Team-BHP - Volkswagen Vento : Test Drive & Review

A wonderful review GTO clap:. You made my day.

Isn't it a serious safety concern if the rear passenger can adjust the front seat ? What if an ignorant person (there are too many around) or a naughty kid plays around with the adjustment lever ? Or is it that only the passenger seat is adjustable from the rear ? It is extremely scary to me if the rear passenger can adjust the driver seat when the car is in motion. I sincerely hope it is not the case.

Awesome review. One of the best ever, if I might add.

And excellent car. A premium brand within the reach of a common man, and throw in a well-engineered car, a lethal combination.

Now only if could see a few Beetles on the road...sigh !

GTO: One of your pictures has a loose wire hanging under the chassis. Looks like it can easily get caught in something. Was it only on that car or did you see that with all the cars?

Extremely competent review. As much as pointing out the pluses, the negatives have been summarised well! For me, as I expected, the diesel is the obvious choice. Driving a Jetta TDi I really know how the diesel performs exceedingly well even in a petrol mad USA.

I see VW doing a mid cycle refresh to bring steering mounted audio controls, USB/Aux in etc. Before that they would be better off bringing a comfortline version. The way the pricing is now, they are at risk of losing customers who will get put off by the steep price difference.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vid6639 (Post 2027968)

Even though petrol does not seem to be as good as the ANHC I'm sure below 3000rpm it will be more lively than the ANHC. The peak torque for the Vento is available 1000rpm lesser than the ANHC.

GTO, does this really translate to better driveability in city driving conditions in the Vento?

thanks

An educative and informative narrative.

Gear-shift indicator in MID is a nice must-have feature for MT cars.:thumbs up

But, missing steering-mounted audio control, Aux/USB connectivity and dead pedal in the Highline variant due to cost-cutting reasons are let-downs.

@GTO. As usual Sir, you have given an awesome test review for the sedan I have personally being looking forward to since I am contemplating to change from my old EXi Honda City to a new one. The Vento Petrol seems a good replacement.
Thanks a lot for the meticulous analysis and awesome pictures.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashwinvig (Post 2027956)

While the VW India website does not provide 0 to 100 kmph times for the vento, the technical specs sheet from the VW Russia website has figures for the 1.6 petrol MT and AT variants (for the Polo Sedan, as it is called in Russia).

I am attaching the PDF file with this post. Although it is in Russian, you can figure out where the times are given. The third table provides the max. speed and 0 to 80/100 kmph times (7.2/10.5s for the MT and 8.1/12.1s for the AT). No specs for the diesel engine are provided, I guess Russia doesn't get the diesel version yet.

Excellent, ashwinvig! Thanks!

Only question is whether they use the same quality (octane) fuel in Russia as we do?

I guess the 4th table has the fuel consumption figures (liters/100 kms) -- city, highway & combined. Did I read that right?

GTO,
Simple request for some objective comparison of all the petrol cars in this segment in terms of outright performance, driveability, refinement etc.

Example -
Outright acceleration - City>Fiesta>Vento=Verna>Linea ( This is my assumption).
Similar comparision for driveability/in-gear acceleration and the refinement aspects of the 1.6 petrol!

I believe this will be really useful for any prospective buyer for a C segment sedan (petrol).

Quote:

Originally Posted by nowwhat? (Post 2028204)

This is meaningless speculation IMO! When VW (Inida) claims 0-100 time of 11.1 secs for Polo 1.6, Vento will be a little slower than that! No point in getting numbers from all corners of the wolrd. Let GTO provide the answers or some professional automags like Autocar come out with the numbers.

Excellent summary GTO - thanks for doing this for all of us !!

The day the pricing was announced last week, i knew the Honda City is going to have a tough time justifying their price tags and the lack of an oil burner, the Vento diesel sounds like a hoot to drive..nothing beats the kick of driving a good turbo, knowing VW the build quality is also going to be good, all they need is more dealers and reduce waiting time. I tell you, VW is here and here to give the rest a run for their money - big time. Also interesting to see how the internal positioning plays out i.e Skoda vs VW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by adimicra (Post 2028219)

Agreed, adimicra! GTO's replies would be very, very credible indeed!

I know I am clutching at straws, but for me something is better than nothing since I have very little information to go by even though I have put money on the car. The dealer hasn't been responsive, so all I have are you guys.

Excellent review there. Few questions:

- How pronounced is the axle hump at the back?
- As per your review ICE is average. How can one change, but one wants keep the Highline variant as well.
- Are 15 Inch tyres good or its worth upgrading to 16? Any thoughts?
- What the VW stand on expanding dealership networks?
- Did they release spare pricing list? Or it shares the same with current Polo?
- How different is the Petrol engine from the old Jetta Engine? I could not find the difference mentioned in the review.
They should have done some thing to make it BSIV compliant. Since there is no 6 gear in MT, I guess some changes MUST have gone into the engine.