. Had a large fluffy idly, a vada and tea here, and resumed the drive.
  
  
• Reached NICE road at 9 AM and we were waiting before the first toll. Parag bhai drove down for a chat. Really glad he drive all the way from his home some 15 km away to meet me for less than 10 minutes. Thank you so much for all the help Parag! Really appreciate it bro.
  
  
• We then bypassed Bangalore and I was really glad to see the flyovers at Hosur all completed. During my previous drive, these were under construction and the detours cost us time significantly.
  
  
• We were comfortably cruising at 100-120 km/h on this beautiful 6-laned road from Hosur to Salem and paused for a tea at the Salem bypass. Suddenly, the remaining distance shows up as only 200 km on my device and we decided to have lunch at our home.
  
  
• Reached the L&T Coimbatore bypass around 1 PM and this stretch from Cbe bypass to Walayar was the lone one that slowed us down that day. We touched Walayar around 2:15 PM and reached home at 2:45 PM for lunch. We had covered a total distance of 1618 km. That essentially sums up the drive.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

If you plan to take the car to Chennai at some point why reregister now in palakkad?

Originally Posted by graaja

BTW, if you plan to take the car to Chennai sometime in the future, wouldn't registering in Coimbatore much convenient?

I wanted to get the registration done from Palakkad since I have my permanent address based here. It would be easier that way. I would be doing the fortnightly trips from Chennai to Palakkad and Chennai to Madurai after I take her to Chennai. And FWIK, in Kerala and TN, the cops are mostly targeting vehicles registered in UTs.

Man, I am missing the roads in Gujarat already! Had a trip to Calicut and Malappuram yesterday and due to the re-surfacing work on the byepass road, we were stuck in a block for a good 20-30 minutes.

The odo stands at 68,450 km now. Thread moved to Long-Term Ownership Reviews section!

[raghu.t.k]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Thank you so much guys! We had an amazing drive back home! I am looking forward to meet some of the BHPians from this part of the country now. Sharing some bits of our drive.

First up, the entire boot and the rear seat space was occupied with the remaining goods to be transported. Only the rear windshield through the IRVM was visible clearly - the rest of the space was occupied completely. As a result, the car suspension nearly sat down after being loaded to the brim.

A 40" LCD TV wrapped in a blanket and secured to the rear seat-back using seatbelts cross-strapped:
........

Reminded me of my trip from Hyderabad. The SX4 was packed to the brim, so to say with all household articles. I had moved the main ones by train, and the remaining left for the last day to be brought by car!!

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

I wanted to get the registration done from Palakkad since I have my permanent address based here. It would be easier that way. I would be doing the fortnightly trips from Chennai to Palakkad and Chennai to Madurai after I take her to Chennai. And FWIK, in Kerala and TN, the cops are mostly targeting vehicles registered in UTs.

.....

Welcome to Chennai, and hope you have a nice stay. Give us a shout if you need anything.

It depends on where you are travelling. Mostly within the city they dont bother you much. But if its OMR or around the IT hubs, you might be targeted from time to time. That said its not as bad as Bangalore or Hyd. I had driven my AP registered vehicle for quite sometime (I was shuttling between Hyd and Chennai for sometime) before I re-registered it in Chennai.

[sunilsoft]

Hello Gannu_1,
Hope you have settled in Chennai. Wanted to ask if you had installed the rain sensor. Please share the results if you may.