[RajaTaurus]

Originally Posted by Prodigy07

Congratulations on the new Jetta RajaTaurus
OT - I have spotted your Cedia 1-2 times at Hotel Bell Monkey (Tenkasi). We usually stop by that hotel for a quick strong tea before continuing our journey to Karunagapally.

Spotted and no Hi - Hello? Monkey's is about 4 km from my home and I am a regular there. Next time you pass, please give me buzz, we will try to join for tea. I will PM my contact number.

[Baddychat]

Congratulations on your new ride and wishing you thousands of happy and safe miles. Lovely color this. Wonder why I see very few Jetta's in this shade.
Lovely review and pics to boot. By the way what was the odo reading when you sold your Cedia.

[RajaTaurus]

^^Cedia had done 87k in 9 years.

[rejoycjohn]

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus

[b][u]

Comfortline comes with MIB-II Infotainment system. When I touched the screen first, I was looking for weird headed, multi handed ugly looking friends of Will Smith to pop out of it, but nothing like that happened. Music replay and speaker systems are of good quality. Fancy Balance-Fader joystick is fun to use and accurate. Bass is great and tweeters do their part well. Graphic Equalizer is missing and only good old Bass-Mid-Treble adjustments are provided, digital though. Apart from all connectivity and music capabilities, the Park Pilot and other safety feature display are what impressed me.

Congratulations on the new car. Jetta is fine upgrade from the sporty Cedia. I am sure that you will be missing the simplicity of your Cedia and its humbleness while driving around in your new car. I always liked the Cedia, its a shame that Mitsubishi decided to axe it and stop selling any sedans in India.

MIB-2 is rated as a very capable infotainment system. Even though in India its released without car play / android auto, in many countries carplay / android auto is an optional addition for an amount quivalent to £120.00. Which makes me think if it would be something that can be activated by a VCDS cable. I may be completely wrong and it would require some hardware tweaks to get going. I am sure that there are experts on this forum who can definitely rule it in or out.
http://uk.pcmag.com/volkswagen-mib-i...en-mib-ii-2016

Originally Posted by TheARUN

Congratulations on the Jetta. You cannot go wrong with this car, its based on the internationally best-selling Golf. The Jetta is you ask me is a rebadged A4, and that my friend is a very good thing. You got an A4 for half the money

Not really, Jetta is not a rebadged A4. Infact as you rightly said in the first part, the MK6 VW Jetta is based on the PQ35 platform on which VW Golf MK5 is based on. PQ35 has been there from early 2000.
"PQ35 is intended for compact-size vehicles, and PQ46 is an enlarged version for mid-size vehicles, such as the Volkswagen Passat. A common misconception is that the PQ46 generation of the Passat is based on the "B6" (PL46) platform. However, this transverse engined Passat has little in common with the longitudinal engined "B6" Audi A4."
'Source google

If one is after a sedan from vw group on the latest platform in the 'budget luxury' sedan range, then Skoda Octavia is the answer.

[RajaTaurus]

Originally Posted by rejoycjohn

I am sure that you will be missing the simplicity of your Cedia and its humbleness while driving around in your new car...

...Not really, Jetta is not a rebadged A4....

You just reiterated it. Driving Cedia is like 'Hiccup' riding 'Toothless'. So simple, yet extremely versatile. I will always miss it. Actually, my wife is the happiest person to have bought Jetta, as humbleness has started descending on me.

Arun didn't meant it technically, I guess. It was just like saying 'poor man's Audi.'

[RajaTaurus]

Here is a quick update:

Lord Ganesha takes charge of Safety & Loss Prevention.



Registration done 20/09/16. RC Book received 28/09/16 (One of the advantages of registering in Rural town).

3M CS50 - Sun Control film treatment done for side and rear glass. Though cooling is great and the blue tinted glass looks nice, I had to go for CS50 mainly to keep those 'Peekaboos' away at traffic lights and crowded streets.

Full floor mat done. The ground near my home is red soil and no proper roads. And it is wet for more than 6 months in a year and the felt flooring gets soiled so soon.



And there it goes - the Airbag Error. They removed and reinstalled front seats and in the process they disconnected and reconnected the Airbag cables. The error can be only reset by VW service center. Few days ago on my long trip to Trichy and back, I passed by VW Madurai and their lads did the job in a whisker.

Long Trip: Few days ago, I took the car on it's maiden long trip, Tenkasi - Trichy and back - 640 kms two way with about 400 kms on highway. Highway driving was pleasant and even at 140 kmph, noise ingression was very much subdued. Surprisingly, the tire noise was not that prominent at speeds exceeding 120 kmph. All three noises i.e., Engine noise, tire noise and wind noise were kind of balanced and not disturbing at all. May be I am comparing the tire noise to Cedia's big screamer RE88's and that's why it doesn't hurt me. Braking is definitely not as great as Cedia at high speeds and the braking distance is a couple of feet more. I am careful not to go for 'last second braking' like I used to do with my Cedia.

Taming the Turbo - On rural roads, after each speed breaker, the car just refuses to take off on 2nd gear and those few seconds of turbo lag are just killing me. I found a crude way to overcome this - Just after passing the speed breaker, on 2nd gear, press the gas pedal a bit more and press the clutch slightly, to let the engine rise, turbo takes over much quicker and then release the clutch and move on. The lag was almost eliminated.

And another big thing I noticed was the respect the car commands on road. No car gets its adrenaline pumped to go after me chasing (ask a Cedia Owner and you will know what I mean). Slower cars give way decently and I am enjoying the newly found attention.



The trip meter showed at the end of the trip the average as 14.4. I am yet to do a full tank to full tank check, but don't expect any big difference.

[arvind71181]

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus

I found a crude way to overcome this - Just after passing the speed breaker, on 2nd gear, press the gas pedal a bit more and press the clutch slightly, to let the engine rise, turbo takes over much quicker and then release the clutch and move on. The lag was almost eliminated.

Congrats on the car, wish you many happy miles with it.

Wont the above maneuver decrease the shelf life of the clutch?

[RajaTaurus]

Originally Posted by arvind71181

Congrats on the car, wish you many happy miles with it.

Wont the above maneuver decrease the shelf life of the clutch?

Thank you Arvind.
Actually 'shelf life' means if the clutch is in shelf and not in use. Academics apart, yes this is similar to half clutching while going uphill slowly. It will strain the clutch a bit. But I am used to stretch my machines.

[CarguyNish]

Congratulations Raja Taurus on you're Jetta TSI. Silk blue looks very premium along with Tempest Blue Metallic. In fact Blue is always a pleasing color.

Regarding using half clutch when going over speed humps, I also use same thing and the clutch is as good as new on our Jetta. No harm in doing that.

Cheers.

[RajaTaurus]

Having crossed a thousand kilometers safely, BlueJay has been yearning to go for a ghat road drive and I fulfilled its request yesterday and took it for a mid week drive. As we live close by Pothigai mountains, I took BlueJay to Thenmalai Barrage dam, about 40 kms one way drive.

Old photo of Thenmala Barrage


Jetta handles very much the same way as Cedia, a bit - just a little bit - feels heavier. Climbing slopes on 2nd gear needs initial half clutching and then it pick ups naturally. 3rd, 4th and 5th gears - all useful on ghats and at no point the car struggled. Fast cornering (uphill and downhill) is fun and feels even more planted than Cedia.

Though Jetta is bigger than Cedia in length and width, I did not feel nervous while driving through narrow sections and passing trucks was easier than I thought. Big relief indeed, as it was my only concern that drivability through narrow roads could be a problem with bigger car.

A few picturesque snaps.




All that Glitters!

[RajaTaurus]

Update on my “To-get-used-to” List.

1. Press clutch to start – No problem.
2. Reverse Gear position – No problem.
3. Indicator stack on the left – Still kicking the wiper to use the lane change or turn. Habits die really hard.
4. Turbo Lag – Like I mentioned before I found a way to tame the Turbo and problem solved.
5. Driver's visibility, turning radius, slightly bigger length and width – Got over all these points and don’t matter anymore.

Having said that I want to say this again – Nobody knows how to make a driver’s car to match a Mitsubishi Lancer, not even Mitsubishi themselves. Man, I miss it and I miss it real bad.

It has been largely peaceful journey for past six months with my BlueJay. I had been to many places in Tamil Nadu and once to Kerala. I was driving most of the time on rural roads, sedately between 60 and 100 speed, enjoying the comfort and coziness of the German machine.

A Little talk about Mileage:
Well, the car behaved differently when driven differently. While driving between 60-100 for a full tank, it gave just over 15 kmpl. Once I did a straight Tenkasi-Chennai 620 kms with a 1 hour break. The car returned 13.2 onward and 13.3 on return journey respectively.

And it threw me a surprise when I took to Kollam. For a 450 kms drive, out of which 200 kms were Ghat section, BlueJay gave me 17.8 kmpl. The speed was in the range of 30-60 max.


Not that I am really bothered about the mileage, I am just posting the 1.4 L, Turbocharged engine’s behavior.

DRLs.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I had ordered through Amazon and got IJDMTOY DRLs (White). I got them installed during my recent First service by VW. Here are some snaps.





Though not too bright like Audi, it is powerful enough from distance. Besides, the white color makes people feel that it is really a DRL and they now refrain from showing five fingers to me (indicating that my headlights are on). The White color blends with the Silk Blue body color well and looks pleasant.

First Inspection at 6 Months/7,500 kms.

BlueJay was due on 28-Feb-2017 for the First free Inspection. I had done about 6400 kms in the past 6 months. I had an appointment for 21-2-17 and arrived there at around 10:30 am. They were waiting and my car was listed on the board for service. They check-listed the car and drove it in.

My complaints / requests were as follows:
1. Left rear door – heavy rattle.
2. Steering felt tight.
3. Replace the DRL with out of market LEDs.
Their floor manager insisted that after 5000 kms, VW recommends that alignment and balancing to be done and those would be chargeable. Good Old Trick. I straightaway refused to tamper with alignment and definitely not balancing. For my Lancer, I did the balancing and alignment only when tires were changed at 35K kms. It was running fine. I told them a big No. Somehow they agreed and didn’t take anything about warranty.

They fixed the door rattle. As far the steering wheel tightness, they said it is the same on all Jettas and I would have to ‘get used to it’. Again?

They initially said that the warning light might come up when we changed the DRL bulb. I told them that I had done enough research on these particular bulbs and the light wouldn’t come on. The bulbs were swapped and no warning lights.

Inspection was done by 1 pm and I was ready to hit the road. I started the Ignition and was hit with a pleasant surprise. The Needle Sweep had been activated, though I didn’t ask for it. I had to get back home so, I didn’t bother to ask them the details.

https://youtu.be/0ifiYZKc--w

Well, with the white DRL’s and Needle Sweep the Jetta felt slightly more Audi-ish.

Navigation is still a big missing thing in the car. They said 'the software has come but, the activation key hasn’t come yet and will update when they receive'. Anyway that is my next project for the BlueJay.

[keeru]

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus

Taming the Turbo - On rural roads, after each speed breaker, the car just refuses to take off on 2nd gear and those few seconds of turbo lag are just killing me. I found a crude way to overcome this - Just after passing the speed breaker, on 2nd gear, press the gas pedal a bit more and press the clutch slightly, to let the engine rise, turbo takes over much quicker and then release the clutch and move on. The lag was almost eliminated.

Sir, but in the Jetta TSI that I have driven hardly move when depress the clutch unless gas pedal is pressed while it is still in 1st gear.
After depressing more, it starts to shudder before the engine halts.

I do not think this is common in 1.4 TSI while my Diesel Polo 1.6 just accelerates without having the need to press the A pedal.
Have tried in couple of other petrol cars and surprisingly those cars were moving.

If I have to press both C and A pedal and especially in Bangalore B2B traffic, then the drive would become cumbersome.

Got it checked at VW service station and they said that is absolutely normal in petrol vehicles and clutch seems to be perfectly alright.

Please let me know if this is usual and have you noticed in your car at 1st gear.

Thanks,

[RajaTaurus]

That also depends on the idle rpm settings. Back in Saudi, my Camry, with only me in it, will move even in 2nd gear without pressing the gas pedal. But the downside will be, it will eat into the mileage. My advice will be, to avoid letting the car move without foot on gas. I have done B2B in my Cedia with gas and clutch combo. What I do is, to press the gas to a particular rpm and move / stop the car by clutch control. Well, people might say that will reduce clutch life. My Cedia did 92k kms in 9 years without slightest problem in clutch. Try it and tell me.

[RajaTaurus]

Blue Jay proudly displays Team-Bhp Stickers now. Small stickers are for parking lot admirers.😀

[RajaTaurus]

After 31,000 Kms and 34 months, the battery gave up.
This morning when I turned the key, starter motor chuckled feebly, but all kinds of warning lights were flashing and the MID went berserk. Check Front right, left, Turn signal, ABS, ASC, "Workshop"! Somehow I kept cool and called in the nearest battery guy. He put in a service battery and everything is quiet. Car started normally and no warning lights nor messages.
Can't VW just set the message to "Battery Low" like mobile phones, instead of scaring the brains out of the driver?
I have ordered Ameron Pro and is expected this evening. Other than that My BlueJay is doing fine - touchwood.