[ninjatalli]

@noop, you might not want to go into the maintenance and service costs comparisons; we VW guys might just get beaten up badly

In the end, for 8k a year, that's nothing compared to the other annual expenses. So why should it matter!

[noopster]

@Ninja- do you really think so? I was just trying to do a like-to-like at one year ownership with my 2000 Accent GLS.

Overall- well...I'll leave you to be the judge of that!



Edit: Having readability problems with the pic- please refer the attached Excel file. Sorry!

[Swanand Inamdar]

So going by this analysis, I presume you are more satisfied with the Fraulein as compared to the Accent. How about getting the Swift factor in between too? Agreed, its graciously given to a friend for his daily commute, but then the ownership comparo would also be good.

Oh yeah, the sentimental value of owning the first car is always high.

[Monaro CV8]

Originally Posted by dot

Dont know about City, but I can definitely comment about Ford. All their free services are really free. One doesn't have to pay for engine oil or any other consumables.

You can add my experience of getting the 1st free servicing for the T-fort too. Before I gave the car for servicing I was wondering - what would be the charges for getting such a behemoth serviced..
It was actually free!
And this happened for the 2nd one too!

[suhaas307]

You know Anoop, I understand the hardship that the owner of two petrol cars goes through. Even if the cars are sparingly used, when the time comes to tank up either one, our hearts sink when we see full-tank bill-figures of 3000 and 4000 bucks every other week.

We have 3 petrol cars at home. And the irony is that we use the car that gives us the most mileage, the least! The Jazz has done barely 5000 km, a Goa drive included, in the 2 years that we'd had it.

But at the end of the day, your love for petrol-cars shows. Now I know you were looking for a diesel automatic, but settled for the petrol (I wonder why VW doesn't offer the AT tranny on the diesel. It makes the most sense) How is the AT in the Vento, when compared to say, the City's?

[noopster]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

So going by this analysis, I presume you are more satisfied with the Fraulein as compared to the Accent. How about getting the Swift factor in between too? Agreed, its graciously given to a friend for his daily commute, but then the ownership comparo would also be good.

Well I did drive it for 30,000 km before my friend laid his paws on it, so this is a great idea- added Swift to the comparo as well!

Accent v Vento.xlsx

@suhaas- The AT is pretty perfect: look up Samurai's review of the Skoda Rapid which shares the tranny box of my Vento. I share those exact sentiments. It needs to be driven a certain way to extract the most outof it, and thankfully that is the way I drive.

It's a 6-speed to the City's 5; has tiptronic instead of the paddle shifts the Honda offers- which sounds like a negative but it actually isn't since paddles lose their novelty in about 7 minutes

Gear shifs are butter-smooth and barely perceptible, especially upshifts. Kickdown works perfectly: you can downshift one or even 2 gears with just your right foot. It rarely hunts for gears or lugs the engine (if it does, slot into S mode!). The only flaw I can state is that in tiptronic mode there is a perceptible lag between shift and engage which can be annoying.

[noopster]

My baby turns one today!

And so does this thread, incidentally.

Woke up early on a lovely nippy winter's morning and gave her a good wash and rubdown. Then took some pics of her gleaming in the sunshine.



























The year's flown by and Fraulein has been in the thick of action: meeting up with friends from near and afar, making trips to Solapur, Aurangabad, Mumbai and most memorably Hampi & Bangalore and being my constant companion to the daily trudge to work. She's been banged insensitively from behind and had her jewellery flicked by avaricious hands but come through it all with a cool demeanour and bright smile. Happy birthday liebchen!

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by noopster

My baby turns one today!

A Happy birthday liebchen!

A Very happy birthday!

The pictures are not visible. Upload them again.

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by noopster

My baby turns one today!
And so does this thread, incidentally.

Happy B'day Fraulein ! And a toast to the thread...
How many KMs on the odo now Noops ?
Could you please give us a snapshot of the years total costs including fuel, maintenance, incidentals ? Would be nice to know.
Thanks.

[noopster]

Hey HG, you can see it right there in the last pic...17739 km!

As for costs: one service @8000/- and one (voluntary) paid checkup @150/- is all I paid VW service folks. They did a monsoon checkup gratis.

No other maintenance costs, not even oil top up (outside of the mandatory change after 1 year/15,000 km I mean).

I spent 26K on the leather upholstery but everything else is stock. Member dot kindly lent me his FM transmitter (no USB/Aux in the pre-refresh Vento) and I am still on the stock Acelere tyres and alloys.

Fuel is the biggest problem: my bills are beginning to look ridiculous these days. I reckon i must have bought about 1800 litres of petrol this past year which would put my fuel costs at a staggering 1.25 lacs per annum. to put it in perspective, if I had bought the Vento TDI manual (same outlay more or less) my fuel bill would have been around 65,000/- about half of what I am paying!

I'd planned to upgrade both ICE and tyres (possibly alloys, if I decide to upgrade to 16 inchers) but the dealers threatened to cut me off without a warranty if I did so I chickened out. These will probably be the first things I spend on come 2013. Assume it will set me back a pretty penny: 75K+ for the ICE and maybe 50K or so for the new shoes.

What I've lost out on is the steering mounted controls and superior ICE of the Vento refresh but since VW had a huge stockpile of unsold petrols, these were fitted only into the diesels to start with, so not a big loss. Anyway, it's a consolation that on road prices have gone up close to a lac since when I was buying. Petrols sell with average discounts of 40K plus, but not sure if ATs are included in that.

Overall satisfaction with car: high.
A.S.S. experiences: good.
VFM quotient: 100%
Buyer's remorse: none!

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by noopster

Hey HG, you can see it right there in the last pic...17739 km!

1 year old and nearly 18k already done?

Wonder why you didn't go in for a diesel. How are you dealing with the minor-heart attacks at the petrol-bunks?

I know the feeling Noop. We're pretty-much in the same boat. At least you don't have to deal with shifting gears every 5 seconds.

A very happy birthday Fraulein!

So what will be her birthday gift? If ICE and tyres are for her 2nd birthday, you must present her with something nice. How about splitting the expenses over these two years? I suggest you upgrade the ICE now, and the wheels and tyres next year. Thing is, you will feel the pinch when you plonk your money on both things at once.

Oh, and don't worry about the dealer threatening to cut you off. Yes, warranty might be void, but not on the entire car, obviously. No dealer can threaten to 'cut-you'off'. In fact, you can cut them off. *winks*

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

So what will be her birthday gift?

Oh, we did come up with a good birthday gift for the lady, although I sure didn't know (then) what we had in mind could substitute for a bday gift

@mikon needs to get his act ready!

[dot]

Congrats noopster. I checked today's picture with the ones posted at the beginning. No difference. As pristine as ever.

Are you still using the FM transmitter? If so, then you really need to upgrade the ICE, now that Subodh has confirmed that warranty will not be affected.

Wishing you a great year no 2.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

1 year old and nearly 18k already done?

Wonder why you didn't go in for a diesel. How are you dealing with the minor-heart attacks at the petrol-bunks?

I usually wait till it's nearly empty and then top up so you can imagine the feeling! Let's just say I haven't seen a bill south of 3K for a LONG time now
But the reason I opted for the Vento petrol was the awesome auto transmission option. If Honda had pulled up their socks earlier and launched the (current) V-AT with sunroof option at these price last year, I may have well been saving a pretty penny on fuel costs. Despite being a petrol the City delivers reasonable FE.
At the time I bought there was no decent option in a diesel AT except the dated Verna and the out-of-budget Laura or Cruze. I knew about the Fluidic Verna's impending launch but am glad I didn't ait because driving a boat around town isn't my idea of fun .

So what will be her birthday gift? If ICE and tyres are for her 2nd birthday, you must present her with something nice. How about splitting the expenses over these two years? I suggest you upgrade the ICE now, and the wheels and tyres next year. Thing is, you will feel the pinch when you plonk your money on both things at once.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Oh, we did come up with a good birthday gift for the lady, although I sure didn't know (then) what we had in mind could substitute for a bday gift

@mikon needs to get his act ready!

What Ninja means is that we did a mini meet on Friday evening where there was a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing over mikon's new eyes for his awesome-looking black mamba Tdi. The Vento's stock headlamps are inaequate- scratch that, they are USELESS- and upgrading that is a top priority. I did some research over the weekend and will be upgrading to HID (+projector?) sometime soon. Stay tuned!

@dot- thanks man, but it is far from "pristine"! I have small black dots on various parts of the body that don't go with any amount of scrubbing. Also the front bumper has paint stripped off where I bumped it when trying to get a little too close to a wall I was parking against! Had to really turn up the brightness and contrast to make it look so white!

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by noopster

I usually wait till it's nearly empty and then top up so you can imagine the feeling! Let's just say I haven't seen a bill south of 3K for a LONG time now
But the reason I opted for the Vento petrol was the awesome auto transmission option. If Honda had pulled up their socks earlier and launched the (current) V-AT with sunroof option at these price last year, I may have well been saving a pretty penny on fuel costs. Despite being a petrol the City delivers reasonable FE.
At the time I bought there was no decent option in a diesel AT except the dated Verna and the out-of-budget Laura or Cruze. I knew about the Fluidic Verna's impending launch but am glad I didn't ait because driving a boat around town isn't my idea of fun .

Don't lose heart my friend. We petrol-heads are a dying breed these days. I for one will never buy a diesel, even if petrol costs 150 a liter. I'd rather take the bus or the metro, and keep my lovely petrol-drinking car at home for the weekends.

Although I don't like ATs either, I'd love to see VW introduce the DSG (albeit a vastly improved version) in their lesser cars. I'm sure the day isn't far away when we might get to see a wonderful DSG in a hot 1.6 Polo. Now wouldn't that be fantastic!

The City would definitely give you better mileage. But there is always a trade-off. The City feels flimsy. I'm sure the Vento doesn't. The City (the pre-facelift one) felt a bit iffy on the inside. The quality of plastics and finish left a lot to be desired. The Vento is better.

I've also understood something. Good FE is one thing. But the pleasure you'd derive from the car is something that will make you forget about the ever-rising price of fuel. Even if it's for a few seconds.