[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by dj78

iliketurtles - were you able to get rid of the surface contaminants on your car? If so how - did you use the clay bar or some professional service?

Hi DJ78. Yes, I was able to get it out completely after using a professional's service. I went to Motoshines to get it off and he used a combination of glazing and paint sealant to first take it off and then ensure it doesn't stick to the surface again.

I'm sure that if you have the time and inclination you could do it yourself by using a clay bar in combination with other DIY detailing materials. Don't worry, it feels worse than it actually is. It's not a big issue and can be fixed either by yourself or a professional.

[iliketurtles]

Almost 3500 kms up on the clock after a little more than 2 months of ownership, and I have no complaints about the car itself. It's been a smooth ride thus far, pun fully intended. There has been one minor fly in the ointment though, as I'm about to explain.

On Sunday afternoon, just as we were about to step out, the rooftop worshipper (a.k.a. The Wife) called me over to her side frantically and asked me if this (imagine a generic lady of your choice pointing a finger) was normal.

She had her fingers aimed at and her gaze firmly set on a sidewall bubble that had developed. Of course, she didn't know what to call it and I'm just glad she spotted it. Fact is, I frankly don't know how it might have happened. I had driven down to Karjat and back the previous evening and had checked out the tyres in the evening (as I often do, just because it gives me an excuse to check her out...the car, not The Wife). I saw nothing amiss then.

So to be shown the bubble and given a rude shock caused me great dismay! Even after reasonably careful driving & regular tire pressure checks, to see it develop in just a little over 2 months of ownership is rotten luck. I wish I knew how it happened, but I don't. It just popped up (again, pun intended).

I have replaced it with the spare tyre, and the damaged one is nestled safely on the steel rim in the boot, as you can see below. No, I saw no damage to the alloy either, which made me wonder. How or when did this happen? Did my vote really count? Is Rahul Gandhi really that dumb to confuse bhrashtachar and balatkar?

I am going to talk this weekend and try to see if the warranty can be claimed at all, although I have to say I am not optimistic about that in the slightest. Long story short: It's rotten luck and an additional expense for poor old moi

Prior to buying the Pirelli's, I remember reading a fair bit that the sidewalls are quite soft, and I distinctly remember one member from down south (I wish I remembered who or where) saying that he too developed a sidewall bubble out of the blue, which put him off from recommending Pirelli's. I am not completely put off, to be honest. My experience with it, barring this, is quite good. If this happens again I will be forced to revisit that opinion of mine and so, I end this on a note of caution for fellow Pirelli users. Drive with caution (not to say I didn't), and I wish you much better luck than me.

Now get back to work and stop wasting time on online forums, even if it's so much fun to do so

[iliketurtles]

Love. It compels the most intelligent of men to do the stupidest of things. Like getting married, or deciding that you don't want to watch that match after all and would rather watch Savdhaan India or even coming to the understanding that your significant other really does have nothing to wear (untrue, the cupboard is overflowing with clothes all the time!)

Or, in a fit of love, deciding to hand over the keys to the car.

Sometime later, I got a phone call.

"Sweety, I don't know what happened, but..." And so it was that my heart sank and I knew I wasn't going to like what came next.

The dreaded mark of red...

Somewhere, sometime, unknown to her, someone or something had rubbed up against the car and left a "very visible" red mark over the driver's side door stretching onto the RHS rear door. Somehow, I didn't tell her off (much) and got through my day at work before rushing to where the car was. Luckily, it wasn't a deep scratch, or a scratch at all. It was very superficial. But it needed rubbing compound to wipe out, which I didn't have.

The damage was actually somewhat similar to what Chethan BG had on his Jetta some days back, and I believed that the fix for it would be similar. I mulled over the idea of buying some Rubbing Compound and doing it myself, but decided instead to bide my time for a day and rolled into Motoshines on a Sunday morning. 10 minutes later, voila. It's like the mark was never there! The kicker? They didn't charge me a dime to remove it, because they perhaps new fully well I'd be returning at a later date for some work on the car. Many thanks to Advait for removing that red mark free of charge and a big hello to fellow BHP-ian Rishi Suri, who was getting the interior and exterior detailing done on his Silver Hawk!

Teja mein hu, mark...kidhar hai?

[dean5545]

Originally Posted by iliketurtles

Prior to buying the Pirelli's, I remember reading a fair bit that the sidewalls are quite soft, and I distinctly remember one member from down south (I wish I remembered who or where) saying that he too developed a sidewall bubble out of the blue, which put him off from recommending Pirelli's. I am not completely put off, to be honest. My experience with it, barring this, is quite good. If this happens again I will be forced to revisit that opinion of mine and so, I end this on a note of caution for fellow Pirelli users. Drive with caution (not to say I didn't), and I wish you much better luck than me.

Now get back to work and stop wasting time on online forums, even if it's so much fun to do so

May be you can try your luck and show it to your tyre dealer. He may replace it under warranty. Or he may not?
"Try karne me kya jaata hai?"

[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by dean5545

May be you can try your luck and show it to your tyre dealer. He may replace it under warranty. Or he may not?
"Try karne me kya jaata hai?"

That's the plan! I just haven't gotten around to it, 2 weeks on, due to one reason or another. This weekend I'll definitely be paying him a visit and hoping for some kind of a positive response, fingers crossed.

[VeyronSuperSprt]

Originally Posted by iliketurtles

Love. It compels the most intelligent of men to do the stupidest of things. Like getting married..

Infinite Wisdom. Always Imparted by mother nature a bit late to ensure survival of the species.

Originally Posted by iliketurtles

Or, in a fit of love, deciding to hand over the keys to the car.

Infinite foolishness. Got nothing to do with mother nature.

Originally Posted by iliketurtles

I mulled over the idea of buying some Rubbing Compound

Rubbing compound is almost as important as a stepney in these days of maddening traffic. You could remove that scratch of yours in 5 minutes and, as a bonus, restore your sanity and BP.

Good to see normalcy restored

Edit: Just saw that tyre of yours. Is certainly eligible for manufacturer warranty.

[IshaanIan]

Just dropped in to see your thread and noticed your problem with the Pirelli rubber your running on. You are certainly eligible for a replacement under warranty and I urge you not to walk away without one

[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by VeyronSuperSprt

Rubbing compound is almost as important as a stepney in these days of maddening traffic. You could remove that scratch of yours in 5 minutes and, as a bonus, restore your sanity and BP.

Edit: Just saw that tyre of yours. Is certainly eligible for manufacturer warranty.

Hiya Veyron I agree completely with the importance of having rubbing compound close at hand after seeing its use first-hand. I'm quite lucky that I had my friendly local detailer close at hand to fix it up. No point buying the cow when you can get the milk for free, eh?

Just haven't got the time to talk to the dealer about the warranty on the tyre, will surely have a chat with him tomorrow and see what comes of it, good to know you feel the warranty will be honored.

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Just dropped in to see your thread and noticed your problem with the Pirelli rubber your running on. You are certainly eligible for a replacement under warranty and I urge you not to walk away without one

Hiya Ishaan. Glad to hear that you feel the warranty will be honored! I certainly wasn't as optimistic as you or Veyron, but I'll follow up on this and see it through to its logical conclusion. Thanks for the heads up!

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by iliketurtles

Hiya Ishaan. Glad to hear that you feel the warranty will be honored! I certainly wasn't as optimistic as you or Veyron, but I'll follow up on this and see it through to its logical conclusion. Thanks for the heads up!

Well you should be just as optimistic I have had a couple of experiences with bubbles on the tyre sidewall; One involving my friend's Audi A6 equipped with Pirellis and the other involving another friend's Cruze with Yoko S Drives. Our tyre dealer did not hesitate to replace the Yokos as I have a good rapport with him. The Audi dealership (car came equipped with Pirellis from the showroom) however, was not as easy to deal with, but, after I spoke and let them know we weren't idiots, they sent a couple of guys after 2 days representing Pirelli, to my buddys house to inspect the tyres and that was that; they approved a replacement under warranty and also apologized for not doing so at the earliest.

[zombiedriver]

Lovely write up and I can literally relate to everything you have said about the other cars you considered because my wife drives the 2012 Honda City Automatic and we are looking to upgrade that. She has managed to do around 47k kms in less than 2 years hence the search for a diesel automatic. I considered pretty much all the cars you did and I have almost zeroed in on the Jetta myself. One small hiccup before I put down money on it is that i test drove the BMW X1 and they have very very huge discounts on it right now so I am a little confused and have left the decision to the wife.

I test drove the Jetta Highline and the Octavia Elegance back to back so the multilink suspension's ability to gobble up undulations on the road were very evident. It makes a huge difference. Now VW offers extended warranty on the Jetta as well while the Skoda doesn't offer it on the Octavia yet so even with that the Jetta is a good lakh cheaper than the Octavia.

Congrats on your buy and keep this thread alive. Cheers !!


Note from Support: Post edited for grammar & punctuation.

[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by zombiedriver

I considered pretty much all the cars you did and I have almost zeroed in on the Jetta myself. One small hiccup before I put down money on it is that i test drove the BMW X1 and they have very very huge discounts on it right now so I am a little confused and have left the decision to the wife.

Hiya Zombie!

I considered the X1 very briefly (for all of 5 seconds), but ruled it out because it looks unpalatable to me. When you consider that the Jetta/Octavia is pleasing on the eye, the X1 really does stick out like a sore thumb. It's got an odd look to it that only a mother would love.

That said, have you considered the A-Class? It looks sensational. There's one in my building and it never fails to take my breath away. I'm sure it will be running some discounts too, maybe not as much as the X1. Out of curiosity, what kind of offers are running on the X1? If you can wait until the A3 launches, you might get even better offers on the A-Class/X1.

Originally Posted by zombiedriver

VW offers extended warranty on the Jetta as well while the Skoda doesn't offer it on the Octavia yet so even with that the Jetta is a good lakh cheaper than the Octavia.

That Extended Warranty does make a big difference to the ownership experience purely in terms of peace of mind. If you do pick up the X1, make sure you get BSI, I reckon it's a must-have for BMW's, I think I even read about a new 3 year/40000 KMS plan that is available for Rs. 1,40,000. Do look at it.

About ze gaadi

As for the car itself...it is running flawlessly, as it should since it hasn't even clocked 5 digits on the odometer. The Pirelli tyre was not replaced under warranty and after some to-ing and fro-ing I gave up the ghost entirely. Haven't had any issues with the other 4 Pirellis so far, so I'm putting that one down to a freak incident.

Mileage is a steady 10.8 KMPL, all in the city with 100% AC with my daily commute in sparse to slow-moving, slightly dense traffic. Can't complain on this front at all.

Some vandals had scratched the paint with a key along the left of the car, and it breaks my heart to see it but it's still there about 2-3 weeks on. Left it as a battle scar, to ward off the evil eye so to speak. I'm going to try rubbing it out with rubbing compound (couldn't find Meguiar's rubbing compound here, so got it from the UK). Hopefully it will all get rubbed off, although I feel a few are deep too. Let's see about that, will report back with results.

[zombiedriver]

I know the X1 is a little odd looking but it does have its advantages. It has decent boot space and unbeatable engine,ride and handling for its price and some generous ground clearance . And yes i would never consider buying a BMW without BSI. And you are right again they do have BSI starting from 40000/3 years for around 1.3 lakhs. Unfortunately that might not work for me because my wife typically does around 30000 kilometers a year .

Regarding the discount, its a whopping 7 lakhs and that was my first visit to the showroom so i just told the sales guy that i would seriously consider the car if he offered BSI without additional charge i know being overzealous but worth a try . Yet to hear back from him . The A class was not considered because i think even though it looks amazing it is very under-powered .

And again , Love your thread . Cheers !!

[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by zombiedriver

I know the X1 is a little odd looking but it does have its advantages

That it most certainly does. It's practical and will have the BMW fun-to-drive nature, so it's got that going for it.

Originally Posted by zombiedriver

Unfortunately my wife typically does around 30000 kilometers a year.

That is a whole lot of travelling!

Originally Posted by zombiedriver

Regarding the discount, its a whopping 7 lakhs and that was my first visit to the showroom so i just told the sales guy that i would seriously consider the car if he offered BSI without additional charge. Yet to hear back from him.

That is a very hefty discount if it's on this year's stock. Not sure that's the normal quantum of discount, but it does make the X1 a very tasty deal. Here's hoping you can get BSI without any extra charges, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you

Originally Posted by zombiedriver

The A class was not considered because i think even though it looks amazing it is very under-powered.

I agree on it being vastly underpowered, it's a thought that put me off big time as wel. It looks the part, but it doesn't quite go like it. However, I'm sure a remap in the region of 150 BHP is definitely possible, especially for the diesel, and that could improve things dramatically.

Originally Posted by zombiedriver

And again , Love your thread . Cheers !!

Thanks for the kind words, see you around, and keep us posted on which car gets added to your garage!

[zombiedriver]

There is a certain history with the BMW sales guy because one of my best friends picked up an X1 when they were phasing out the older variant and he got a 6.5 lakh discount on it . Could have been more but my friend was all excited and in a hurry so he went ahead with it. Unlike him i am very calm when it comes to negotiations but yes i am not sure if i can wrangle the BSI for free . Hopefully i can push for an additional 50k-1 lakh . Either ways i am definitely leaning towards the Jetta otherwise ,absolutely loved it.

[iliketurtles]

So here's the image that's been greeting me on startup for the last few days, as a countdown of course.

The 6 month/7500 kilometer checkup is almost upon me, having clocked about 6300 kilometers over the months. Time for me to pen a few thoughts, I guess.

I might be hypercritical, but if I were to switch off the audio completely, the glass does rattle ever so slightly over rough roads, and after a long drive yesterday (for the Mumbai-Pune-Nashik mega meet) I noticed a slight squeaking from the seat belt holder on my side when I went over bad roads. Minor niggles, but they did gnaw away at me.

Other than that, it's been a problem free, very enjoyable ride on the Jetta. It's a grind to drive it in the city as it's no fun at slow speeds, but I've had the chance to take her out over the course of the last two weekends to Bhandardara and Malshej Ghat and it's been in its element on the highway. Wish I could ride them highways all day long!

Recently, while at a tyre shop, k learnt of Oko tyre sealant, a goop that is a preventive puncture sealants. I'll spare you guys the marketing speak and simply say that you fill it in your tyres after fully inflating it, and a certain amount sticks to the treads while a certain amount keeps rotating in the tyre. It'll apparently plug any puncture it comes upon and is in use even in military spec vehicles. Took a punt on it, at ₹750 per tyre, it was worth a gamble if it makes my driving experience puncture free.

I've scheduled a checkup for the car as per VW's norms, will report back after that. See ya later!