[psispace]

Thanks for your wishes nischal316.

I cannot comment on the change in sound quality as the system was swapped prior to delivery. I have not experienced the sound with the stock system. Others in this forum have commented on a change in quality for the better. But if I remember right, some of those were on higher VWs like the Passat. So that may not be valid here.

But suffice to say, it sounds good even with stock speakers and hence I have retained those. Most people will be more than happy with the set up.
I personally like my music a bit bassy and not flat. This required a bit of tweaking of the equalizer and I was ok.
As I don't drive this car much (wifey doesn't allow me you see), I left it at that. But if you are an audiophile, you will have to change the speakers as they only give reasonably good midrange and high frequencies. For bass, you have to crank up the volume.

I intend to change the speakers after the stock ones go bust. Till then I can live with it.

[itwasntme]

Your ECU's AI brain must be having a tough time trying to 'learn' your respective driving styles :-) Just as it has adjusted to your wife's driving, in comes you and the 'hot hatch' style!

Seriously, are these different styles an issue with these intelligent ECUs?

[psispace]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Your ECU's AI brain must be having a tough time trying to 'learn' your respective driving styles :-) Just as it has adjusted to your wife's driving, in comes you and the 'hot hatch' style!

Seriously, are these different styles an issue with these intelligent ECUs?

True, it must be really confused by now.
This is said to be a learning gearbox. I guess it must have decided these guys don't how to teach and it must have stopped learning

On a serious note, fortunately, I have not found any glitches so far. Its' as smooth as it was last year.

[psispace]

ONE YEAR UPDATE:

Mileage run : Nearing 14000km
Average mileage - 14kmpl, max mileage (achieved by a hired driver!)- 17kmpl
In city we just get 12kmpl. I don't get to drive this car often though.
Whenever I get my hands on it, I tend to drive a bit (how do I put it?) enthusiastically. So I am responsible for the lower average mileage.

THE TRIALS

As my wife's confidence grew, she started taking the car through tight pocket roads (which even I avoid if I can) to beat traffic. (I can see her glaring from behind me in the reflection on the monitor as I type this )
Results were multiple small scratches over both bumpers and both rear doors. A visit to 3M (who I am on contract with) and even some efforts from my side smoothed most scratches.

By September my driver resigned. We decided to not hire a driver. I started cleaning both cars myself, no doubt inspired by this incredible thread below.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ing-guide.html

The good thing about this was I incorporated 'cleaning the cars' into my daily (or alternate day) exercise routine. You get a certain piece of mind while you're at it. Of course, I had to contend with queries of " What happened to your driver? " and " Why don't you pay that Nepali guy to do this? ", for a few weeks. But later, occasionally, I started having some company. When you're cleaning cars you also tend to 'talk cars' with your neighbours.

The bad thing about this is that now you know every nick and scratch on the car. And you see it on a daily basis. And if you are obsessed on keeping it neat, it becomes an expensive affair.

The scratches on the left rear door and rear wheel arches on the Polo started being unbearable and I had it repainted last month. Cost roughly Rs.9000/-.
Even I got rear ended by a biker while braking hard to avoid a bus which cut in front of me.

And more for good measure. This month, while taking a tight turn on a pocket road (she drives through there routinely), my wife misjudged an electricity pole. She realized this when she heard an eerie crunch from the right rear side of the car. Thankfully, the Pole was intact, but Polo was in tatters !



The result was tears inducing. No, I am not talking about my wife!



Anyway, as solace, it came back shining with another layer of coating over the 3M.
It was impossible to putty this and the entire door had to be replaced. Cost came to around Rs.25000/- (13k for the door and its insulation + fittings and 9k for the painting + taxes and such).

I know all this sounds painful, but I am posting this for the benefit of prospective owners to get an idea of cost of ownership.

I finally broke my 14 year 'no claim bonus'(NCB) on insurance for this. I will most probably pay 4k more for insurance next year. I payed Rs.8800/- for renewal this year after NCB.

While waiting for the insurance clearance, the service indicator also popped up.

Service at 13400km and one year included:

1. Engine oil change - Castrol Magnatec 5W40 Rs.3200
   
2. AC FTLTER Rs.585
   
3. Air Filter Rs. 340
   
4. OIL FTLTER Rs. 585
   

All this and the routine service with Premium Wash came to around Rs. 10,000/- incl. taxes.

Servicing this time also included software upgrade for the gearbox. This alone took half a day due to apparently slow internet connection.

By now we were a familiar couple at the EVM Volkswagen Service Center and knew the staff on a first name basis.
Fortunately, the service experience was good and delivery was on time as promised.
You also get to ogle at the Porsches coming for service next door.

THE TRIBULATION(S)

The only glitch was the battery. After the last service in February, the battery died down a few days later and was replaced under warranty. This was attributed to the driver switching on[ AC for long time at idle and turning the stereo on for long time. This was of course denied by him.

It happened again this time, just two days after servicing. It has also been three months since our driver resigned.
This time my wife and son were alone and she had to call the helpline as I was engaged in the hospital. They took a good hour and a half to arrive as only one guy was available for breakdown services. To give credit to the guy, Kochi traffic is bad at places. He also deviated from a prior commitment because my wife was alone with her kid. This was fortunately at daytime.

On inspection, they found fault possibly in AC, music system or interior lights from prolonged usage.
There was no apparent leakage anywhere and all circuits, including the stereo and sensor mods were fine.
As the previous battery was replaced once in warranty, I had to pay for this one.

The battery used by Volkswagen in Polos are Exide, which are reasonably good I suppose.
I had a good experience with Amaron batteries in the past in my erstwhile Alto VX. Various extra 'fittings' and prolonged usage of the stereo ensured I needed to jump start, or half - clutch start, on multiple occasions in that car. Changing over to Amaron somehow solved that.
I requested the service guys to use Amaron instead but they were not authorized to do that. So I purchased one myself and had it fitted at the service center. Cost for the battery - Rs. 4700/-. I hope I won't have to update about this any soon.

GEARBOX UPDATE

The Gearbox software update seems to have solved the D3-D2 downshift jerk. Both Wifey and I consciously tested it for such jerks and its been two weeks now. She also feels the gearbox has become a bit more smoother. This might be perceptive.

Overall an eventful one year. But fortunately, the problems that we encountered were mostly of our doing. The car, per se, gave almost no problems. Save for the battery episodes. So thus far we have come through the trials and tribulations with flying colours I guess. We seem to have tested the Polo's robust build quality!

BLAUPUNKT HU

The Philadelphia Head Unit is functioning reasonably well without significant glitches.

Although it is mentioned in the user manual that cards and USB sticks upto 32 GB are supported, it takes ages for cards and sticks of that size to load.

It is also restricted to recognizing only two folder levels. You cannot drag and drop half your music library into the card and expect it to play flawlessly. If the songs are contained in a subfolder within another subfolder (like most I tunes downloads), it just will not show. It will display as an empty folder.
I figured this out the hard way. The work around to this is to put songs only into single folder albums and avoid subfolders.

But there is a restriction to this too. You can have only a maximum of 1500 entries including folders and files. Essentially that's more than you'll need for any trip. Just think about it, you have roughly 125 hours of continuous music even if you don't repeat a single track.
However, the prospect of carrying your entire music library on a single media device is lost.

How times change us! Years ago, I was thrilled when the Kenwood cassette player in my car had auto seek and auto skip of blank spaces between tracks with Dolby Noise cancellation technology if required. It also felt incredible that a 6 CD changer could randomly skip all CDs and tracks. And some of them display track names too! Wow!

Skip to 2015, I am dissapointed that now I have a 32GB SD card with regional music and 32 GB USB stick with western music lying half empty as they are near the maximum file limit.

Integration with the 16 GB Ipod Nano is excellent and somehow the music also sounds better. This system loves the Ipod more.

I am unable to update the IGO Primo Maps as updation is not possible in this system. VW guys told me my maps were already updated, no need to update. On contacting the Maps Vendor (and sending them a copy of the card's essential contents) I was told my card is either corrupted or I am a victim of piracy! Since I don't rely on it, I just let it go. I occasionally switch Navigation on to make sure the GPS is still functioning. IGO Maps is reasonably informative, but not detailed.
A work around to this would be to download MapMyIndia which this system is compatible with. But I prefer Google Maps which I use on the mobile.

TO SUM IT UP

Although the headings above might misleadingly indicate otherwise, we are quite satisfied with the car at one year of ownership.
I think the service costs mentioned above are not much higher than other cars in this class.

If it were not for her occasional physical intimacy with her surrounding environment, I think the Polo GT has given us a Happy One Year.
After all, at least till recently (when that snotty Punto Abarth came to town strutting her stuff), she is still known as a 'Hot' Hatch !

[psispace]

TWO YEARS UPDATE:

Odometer: Nearing 25000
Mileage : 12 - 14kmpl



Sparkling with rain drops at a wheel alignment center nearby

Compared to some of the other stellar GT threads, this is going to be a rather (fortunately) boring update.

My better half has by now become more attuned to driving the GT and has considerably improved in her driving skills. She only needs to set the speed warning at 80kmph and she's ready to go. My son did mention that he regularly hears the 'ding....ding' of the speed alarm.
I only get to drive her in the mornings to drop my son at school (an excuse I made to drive the car) and on weekends.

So unlike the previous year, there required no major repairs for the vehicle except for a broken ORVM cover which cost only around Rs.350. I was tempted to upgrade to the new ORVMs earlier, but held back after this incident. The auto-folding mirrors, although convenient, will be expensive to replace.

As is evident in the picture above, the paint seems to be ageing well and still has its dual character in natural and artificial lights. Small scratches acquired over the months are not visible unless up close.

The only issue we had was with some water logging inside the left rear brakelight 2 months ago.



We were told that this has been noticed recently in some Polos. The brake light assembly was replaced free of cost. We have had no such issues since.

The battery drainage issues we had last year have not cropped up after changing to the Amaron batteries. Whether it is due to the battery, or our usage pattern, I don't know.

There have been no gearbox issues so far. The previous juddering during the D3-D2 downshift has not resurfaced after last year's software update.

There have been no mods done on the GT and I am not planning anything as yet. Certainly there will be no performance upgrades as I want this to remain the safe car that it is.

The only thing if ever I would upgrade in the near future is the HU. The Blaupunkt Philadelphia 835, although a great unit, is very slow by today's standards. As I keep cramming mp3s into the SD card and USB drives, it gets slow loading up. It sometimes even hangs, which requires me to disconnect and reconnect the pendrive. My wife very rarely uses media other than radio and bluetooth. These perform wonderfully, so she has no issues.
She has also gotten used to the OPS display while parking. Even I find this indispensable now. So any new system will need to be compatible with that.

A headlight upgrade was thought of. But since we don't do much out-of-city drives, the present set up was found adequate in most situations. For unlit roads, high beam is adequate for modest speeds. I was also worried about the battery drain any new HID set up would create. But this would definitely be the next upgrade that I would consider.

She was serviced this month.

Service charges ~ Rs.3200
Engine oil ~ Rs.3600 (Castrol Magnatec Professional OE5)
Oil filter, Air filter, Dust and Pollen filter and wiper blade changes ~ Rs.2500
Interior 3M Germkleen done on request ~ Rs. 3000.
Sums up to approximately Rs. 12,500.

So it was a rather pleasing year with the GT and we had many good moments with her. We cant help imagine how things would have been, had we bought any other car.

Most importantly, my wife keeps thanking me for this wonderful gift I had given her. Many of her colleagues and relatives who travel with her keep complementing her on her driving skills and how smooth she drives. She of course, hugs the car when she reaches home and tells her, " Those complements are for you dear ! ".

[psispace]

Three years update:

Headlamp bulbs change / upgrade:

It was a rather uneventful past year till now. My better half had become an experienced driver by now and except for the small odd traffic incidents, there were no issues.

However, she did start noticing that the headlights were not as bright as they used to be. Since we had to be changing the bulbs anyway, I wanted to change to something more bright. The service center didn’t have any stock of bulb upgrades and I was recommended to source outside if I was in a hurry. A visit to Vagtunes showed lot of options. A talk with Sugesh had him suggest an upgrade to LED headlamps. He had recommended that I change both high and low beams to LED. However, I had read about and seen videos online showing poor long distance illumination in aftermarket LEDs. So I decided to change low beams to LEDs and high beams to powerful halogens. Of course, he did offer upgrade to OEM BiXenons but those range from 50k (for preassembled) to 1 lakh and change (for original). These seem quite popular as I saw two cars (a GT and a Vento, both unregistered) being retrofitted these. I didn’t want to spend that much as this car is predominantly city driven. But no doubt, the BiXenons will be superior to the LEDs as this headlight housing is not designed for LED bulbs. But Sugesh was sure I would be satisfied.
The bulbs that I bought were these:



The low beam bulbs were branded ‘ZY’. Basically a 55W Philips LUMILEDS LUXEON assembly kit with a built-in cooling fan.



The high beams were straight forward H7 Osram Nightbreakers.

I was skeptical of the LEDs initially. I was afraid that it might be glaring for oncoming traffic. These were actually assembled pieces and I wasn’t sure how they would perform in a housing meant for halogens. However, I found out that if positioned right, its’ not glaring at all until the approaching car is right in front of your car.

After I got home from the shop I did some realignment myself to rectify this. This can be done using a wall at a specified distance from the front of the car at night. I used my apartment compound wall late at night. The trick is to adjust the position of the top of the low beam throw just below the bottom level of the high beam throw. I did this with the internal headlamp leveler on the dashboard at its' lowest setting. The only dumb thing I did was to use a normal star screw driver for adjustment instead of a proper headlight adjusting hex tool screw. This will spoil the threading inside the socket if used with some force as has happened in my case on one side.



This picture is of the left headlamp. The blue arrowed one is for vertical adjustment (up – down) and the red arrow is for lateral (sideways) adjustment.

I didn’t have the patience to video this. But I am posting one of many videos (credits to ChrisFix) and DIY links I found online below;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDudMM4J-ZE

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars.../a257/1347221/

https://www.wikihow.com/Adjust-Car-Headlights

https://uk-polos.net/viewtopic.php?t=58703&start=405

Following this, I sat in my other car at a short distance (6 car lengths) from the Polo’s headlights (on low beam) and drove towards it to check if there was any glare. It is only when you are right in front of the car that the LED glare is present.

The high beams on the Osram Nightbreakers were, of course, intolerable at that distance and is recommended only on the highway when the road is poorly lit and there is no nearby oncoming traffic. Otherwise the low beam LEDs are sufficient up to around 60kmph. Beyond that speed if the road is not properly lit, you will need to occasionally use (flash) the high beams. You could adjust the beams higher to have a longer throw, but that would affect other drivers. I kept the left side (passenger side) beam slightly higher than the right side. This is how HID headlamps are set up in modern European cars (with auto-leveling) and some even have an option to change from RHD to LHD via in-car settings.



LED on low beam, that Accord to the left is three car lengths away



LED plus Xenon on high beam, that wall is 12 car lengths away

If you drive regularly on the highway, these LEDs are not a safe alternative as anything higher than the lowest level setting will be glaring to the oncoming driver. For such situations, I would recommend less powerful halogens for low beam instead.

Dashcam:

An incident occurred where my wife received a phone call from the cops one, not so fine, morning. Someone had registered a complaint that she had allegedly knocked down his mobile phone while he was crossing the road. Neither my son who was in the back seat nor my wife remember anything hitting the car. Even a small knock on the car or the mirror would have made some noise. She was sure such a thing had not happened and denied it. The cop on the phone was quite supportive and told her there was no need to hurry to the station just yet; they will contact her later after enquiring further. We discussed in the evening that day and decided to compensate him if indeed what he said was true. However, the guy who complained was unreachable by the cops after that. Either he didn’t change his SIM to a new phone or someone was playing a prank. We thought of following it up and getting hold of the guy. But we decided later to let it go.
The only proof we had was our apartment security recording showing the car leaving 15 minutes after the alleged time of the incident. However, it could be argued that his timing was not accurate. There were no functional traffic cameras at that site either. This created a need for a dashcam to document such incidents which will prove invaluable if they go legal.
I didn’t want a large dashcam that will block visibility. An ideal solution was seen in this product:

http://www.vagtune.in/secure/car-typ...-vt0754-detail



It maintains a discrete profile and only on close inspection will you see a camera lens. It doesn’t have any built in hard drive but can support a 32GB SD card. At 720p, 30fps setting, it can record around 48 hours of video on continuous loop.

Some samples of recordings;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgxGa7tFMzU

Daytime

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2iqsnC_yFA

Night time through a narrow road my wife takes to beat the bad Kochi traffic. (You can also see the LEDs and Halogens in action)

35000km service:

Around October second week the service symbol came on. Although there were no issues, my wife noticed a slight lag in acceleration occasionally. As I don’t drive this car that regularly I couldn’t replicate the issue when I checked. This was reported. Everything was checked OK during service and car delivered back on time.
Cost of service which included change on Engine oil (Castrol Magnatec Pro), change of filters and brake fluid : Rs. 9,700/-

Mechatronics Failure:

This should have been the bold headline of this update. But I am putting it here in chronological order. Just 2 weeks after the service (on October 31st exactly), the mechatronics system gave up. I think it was a ‘bad shagun’ week for GTs because, as I gather from his post, Jaggu’s GT also suffered a failure that month end.

My wife was coming back from her clinic with my son in the evening. She was cruising down a bridge when the gears started automatically downshifting from D7 all the way to D2. This was in the midst of traffic. Fortunately, she didn’t panic and had the presence of mind to pull the car over to the shoulder of the road and stop it safely. I dread to think what would have happened if it was stuck in the middle of the highway were trucks and buses would be speeding down from the bridge.

After pulling over, there was no response on pressing the accelerator. She could change it to ‘P’’. But I don’t know if it has gone to parking mode. On restarting the engine and slotting ‘the gear lever to ‘D’, there was an alternating flashing of service symbol and gear position indicator in the MID. She called up the service center who arranged a tow truck for it to be taken to the service center. This took an hour. Unfortunately, I could reach her only just before the tow-truck came. It was late in the evening, and there was a lot of traffic. So I must credit them for making things available at least in that time.

I didn’t have the heart to video the error display at that time. Anyway, the internet is full of those videos, so my grainy videos wouldn’t have been of any value except for documentation. The guy who took a look at the car immediately figured it was a mechatronics fault. He asked me if I had extended warranty, which I didn’t. He told me it would cost around 1.25 lakhs to replace. We had to pay cash for the towing service as it was a private service. We paid the cash, left the car on the road side with the service agent and came home with a heavy heart.

The next day morning, my wife got a call from the center conforming that it was indeed a mechatronics failure. She was also reassured that they would try to ‘adjust’ the cost of the repair as much as they can and not to worry. We received no calls for a couple of days after that. Thoughts of going the legal way, selling the car etc. started creeping into our heads. However, in a subsequent call, I was assured that the mechatronics would be replaced under dealer warranty and we would need to pay only a nominal charge. That was relieving to hear but not reassuring. We were told it would take anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks for arrival of parts. After three weeks, there was still no sign of the parts. EVM guys (who were always in a good relationship with us) were helpless as they received no confirmation yet that the part has left the factory. My emails to Volkswagen only gave me contacts of their regional parts hub but no definite date. Subsequent mails received no response which was very much unlike past interactions. This left a big question mark as to whether things would turn out right. Just a simple reassurance that there would be a delay, and the part would arrive by such and such time would have saved us a lot of agony.

By now my wife had spent nearly 8000 bucks on Uber rides and Autos. She makes multiple trips to her clinic, my son’s school and our apartment everyday. This was beginning to be grossly inconvenient for her as personal trips (temple, parlour, friends, relatives, shopping etc.) were being deferred due to lack of personal transport. She was not confident of driving another loaner or rental car. So again, we were reluctantly thinking of buying another car. But which one? At this price point there were very few that would match. The Ford Figo Ti-VCT AT? Hyundai i20 Magna AT? New Ford Ecosport 1.5L Titanium AT? The latter in its’ new avatar with 6 air bags and multitude of features looked enticing. None of these though, actually compare to the GT.

Finally (to our relief), 25 days after the breakdown, we finally get confirmation of delivery in 3-5 days. The service guys suggested we use this time to do some painting work on the bumper and body panels which had got a few scratches. The work on the front bumper, left rear door and rear panel came to around 10k. We were billed only Rs. 590/- for the mechatronics work.

I am glad that my dealer (EVM) and Volkswagen were willing to bear the cost of repair of what is actually a known manufacturing defect in this type of gearbox. Especially as I was out of warranty. I wonder if any other manufacturer would have done the same. I remember other reports in this forum wherein the dealer had to be ‘coaxed ’ to provide warranty cover on the gearbox upon failure. Some did not get warranty due to unauthorized mods. Even my Volvo dealer had refused to repair my DIM without full charge when it went faulty couple of years back. It was a simple fix. But they wanted to replace the whole unit. That was prohibitively expensive. I had to resort to the help of a fellow BHPian’s ( jfxavier ) friend to get it fixed.

So, mechatronics failure is a reality in these cars. Prospective buyers would be wise to note this before modding their cars. Depending on your relationship with your dealer, your warranty may be void. It is reassuring to know that Volkswagen is aware and in most cases approving replacements without financially burdening the buyer. No doubt, they don’t want any more bad press than what is already going around now.

Despite it’s faults, this is still a wonderful car. After missing it for nearly a month, driving it again just reaffirmed how mechanically smooth and user friendly this machine is. We only hope this episode does not repeat with the replaced unit. Here’s keeping fingers crossed again till the next update.

[psispace]

Four years, 42,000km update

Cant believe how fast time flies. It was in late 2014 when she (the GT) joined our family. And it has been quite an eventful four years. Fortunately, nothing too bad. The worst that had happened was the mechatronics failure in October 2017. But that was replaced under goodwill and the gearbox has been flawless since.

We have relocated to a quite town called Kothamangalam in Kerala. This is on the way to Munnar and an hours drive from Kochi. The nearest major service center is in a place called Perumbavoor which is a 20 minute drive from our place. On request, our car was promptly taken the next day from our residence and returned the same evening. This was only routine service and no major repairs. I haven't visited the service center in person yet. Perumbavoor is the parts hub for Volkswagen in Ernakulam district, so I don't think there should be any issues here. The cost of service came to Rs. 15,000 which included 3M interior cleaning and parts replacements including timing belt. There was also a requirement for polishing out some scratches which I got done locally prior to the service. This required painting on the bonnet and polishing the whole car which was done for Rs. 4000. The work done is decent.

The low beam LEDs are now proving to be more useful as the roads here have less traffic and some parts are poorly lit. It is only during rains that the LEDs don't feel adequate as the light tends to disperse. And it rains a lot here. It doesn't help that Neriamangalam (a place which has the highest average rainfall in Kerala) is just half hours drive from here. It is known as " The Cherrapunjee of Kerala". It is also on the way to Idukki and Munnar.

The roads in and around Kothamangalam are surprisingly good and its only the roads leading to it that were horribly pot holed. Post the recent floods, a lot of these roads have been repaired. We were lucky, and thank God, that our vehicles weren't damaged in the floods.

As everything is running fine, no further mods are planned on the GT for now.
She remains as she was last year.

Further updates as they happen.
Ciao for now.

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by psispace

Four years, 42,000km update

Cant believe how fast time flies. It was in late 2014 when she (the GT) joined our family. And it has been quite an eventful four years. Fortunately, nothing too bad. The worst that had happened was the mechatronics failure in October 2017. But that was replaced under goodwill and the gearbox has been flawless since.

Great going and wish you many more miles with the GT. How much have you driven post the mechatronics replacement. Is it working fine post the change. I have a 2017 GT that has done only 6.5 k till now and the mechatronics worry is always on my mind. Yours is likely the most driven GT and your inputs would be invaluable to us all.

[psispace]

Originally Posted by Traveler

Great going and wish you many more miles with the GT. How much have you driven post the mechatronics replacement. Is it working fine post the change.

Thanks for your wishes.

The mechatronics failure occurred just after the 35000 km service, in the third year. The car has done 7000 km since then. So far its running like new. But its too early to tell and we are just keeping our fingers crossed.
In this scenario, it would be wise to get the extended warranty if you still can. It doesn't cost much and will give you peace of mind.

I have a 2017 GT that has done only 6.5 k till now and the mechatronics worry is always on my mind.

I guess driving style and maintenance definitely has a lot to do with longevity.
This car is my wife's daily drive and I use it only occasionally. She is a sedate driver.

I do give it the beans, only once in a while, on the highway. But those are few and far between. As you know, even our national highways are now crowded with vehicles. There are not many places you can drive even at the legal limit without risking it.

Modifications to the powertrain may also cause additional stress to the transmission if not done professionally. My car is stock except for the electrical add-ons. However, to the contrary, there are heavily modded cars out there that haven't reported any mechatronics failures till now.

I am actually curious as to how many had a second mechatronics failure.

I suggest that you stop worrying and just enjoy your ride. This thing is not predictable. Worrying about it will just spoil the fun.

Yours is likely the most driven GT and your inputs would be invaluable to us all.

Oh, I am sure there are members in this forum who have done a lot more. But I will be only too glad to answer any queries.

[Traveler]

Thanks for your detailed reply. I do have the extended warranty till 3rd year. Had taken it right at time of delivery. Will explore if it can be extended to another year.

Everytime I drive the GT it makes me hate all other cars in my garage.

Best of luck for many more miles to come.

[psispace]

5 years, 50,000 km update

The 5th annual service was done this month. No major parts replacements were required during this service. Routine service with change of engine oil etc. was billed at Rs.11,000/-.

In the past year apart from cosmetic services for some scratches, the windshield washer nozzle and the right rear ABS sensor had to be changed.

The windshield nozzle clamp was broken and was dangling freely which I noticed while I was washing the car. Surprisingly, it was spraying on the windshield reasonably well even in this position.

The rear ABS sensor, I suspect, was damaged after some over enthusiastic wheel cleaning I did on a Sunday. Perhaps while spraying the hose under high pressure to clean the wheel arches, I might have damaged the sensor. My better half noticed the ABS sensor warning light light up the next day. I asked her to take it easy driving and gave the car up for service next day. The sensor fault was detected and changed.

The nozzle replacement cost just Rs.900/-. The ABS sensor replacement cost Rs. 4800/-. I am a little more cautious while washing the wheels now.

I also replaced the tyres this month. They were up to their tread wear indicators now and have run around 25000 km now. The wear had accelerated after we moved to Kothamangalam. The roads here are windy and rough on certain stretches. I retained the 195/60 profiles on the stock R17 rims. The new tyres are the Michelin Primacy 4s. This is the next generation of the earlier Primacy 3 ST. They are similar in performance and comfort.

We are quite happy with the car so far. Considering our usage and the car being reliable, no upgrade or change of vehicle is being planned at present. According to the service agent, only the suspension bushes and steering rack (courtesy the tyre upsize and bad roads) may need replacement in future. It has been 2 years since the mechatronics unit of the gearbox was replaced. There has been no issues so far. Being out of the city, there is no stop-go traffic here. Hopefully this will ensure longevity.

Till next update, Ciao

[Mission_PGPX]

Originally Posted by psispace

5 years, 50,000 km update

I also replaced the tyres this month. They were up to their tread wear indicators now and have run around 25000 km now. The wear had accelerated after we moved to Kothamangalam. The roads here are windy and rough on certain stretches. I retained the 195/60 profiles on the stock R17 rims. The new tyres are the Michelin Primacy 4s. This is the next generation of the earlier Primacy 3 ST. They are similar in performance and comfort.

Till next update, Ciao

I think your stock rim size is R15 with 195/60 profile tyres. R16 is the max rim size offered on GT. Mine has R16 and now i am struggling to find the stock profile size in michelin P4ST. I will have no choice but to upsize to Jetta, 205/55 R16. By the way, did you get the petes remap done, being local. I have to say its a must for GT TSI. Now your car has matured to a level where you can go ahead with the same.

[psispace]

Originally Posted by Mission_PGPX

I think your stock rim size is R15 with 195/60 profile .
By the way, did you get the petes remap done, being local. I have to say its a must for GT TSI. Now your car has matured to a level where you can go ahead with the same.

Yes it's R15. My bad. The R17s were for my Volvo S60. That got ' auto typed ' here which I should have edited. The stock tyres were 185/60 R15.

This car is predominantly driven by my better half. I would love to do a lot of mods on this car, however it would prove difficult for her. Hence, whatever mods were done so far were for convenience rather than performance. May be in future if she gets tired of the car, I can think of remaps, paddle shifters, suspension mods and such.
For now, it's her baby and she won't let me mess around with it.

[psispace]

6 years ; 60000km update

Just realized that I haven't updated this thread for a while. More than a year actually.
Yes, the car is still with us and going strong. Fortunately, nothing too dramatic to report.

It having been the Covid season and all, she didn't see much running for a few months.
In March last year, my wife was stuck at my family home in Thrissur just when the lockdown started. She had carried the GT's key with her but left the car with me. I fortunately had a remote spare key. But 1 week into it's use, the key fob just broke after a spring inside gave way. When you get a spare remote, the original spare key (without the remote) gets deactivated in a software update. This can be used only to open or close the door for emergencies and not start the car.

I tried to trick the system by trying to keep the metal portion of the broken key fob in contact with the original spare key. Then I tried cranking the engine. But this didn't work, and the car went into 'SAFE' mode and could not be started. As the country was in lock down, I could not get the service center to reset the code.

So for one month, every other day, I used to manually push the car back and forth a metre to prevent the tyres from getting worn out. This was possible by releasing the gear lock and putting it in neutral. This is a procedure in itself which involves removing the base cover of the gear lever. I had taken photos of the same but foolishly deleted them sometime.

When my wife was finally able to join me in April, the car started with her key and we ordered a new spare. This however, brought to light the low quality of this key fob.

In August 2020 I had the next battery breakdown. Fortunately, the car was parked in a safe place when this happened. VW breakdown service where able to come the next day to replace the battery.

We were also required to replace two ABS sensors on different wheels on separate occasions. Apparently it is a ongoing problem in VW cars. Something to do with our weather. Don't know how far true that is.

The 6th year service was done in December 2020
Apart from the routine service, suspension struts and steering gear had to be replaced. This was expected as the wear and tear in these parts were pointed out to us in a previous service. Due to this, the service cost came to around 50k including parts and labour.

With the risk of jinxing it, I must mention there have been no mechatronix or gearbox issues thus far. There being fairly less traffic in Kothamangalam (Ernakulam) were I stay now, the gearbox may not be strained as much as in city traffic (i.e. Kochi).

Engine is still smooth and she remains a fun car to drive. Now with DSG gearboxes discontinued in newer GT models, she has become a bit of a niche in this segment. I am just waiting for my wife to get bored with it so that I can start my mods on it. But she just ain't lettin go !

[psispace]

7 years, 65000km update:

Annual service was done last month.
Routine service with some cosmetic TLC came to Rs.19,000.

There were two episodes of ABS sensor failures in the past year. Each session cost Rs. 7000. With this, the ABS sensors on all 4 wheels have been changed so far.

With such low running, there has been no further issues.

We were also told the AC compressor is at the end of its' lifecycle and may need to be replaced once its' efficiency reduces. This will cost around 15 - 20k.

No DSG issues so far. Engine is as smooth as ever. Wife loves the car and has no desire to upgrade. So its' still her baby with whom I can play with once in a while.

I don't know whether I should be happy this is a boring thread.