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-   -   Priya's VW Polo GT TSI! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/173154-priyas-vw-polo-gt-tsi-4.html)

I know it is off topic but since you brought it up, what makes you think that Forester is not an SUV? Size (lack of ) and the looks :) ? Forster came with full time four wheel drive with low range, 190 mm of GC etc. It was a mini SUV.

Thank you, yes i'll leave that for another time.

With respect to the Polo GT my references are no farther than hatch's sold in India now and before.

The company didn't even give us a proper Polo 6C. VW can give us a proper GT if they choose to, however why would they when all the reviewers were too hung up on the engine and gear box to notice anything else. Which is weird as the Ford's equally brilliant 1.0 ecoboost doesn't get any attention.

And VW isn't doing us a favour, a quick glance at their financials will tell you that India is the only market in APAC VW is recording growth in. So why tell them anything goes just because we are starved of performance hatches. Don't you think that is the wrong direction?

As mentioned before I wasn't looking for a hot hatch, but I cannot write a review about a hot hatch as if it isn't just because I wasn't looking for one that just wouldn't be fare to the other cars. No?

Thank you, btw everyone I am not trying to prove anything here, however I will happily engage you in any topic you do bring up to me, on my review that is :)

I understand but if I bring that up there will be too many things causing us to digress, I mean can you imagine what would happen if I were to tell it, it will open the flood gates! I am sure there will be other opportunities as I am here to stay and happy that I'm here!

What makes you think so? Why do you think all reviewers are skewed? We have both official and ownership reviews on the forum.

Anyway, even if you were right, now that you are a part of our team, things will be better - Hopefully. :)

Again being judgemental? We love eco-boost engine. Please go through the official review. Eco-sport is again a desirable vehicle. Only problem is, one can't own all that one likes.

Can you list the present premium hatch backs, in the order of your preference, based on their handling capability?

We are only trying to understand your comments. That will avoid confusion (Eg: In my previous post, I was talking about delivery and you were talking about refinement).

What are you worried about? :)

We are just enthusiasts who are not biased over any manufacturer or any particular car.

Glad you mentioned this, else anyone who read your review would have felt the opposite :)

Really appreciate your honest review. In a world where we see buyers defending their choice no matter what their real feeling is, your review was a welcome relief. Loved the humor and sarcasm at many places.

However coming to your choice and your feeling about the car, unfortunately, I too feel similar to many other members who posted in this thread. It is a clear cut case of Expectations vs Reality mismatch. You should have test driven the car at least once. I am sure that would have eliminated half the cribbing you have about the car. May be you would have loved the car more for what it is or you would have moved on to get a different car. However, that is past and you now have the car.

I agree with your view regarding the rear bench space in the Polo. Happened to sit in a friend's Polo and that made sure I didnt even have to test drive the car - with that kind of space, it is definitely not the car for my family. So no comments on the drive, ride, handling, engine character and steering.

Happy that you love the car in spite of its shortcomings. That is how life is, right? No one and nothing is perfect. Happy motoring dear friend!!!

That was my bad, but yes now that you pointed it out the award for car with the most buttery smooth power delivery cannot possibly go to the Polo with its DSG (maybe the most liner power delivery will belong to the GT). That will have to belong to the Jazz with its CVT or the Micra perhaps. But I believe we are digressing too much lets stick to the Polo GT. Should you have any reason to believe I was unjustly critical to it in any aspect I would most certainly like to know.

I'm absolutely not cribbing about the car. But it is what it is :).

:OT I for one, am quite surprised what sort of 'car enthusiasts' our country has. Everything seems to be upside down here. Enthusiasts do not buy automatics or regular VWs. And enthusiasts would never buy a car without a test drive. I test drove a ridiculous number of cars multiple times before settling on mine and spent what regular people would call an 'insane' amount of time on it, and enjoyed every bit of it. And yeah, I drive a manual, even in Mumbai's horrible traffic, and don't regret it for one moment.

Nicely worded review with some pertinent points. I like the way you are not bowled over by the hype surrounding the car. I quite agree to some of the things you have said like pathetic rear leg space, evident cost cutting in interiors. The fact that the quick shifting DSG mated with the small TC’d engine makes weaving through traffic easier in our congested roads. To a certain extent I also agree about the mediocre suspension, steering feel and spongy braking.

What I don’t agree to is your fixation with the GT moniker.

“But the most serious expectation setting thing is the "GT" badge, a badge adorned by cars like Alfa Romeo Guilia GT the Ferrari 250 GT”.

This actually made me laugh. Think about the Swift RS and Ciaz RS, are they even remotely similar to the Cayman GT4 RS or Focus RS . The majority of Polo GT TSi sales is from women and aged guys in tier I cities. I don’t think VW markets it as a hot hatch. It’s the people who keep claiming it’s a hot hatch rather than being just a great city car. I am also curious as to why you bought it without a TD especially since you were even worried about the “phantom clutch” (I am guessing this is your first auto car).


“I handed over the keys to him (Still had not driven the car) and went straight to the car radio place to install an android HU I got from aliexpress.”
This is probably the very reason why in India auto folding orvm and other trivial things gets precedence over adaptive damping and the likes.

Few things like customizing with sunroof, expecting a turbo petrol to be as rev happy as a NA Honda or even the humble Estilo are irrelevant.

Coming to the Fords 1.0 Ecoboost , it is no where as good as the 1.2 Tsi. It may be on paper with its size and numbers but I have driven both extensively and the Polo Tsi will run circles around it notwithstanding the quick shifting DSG which helps its cause further.

Finally, since you had set the budget for 20 lacs it would have been wise to wait for the GTi (a proper hot hatch and a deserving GT car) or get a sparingly used German.

Do we really need to assess a member's enthusiasm as well, in a similar fashion as we compare cars?

The statement- enthusiasts do not buy automatics or regular VWs is rather prejudiced and provocative.

It's a totally different subject which one of these cars make a better enthusiast's car- whether it's the Polo GT TSi or the Honda City iVTec manual (that you own, I believe), but I'm pretty sure the votes from members would be divided almost equally. A 117hp manual C segment sedan vs a 105hp hatchback with a 7 speed DSG.

So, I request you not to look down upon the other. Even a guy who is using an ambassador or an Omni can be a 'car enthusiast' in his own rights. Live and let live. Let's discuss cars here, not owners and their enthusiasm.

Awesome review by a true petrolhead. I figured there was some "maleness" to the way the review was written (pardon me for being sexist), I couldn't figure out if GT power is male or female. There are some references in your review of you being a female but your thought process is completely male. You seem to have more expertise and knowledge about cars than an average BHPian here (including me).
And your pictures taken using a good DSLR, are a testament to the effort you have put into composing the review.
Really worth reading. Congratulations on your new ride.

Amazing review, GTPower. Thanks for writing it.

I've a request. Can you please write a test drive review of older generation Ford Figo? I own one (petrol version) and after reading your review of Polo GT TSI, I wish to read a similar review of my generation of Ford Figo. Thanks in advance.

Come on, I can not review what I don't own. However I can talk about the HU options for VW cars :)

Strictly to the point I have only seen and used two OEM like alike HUs for the Polo. One is winCE based and the other being Android based. I am writing it here as this is not a proper ICE install, its just two HUs I got to fit in my car. As to why I got two HUs in the first place that is a long story. Nevertheless I managed to give away one to my friend convincing him that an audiophile like him should really update his ICE lol:

Lets start with the Android one which I have currently fitted in the car.

Link to the product
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-...358067591.html

Its not available now for this particular seller but many of then sell the same thing under various brands.

Cost - 284 USD Inclusive of shipping (I was not charged any customs on this, it was shipped through EMS)

This one has 4 pre outs, a sub out, video out, video in, camera in, CANBUS decoder and pretty much everything under the sun. I don't think anyone will be left wanting for more on connectivity.

The CANBUS decoder on this HU is external and I think is a two way CANBUS but I have no way of confirming this.


The android home screen

The bluetooth system on the HU is very simple and a bit primitive.


Bluetooth music player does not display any of the track's meta data. Not even the song name is displayed.


The bluetooth phone book syncs your phone book and recent calls

Car infomation


A pop up appears when any of the 5 doors are opened. However the pop up goes away after a bit it does not stay there till the door is closed.


The car info app shows various parameters like fuel level, handbrake position, engine rpm, total mileage etc. However I found this app a bit inconvenient as it does not display all parameters at a glance and you will need to scroll to see all the parameters

Radio



The radio app looks beautiful, the reception is a bit weaker than the OEM player however.

Music


The default music app is easy to use. It does not display album art in this view, however when you come back to the home screen the small box on the left displays album art.

Reversing



The HU has an option of enabling static grid lines even if the camera does not have its own. My camera had its own grid lines so I switched off the one's on the HU. The blue line shows where the car is expected to go depending on the current steering angle. It does not show distance between the car and object behind it, but that could be because the car does not have a OPS system sending the required information through CANBUS

Navigation



The HU came built in with a navigation app called Navgear.

Screen Mirroring

The seller was insistent that screen mirroring would work with an iphone but it does not work with the app that came with it. I managed to get it to mirror the iphone screen using a another app though.

The biggest let down for me is that this HU does not have ipod compatibility. As I carry all of my music (when on the go) on Apple Music (DRM protected) I cannot transfer them to a USB stick to play it on the car. So I need to play my music using bluetooth which is the worst way to play music on this HU.

Sound quality is something I cannot assess fully but it is very similar to the other HU I am going to write about. The primary reason is the stock speakers are just not going to work with any after market HU very well as they seem to be very thoroughly optimized to sound best with the OEM HU. Besides this is just the source system, in my experience the quality of the source's circuitry does not make a significant difference when listening to low bit rate digital sources (which is all the music on apple music that I carry) of course your experiences may differ.

So if you were one of those guy who has to root and TWRP everything. Then this probably is your idea of Nirvana! Unlimited connectivity options, quad core processor, wifi and what not. You will never probably need to use any of the apps shown in my pictures. You can change pretty much everything, except the bluetooth maybe.. that is really a lost cause. But if you are someone who needs things to just work and make sense as soon as you plug it in then this HU might not be exactly what you need.

Nice review Priya. Suffering from a little buyer's remorse is understandable but hope you learn to appreciate the good things about your GT TSI in due course.
At the end of the day it's a sub-10L car and when you consider all factors, you get value for what you pay. Hey maybe one day you get that V40 and rock a fanboy review out of it :D

Wish you many happy miles and keep posting. This particular car and its variants VW has milked to death with myriad engines and gearboxes (I have a primitive one myself) so always good to have an honest owner perspective.

Hi GTpower its been quite a time, since I saw someone speak so frankly and going against the tide!

yes, I agree with you that the GT is over-rated, not to a great extent like you portray, maybe the engine and DSG combo blinds us auto enthusiasts considering its the top of the cream that's on offer for a typical Indian budget. At the time of it's launch 100 PS is unheard of and considered powerful. Now the competition is changing with the VGT 89 PS from our national DDIS (I know it's a long way but they are catching up) and to be frank its shows its age.

I owned a polo TDi( lost her to floods) and I can relate to what you say. I agree no rear seats lol: not much of a corner craver either but the build quality and high speed stability is a notch above the competition.

wow! even I use the same left curve for body roll test. And even with a wide profile 195/60/15 I felt the polo had a good amount of body roll while coming down. I am not sure whether the bridge is designed in such a way, but on the highways down south especially from Trichy till Tirunelveli which have only curves for road, I found the corner grip satisfactory, maybe less for you since it's the GT badge. :D

polo is a car that grows on you, I hope you will enjoy her even more after the run-in service.

Happy motoring!

Sure you can. Just go ask for a TD :)

If you haven't already changed them, check this post for a plug n play replacement to your speakers. These don't need spacers.

I have replaced mine with components, which improve the sound quality even with the stock head-unit. The speaker removal and fitment process at a normal accessories shop is a bit distressing, because they drill the rivets out and drill new holes to fit the components with a spacer. But you could try and find an installer who knows how to remove and re-install the rivets, or do less damage.