[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

A very basic question
Is the rear bench legroom the same as the Polo or better? Can you please post a pic with the driver seat at your optimum position?

The rear bench legroom is much better than the one in Polo. When i had done the TD of Highline TDi, I had one of my friends in the rear seat who is 6'2" and he was very happy with the legroom. So don't have to worry about legroom in Vento.

[mmxylorider]

Congrats, Buddy! Car looks fabulous. Gotta see it in person someday now...

Happy Motoring!

p.s. : and I did see the signature getting updated

[noopster]

OK, myth-busting time!

Did a nice highway run of about 50 km this morning. Traffic was actually moderately heavy which was suprising. But managed to rip her a fair bit, try out all the transmission modes and check what my highway mileage may look like. Surprise, surprise...

Who says automatics don't give mileage!




Who said automatics are boring!
Enter...the tiptronic! My daily commute had been irritating me a bit because of the lack of control that I was feeling having migrated from a manual transmission. So this morning tested the tiptronic on this baby. Whoa!
It is awesome- no other way to describe it. All the fun of a manual with none of the hassle. All I do is slot it in D, move the gear lever to the left and then "tip" it forward for upshifts and back for downshifts. Plus downshifts are automatic (e.g. if you have to brake suddenly etc.) I didn't redline it but hear that upshifts are also automatic when you hit the red line.
All this fun come at a price- mileage dipped to 13 or so when I did this. Not that I'm complaining!

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by noopster

OK, myth-busting time!

Did a nice highway run of about 50 km this morning. Traffic was actually moderately heavy which was suprising. But managed to rip her a fair bit, try out all the transmission modes and check what my highway mileage may look like. Surprise, surprise...

Who says automatics don't give mileage!

Attachment 488956


Who said automatics are boring!
Enter...the tiptronic! My daily commute had been irritating me a bit because of the lack of control that I was feeling having migrated from a manual transmission. So this morning tested the tiptronic on this baby. Whoa!
It is awesome- no other way to describe it. All the fun of a manual with none of the hassle. All I do is slot it in D, move the gear lever to the left and then "tip" it forward for upshifts and back for downshifts. Plus downshifts are automatic (e.g. if you have to brake suddenly etc.) I didn't redline it but hear that upshifts are also automatic when you hit the red line.
All this fun come at a price- mileage dipped to 13 or so when I did this. Not that I'm complaining!

Hey, great to see that you managed to squeeze a great mileage. This will definitely boost other members confidence. U can definitely prove that AT is indeed fun to drive.
Happy driving.

[oxyzen]

An autobox with tiptronic is definitely fun. More fun if it is a paddle shift. (City/Civic)
Ultimate fun if it is a DSG.

Congratulations for your new car.
Autobox will give you 1-1.5 kmpl less. But when you are paying 10L for a car, what is more important than 'kitna deti hai' is "aur kya deti hai".

BTW, how did you find its ride and handling & rear seat comfort?

[noopster]

Originally Posted by oxyzen

An autobox with tiptronic is definitely fun. More fun if it is a paddle shift. (City/Civic)
Ultimate fun if it is a DSG.

DSG is also tiptronic but yeah I get what you mean. In fact I didn't enjoy the paddle shifts (ANHC test drive) as much as I thought I would. Love the tiptronic!

Originally Posted by oxyzen

Congratulations for your new car.
Autobox will give you 1-1.5 kmpl less. But when you are paying 10L for a car, what is more important than 'kitna deti hai' is "aur kya deti hai".

BTW, how did you find its ride and handling & rear seat comfort?

bif

Thanks mate. Yeah am not a hypermiler by any stretch of the imagination, and the add-on stuff was definitely on my list of priorities. Ride and handling, while good, are a little disappointing at high speeds- the steering feels a little vague and I kinda get what people say when they mean these babies deserve a hydraulic power steering instead of EPS.

As for rear seat comfort, I have *never* sat in the rear seat of my own car.

[drmohitg]

Hey noopster sorry for arriving late at the party! Congratulations!
So you finally went ahead with white. I was kind of hoping to see the beige colour. LOL.
Thats a very good ownership report. Also I happened to notice that you ended up getting your Vento fairly early in the end - 3 months. I am still laughing at the picture of your clueless left hand. Hope you have got used to it by now .

[vb-saan]

Congratulations Noopster!
The car looks great in white, and a very entertaining write-up

[noopster]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

So you finally went ahead with white. I was kind of hoping to see the beige colour. LOL.
(...) I am still laughing at the picture of your clueless left hand. Hope you have got used to it by now .

Yeah well beige would have been lovely- this report was supposed to be titled "My blonde Fraulein arrives..." LOL. But white is good, man- has grown on me quickly!
My left hand is OK now because I have discovered tiptronic

Originally Posted by vb-san

Congratulations Noopster!
The car looks great in white, and a very entertaining write-up

Thanks vb-san!

[drmohitg]

Can you elaborate a little more on this tiptronic gearbox? I have never driven an AT. So I am totally unfamiliar with ATs.

Also whats the kind of FE you are getting inside the city?

Also what was the OTR?

[vasudeva]

Thanks for the review. I have seen some Vento on Delhi roads and it is greatly to my taste.

I am seriously giving thought to an AT in this range (think i20/Vento/City) for my wife. My first choice (given that I have had a great experience with Corolla AT) is Toyota, but considering the cost (15-16 for a min. Toyota car with an AT), and my wife's driving (100-150 km/month), the Vento range is great for me. It is just that I will have to feel comfortable on putting down 10+ on a German car (excl. BMW). That could take time, and in the meanwhile I will keep an eye on this review. My previous German experience (Corsa???) has been average, but more importantly, the Toyota experience has been excellent (going on to 4 years with 54,000 kms with not a bother). I must say that Vento seems the best looker to me on either side of 20 lakh.

PS: Just for a lark, visited the VW website and requested a TD. Got a call within 10 mins as promised. Let us see what happens with the TD promised for the coming weekend.

[subodh]

Nice write up dude. i also drive around in a white colored AT vento now a days.
Great car to drive and great gear box but the only problem i feel is; its a bit sluggish in changes. It takes too much time for gears to change. In normal D mode, the car feels quite heavy but the "S" mode is a delight to drive. In the tiptronic mode, the gears do automatically change just before you hit the red line so when you are in a racing mood, or want to show some dust to others, just put it in tiptronic mode and let the car do its work.

I agree with the odd size of tyres and it was difficult for me to even find an exchange offer for the tyres and decided to stick to originals. I would suggest do not refer to the fuel guge so much. To see the fun, shift to real time fuel consumption mode and that will give you an idea as to how your driving actually affects the fuel consumption in the car. I have seen fuel efficiency increase from 9 to 16 in ten minutes time when i was driving on a straight patch. In the real time fuel consumption mode, i have seen milage figure jump up to 85 km per liter... that was the time when i was going down hill and not accelerating nor braking.

Rear visibility from rear view mirrors is a pain and you really cannot see anything.

One or two features i would like to mention are: I had read someone complain about polo and how vipers cannot be taken up to wash the windshield. Well in vento they have given a feature where when the key is in last position in ignition, if u touch the wiper stick lightly, it comes up and stays midway on the glass in vertical position making it easy to clean the glass by lifting up the wipers.
I have been waiting to write a full review for quite some time but have been quite busy with work as well as my brothers upcoming wedding so i am glad you took it up dude and gave me an opportunity to add on.!!

[HKap]

Great car noopster! I've driven both the City AT and the Vento AT. I've also driven the ANHC MT (have it) and what I found was that the power delivery of the AT was not as good as the manual. Having said that I found the Vento AT pretty good. I also noticed that you sometimes do have to push the throttle a little harder to get it to downshift. But that I think is normal for any AT. The tiptronic mode does ease that a little and does give you a sense of being in control of the transmission but I still feel that unless its a DSG you will never really get that MT feel. The reason being that there is a slight gap between the tap on the lever and the actual shift. Just my 2 cents...

[vcx]

Congrats noopster, well articulated experience. Keep it good and rocking.

Do share some key/specific observations on the visibility from dashboard etc ( some have been talking about in other forums),auto a/c, plastic quality, button, functions, width of the driver area felt the knee does hit the centre consle/dash area, seating comfort, lights, wipers etc..

[noopster]

Thanks folks for all the nice comments!

Originally Posted by vasudeva

I am seriously giving thought to an AT in this range (think i20/Vento/City) for my wife. My first choice (given that I have had a great experience with Corolla AT) is Toyota, but considering the cost (15-16 for a min. Toyota car with an AT), and my wife's driving (100-150 km/month), the Vento range is great for me.

The Altis is seriously overpriced, over 16lac OTR in Pune. But I guess that's the price of peace of mind! You could also consider the ANHC AT which is nice as well and should give you as less trouble as Toyota.

Originally Posted by subodh

Great car to drive and great gear box but the only problem i feel is; its a bit sluggish in changes.
(...)I agree with the odd size of tyres and it was difficult for me to even find an exchange offer for the tyres and decided to stick to originals.

Yes the AT gearbox *is* sluggish which is why the tiptronic appeals to me so much. Also I notice the car is reluctant to shift to 6th, for some reason.
The tyre size 185/60R15 is all wrong! This needs at least 195s, preferably 205s! Will wait till 30-35K then upgrade.

Originally Posted by HKap

... I also noticed that you sometimes do have to push the throttle a little harder to get it to downshift. But that I think is normal for any AT. The tiptronic mode does ease that a little and does give you a sense of being in control of the transmission but I still feel that unless its a DSG you will never really get that MT feel. The reason being that there is a slight gap between the tap on the lever and the actual shift. Just my 2 cents...

DSGs are awesome...the Laura was such a temptation for me but somehow resisted! The kickdown is quite OK- in fact I felt the opposite, sometimes I see an open stretch and accelerate but the gearbox decides Iam vertaking someone and kicks down one or two gears! Annoying as heck.

Originally Posted by vcx

Do share some key/specific observations on the visibility from dashboard etc ( some have been talking about in other forums),auto a/c, plastic quality, button, functions, width of the driver area felt the knee does hit the centre consle/dash area, seating comfort, lights, wipers etc..

It's all true.
- The front windscreen visibility is terrible (I am used to a Swift and before that an Accent, so you can imagine!)
- The inner rearview mirror comes right in your line of vision and doesn't show you much of the rear view.
- Auto AC takes getting used to but I am figuring it out now- trick is to set it on AC at required blower speed till it cools then switch to auto mode.
-Driver seat width is fine. I have a big butt (does it show in the pics LOL) and I fit in just fine. Decent thigh support as well.
- Knee banging the central console housing is a major peeve. They should have at least made the plastics there softer.
- Plastic quality is great. No complaints, only time will tell how they last though.
- Headlamps are inadequate. I want badly to upgrade but that will surely void the warranty. I haven't figured out how to use the foglamps yet, so the visibility on paking lights only is pretty awful.
- Wipers are fine. Like Subodh said, there is a "service position" that you can activate by switching ignition off and on and hitting the wiper switch. Do tell your cleaner not to twist it back during washing, though.

If it sounds bad, it isn't really. You get used to the seating and the view soon enough.

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Can you elaborate a little more on this tiptronic gearbox?
Also whats the kind of FE you are getting inside the city?

Also what was the OTR?

OTR in Pune net of corporate discount is almost exactly 10.00 lacs (including the special reg no). Plus 22 grand for accessories.
FE I will confirm after one tankful is emptied. Too soon to call.
Reg tiptronic, this video should help (have seen it on some other thread too can't recall where). Only thing to remember is it is mirrored for a RHD, i.e.in D mode, shift the gear lever to the left (instead of right pictured here) and you're good to go.

YouTube - 2009 Jetta TDI Tiptronic Automatic