[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by Ketan T

The roof antenna of my Polo broke recently. I had asked the service centre for it, they told me the antenna costs Rs. 1700. They also told me that the base of the antenna also needs to be replaced as the threading has worn out. They told me the base costs about Rs. 3000. So the total cost comes to Rs. 4700. I feel that the prices are on the higher side. Does anyone have any idea about other options?

I did enquire in Accessories shops, but none of them have it.

Look for Shark-fin.

Since base also needs to be replaced, better to ditch the plan of getting stock antenna and go for shark-fin antenna like the one comes in Jetta. The shark-fin has to be fitted after removing the base so now it will be better option. That will be shorter in height so will be less prone to get damaged and will look cool. If don't find at local accessory shops then you can find that at online stores.

[KkVaidya]

Originally Posted by Ketan T

The roof antenna of my Polo broke recently. I had asked the service centre for it, they told me the antenna costs Rs. 1700. They also told me that the base of the antenna also needs to be replaced as the threading has worn out. They told me the base costs about Rs. 3000. So the total cost comes to Rs. 4700. I feel that the prices are on the higher side. Does anyone have any idea about other options?

I did enquire in Accessories shops, but none of them have it.

I doubt the dealership if they are saying the base threading has worn-out. I suggest you re-check it or use teflon tape if required.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Teflon tape? I suspect it is an insulator, and the antenna needs to make contact?

[Ketan T]

Originally Posted by KkVaidya

I doubt the dealership if they are saying the base threading has worn-out. I suggest you re-check it or use teflon tape if required.

I will check the threading. Thanks for the suggestion, but Teflon tape won't help, I don't have the antenna to stick it to the base. :(

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by rohank024

Would anyone know where in Mumbai could i buy windshield wiping fluid tank for my VW vento? Last time i gave my car for servicing, Shaman motors returned it with a broken windshield fluid tank and so i need to buy a new one. Any suggestions?

Why don't you ask the service center to replace it if this was their fault?

There's an outlet in Opera House that retails VAG parts.

[rohank024]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Why don't you ask the service center to replace it if this was their fault?

There's an outlet in Opera House that retails VAG parts.

Dude, called them a couple of times and told them about it, they promised to call back but they never did. My office is far from their workshop, so really had no option but to let it go. That's why i hate Shaman motors, they are crooks of highest degree.

Would u know the name of the shop at Opera House?

Thanks for your inputs.

[CPJ]

Hi Guys,
I'm seriously considering the VW Polo 1.5 TDI Highline to replace our trusty Honda City ZX.
I test drove the Polo 1.5 TDI yesterday. The engine has no turbo lag with linear power delivery and the awesome handling along with solid build quality has made the VW Polo as my top pick.
Now the only thing that is stopping me from going ahead and booking the Polo is:

1. Is the VW Polo 1.5 TDI reliable?
2. How are the maintenance & service cost of the Polo 1.5 TDI as I'm looking to keep the car for atleast 5 years?

Regarding after sales service, Volkswagen Pune West (B U Bhandari) has quite a good reputation in Pune and I have heard good things about them. So I guess I can take that risk. However my biggest concern is the reliability of the Polo 1.5 TDI. My Honda City (106000 KM on Odo) has proved to be extremely reliable and has not left us stranded any where and I expect the same from Polo.

Looking forward to your valuable inputs urgently as I plan to book the car by weekend.

Thanks.

[Distant Second]

Originally Posted by CPJ

1. Is the VW Polo 1.5 TDI reliable?
2. How are the maintenance & service cost of the Polo 1.5 TDI as I'm looking to keep the car for atleast 5 years?

Ownership Report (4th Year - 65,000 kms) Polo 1.2 TDI Trendline

We have owned a Polo 1.2 TDI since 2011. With 65k on the odo, it has served us well, without any major glitches till now. Here is a detailed report:

Please note: This car has been sedately driven, mostly by my mom. Monthly running of approximately 1500 KM, on the Gurgaon expressway to Central Delhi around 5 days a week. It has hardly seen speeds above 100km/h


Bought it on 30th Sep 2011 from Frontier Auto Gurgaon. Pleasant experience at the dealership.

Serviced regularly at the said 15k Km mark. Cost of each service ranges between 7.5 - 9.5K

At 24000 km, dad hit a largish speedbump at 5 km/hr. Oil sump broke. Someone noticed engine oil leaking. Immediately stopped the vehicle.

VW towed the vehicle very professionally within an hour of calling up.

No major damage except for broken oil sump. Repairs carried out under zero depreciation insurance. But had to pay for the synthetic oil.

Total damages: 4-5K

Around 27000 km mark, the horn went bust, replaced under warranty.

No issues apart from above for another 12K kms

At around 40000 km mark, the battery died - 3 days prior to expiry of the main 2 Year Warranty. Luckily got it replaced free of cost. However, had to remove the entire ICE setup as advised by an advisor to get the replacement and not void the remaining warranty.

Next 22K are again trouble free

At 63K kms. faced the gearbox not slotting into second at all. Took to the dealership, fearing that this will cost a bomb, however, the issue turned out to be a faulty gear wire. Estimate given was around 8K for a set of two gear wires which may need replacement. No coverage of the wires under extended warranty.

I tried sourcing the part locally, however could not find anywhere. Had to go with the dealership. Luckily, only one wire needed replacement.
Total damage came to 4.5K

Smaller Niggles:

Intermittently, due to pathetic & flooded roads, had the plastic lining die out and fall off from beneath the bumper area. This happened in each monsoon. Replaced it twice, but then decided not to from the third time on-wards as its not visible and adds nothing to protecting anything.

This also resulted in the fog lamp plastic casing falling out on me twice. Though this part is inexpensive at around rs 125 for the set, but its always been a pain to have it disappear.

The fuel lid drives me mad, as it mostly fails to open at the fuel station. I have to tinker with it, locking/unlocking doors about 10 times (if I am lucky) before it opens. This issue must be due to too much force used to open / close the lid by attendants. Got stranded once at a fuel station for a couple of hours due to low fuel and being 75 km from home. Called up VW helpline, they didn't send help for close to two hours. Finally, someone from their department suggested inserting a coin to force open the lid. Tried getting it fixed at the VW dealership. They simply touched up the pin with some WD40. This solves the problem for a few weeks before it starts to creep in again. Now I live with it.


Polo positives:

Nice classic looks
Tank like build quality - I have never heard a single rattle in 66,000 kms
Great Suspension - never needed wheel alignment till date. Still running the stock tyres, due for upgrade. However, its low on comfort over speed bumps.
Very Good handling (not as fun as the swift though, however polo feels more mature)
Safety features in even the lowest variant, (however my trendline has none)
Great 1.5 tdi Engine (the 1.2 TDI in my car is okay-ish)
Very good front seats
Subtle and quality interiors - no gimmicks
Easy to maintain - just follow regular service intervals

Polo Negatives:

Cramped rear seats
Low-ish ground clearance
Can get expensive to maintain if not cared for well.
Low resale value
One ergonomic failure - The bottle holder in the door pad is too large for a most regular one litre bottles. Many a times if you drive spiritedly, the bottle jumps out and falls on the floor, and sometimes rolls beneath your brake pedal
This happened to me about 2 times. So I ensure not to keep any water bottle in the driver side door pad, as I prefer dying of thirst than dying due to not being able to brake.

Final Opinion:

I think polo is a much better contender in the hot hatches available. If you like the planted german feel and and are not too hot for extensive features (like in i20) I say go for it. However, advise to keep the car for maximum 5 years as once the 2+2 year warranty is over, you are mostly on your own.

Personally, I started loving the polo gradually and now realise that I have spent far more money on maintenance of the Swift VDI. At the same mileage with the Swift I had changed the following due to its inherent quality: Complete suspension overhaul, replaced power steering, gearbox issues, indicator stalk, clutch, stock tyres at 40,000 kms

[CPJ]

Originally Posted by Distant Second

We have owned a Polo 1.2 TDI since 2011. With 65k on the odo, it has served us well, without any major glitches till now.

I think polo is a much better contender in the hot hatches available. If you like the planted german feel and and are not too hot for extensive features (like in i20) I say go for it. However, advise to keep the car for maximum 5 years as once the 2+2 year warranty is over, you are mostly on your own.

Thanks a lot Distant Second for the detailed ownership report. The maintenance cost and also the after sales experience in your case seems to be pretty good.

Even I maintain and service my cars regularly so I guess general upkeep and timely service should hopefully give me hassle free ownership experience for the Polo 1.5 TDi if I go for it.

Thanks again for your valuable input.

[no_boundaries]

Update @ 19,650Kms and 13 months of ownership, the car is simply amazing. No car in its class can come close to the joy one gets driving the GT.

The RL tail lamp broke some time around 16,000kms due to a 2 wheeler bumping in. The lamp was replaced @ 1,700/-. The entire assembly is the reflector shell and the circuit board. What I really loved was, no ugly nuts or screws on the outside or on the inner beading behind the hatch lid. Its a big screw on the inner side of the rear fender pulling it tight. Awesome.

Some observations -
1. Intermittent vibrating noise from the front windshield
2. Suspension has a mind of its own with occasional bounce on certain roads
3. The car still needs a long time to warm up otherwise the response is very sluggish in the mornings
4. Contradicting my previous point, the fan comes on even after short distance driving (Less than 3Km), may be the Chennai heat.
5. Amount of dust accumulating in the car. I 99% keep the windows rolled up yet there is a lot of dust in the car.

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by CPJ

Even I maintain and service my cars regularly so I guess general upkeep and timely service should hopefully give me hassle free ownership experience for the Polo 1.5 TDi if I go for it.

Hey CPJ having owned GT for over a year and coming from 2 Hyundai cars, I can assure you that if you do what you have mentioned above, you will love the German Engineering thoroughly.

Also as Distant Second has mentioned, things have really changed in the recent times. VW have really pulled up their socks and now seem to have reworked their customer experience strategies, considering the fact that their USP was always the products.


P.S - If your budget permits, go get yourself a GT TDI and you will have a silly grin everytime you get behind the wheels.

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

Update @ 19,650Kms and 13 months of ownership, the car is simply amazing. No car in its class can come close to the joy one gets driving the GT.

Awesome bro and I couldn't possibly agree more with you.

I use my bike 2-3 days a week for my commute to work and every time I get to even think of taking my GT out the next day, I start reveling about the adrenaline that I am about to experience.

I think we bought out GTs round about the same time and @13 months, I have completely 18950km as on date, Love & Lived every single meter of it.

[no_boundaries]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Love & Lived every single meter of it.

True that.
How is Mr Red doing ? Any updates..

Also, I've shared few observations on my car do you have any experience around it with your car ?

Just curious as there are so few GTs and we must compare performance.

[CPJ]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Hey CPJ having owned GT for over a year and coming from 2 Hyundai cars, I can assure you that if you do what you have mentioned above, you will love the German Engineering thoroughly.

P.S - If your budget permits, go get yourself a GT TDI and you will have a silly grin everytime you get behind the wheels.

Thanks Vik,
All the positive comments that I'm hearing about VW and the car itself has really made my decision quite easy. I'm going for one final test drive tomorrow before I book the VW Polo.
Regarding the GT TDI, It's tempting, lets see, as tomorrow I'm going to test drive the GT TDI as well.

Thanks & Drive Safe!

[Ketan T]

Originally Posted by CPJ

Thanks Vik,
All the positive comments that I'm hearing about VW and the car itself has really made my decision quite easy. I'm going for one final test drive tomorrow before I book the VW Polo.
Regarding the GT TDI, It's tempting, lets see, as tomorrow I'm going to test drive the GT TDI as well.

Thanks & Drive Safe!

If you do decide to buy Polo, go for extended warranty. It is cheaper if you buy it in the first year itself.

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

True that.
How is Mr Red doing ? Any updates..

Also, I've shared few observations on my car do you have any experience around it with your car ?

Just curious as there are so few GTs and we must compare performance.

Mr. Red Devil is doing just fine and gives me goose bumps at times to this day every time I floor the pedal !!

Regarding your observations, please find my thoughts inline below:

1. Intermittent vibrating noise from the front windshield
- I have not observed any such vibration on my GT. The only tiny bit irritating thing on my stead seems to be the Armrest which vibrates all so faintly at times.

2. Suspension has a mind of its own with occasional bounce on certain roads
- I had this issue once but that was attributed to 36PSI pressure in the rear tires. I have since maintained 32psi (Front) and 33psi (Rear). Have not had any such issue from then. I am sure you would have ensured the same and if you have, probably getting your shocks checked at VW might be a good idea bro.

3. The car still needs a long time to warm up otherwise the response is very sluggish in the mornings
- I have been extremely strict and vigilant on this front bro. I ensure that I don't rev the engine beyond 2.5k RPM or speeds in excess of 50Km/hr during my morning drives. So I probably cannot comment on the 'Warming up' bit of it.

4. Contradicting my previous point, the fan comes on even after short distance driving (Less than 3Km), may be the Chennai heat.
- I also think it might be due to Chennai heat. Usually my I observe the fan running in full speed by the time I reach my office which is about 14kms away, however I don't hear anything when I reach my in-laws place which is about 2.5kms away.

5. Amount of dust accumulating in the car. I 99% keep the windows rolled up yet there is a lot of dust in the car.
- I think I mirror your habit here and hardly leave the windows rolled down, only leave about 10-15% open whenever I do. But the dust still gets into the cabin and I think the beige interiors, glossy center console, etc accentuates the dust further!!


At the end of the day, everything is forgotten and forgive every time we get an open/well laid tarmac and we let loose those 100 odd German thorough breds - NIRVANA WAS SO EASY!!!