Team-BHP
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https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)
WE TWO, OURS TWO
Background
After my Punto 1.2 completed 5 years in 2015, the embryo of a car change started to develop inside my mind. But since the Punto was a gem of a vehicle and serving me really well, my need was not too urgent. Honestly, it was more of a desire than a need at that stage.
Ever since the Abarth Punto was launched, the desire only became stronger. More than me, everyone else around me wanted to know when I’ll buy the Abarth. The test drive of the scorpion impressed me so much that I got my Punto evaluated then and there itself. More on that is in my post
here. But it was pushed ahead because my better half gave me a conditional approval that we can go for a change only once she learnt driving.
In the long term we wanted to cut down my wife's 2 wheeler usage (currently it is 1000Kms a month). Plan was that she can use the Punto and I can change to an Abarth (or a bigger car). Once while learning, she hit the Punto against a pillar in the parking lot. Details of that was mentioned
here. Even after this episode, she put lot of efforts to learn car driving, but she just couldn’t get the hang of a manual. Finally we decided that we’ll get an Automatic car for her.
I always had an eye out for the resale value of my Punto. My minimum target was that on resale, I at least wanted an amount equal to the down-payment for our next car. After completing 6 years, and having clocked more than 80000Kms, the Punto 1.2's resale value was drastically coming down and I couldn’t get any more than 1.3-1.5 lakhs in any of the dealers/online websites. I always knew that the resale value for a Fiat would always be very low so I had no shock but however I felt that it was now time to let go of it.
With these developments, we were in a not-so-usual situation of buying two cars with less time gap between each other. Since I always like doing things differently, we decided that we will buy both cars together. The family was initially shocked but later liked the idea.
I was never aiming for a sedan (unless it is one from the Big 3). So, it was always either a hatch or an SUV. I had my eyes on XUV or duster for a while. Whatever was the case, it was always clear that I will only go for an enthusiast car. Now with the 2-cars equation coming into picture, the SUV was not affordable anymore.
We had always known that we could only afford a maximum of 15Lakhs for a new car. Now that we had decided to go for 2 cars, the maximum budget was 15 Lakhs + Resale value of my Punto.
Cars considered were a combination of the following cars:
1. Abarth Punto, Polo GT TSI, Polo GT TDI, Ecosport (Ecosport was only because people told me that it would feel like an upgrade)
2. Alto K10 AMT, Celerio AMT, Kwid AMT and Nano AMT
A small twist came up. Since my wife would also start driving, everyone in the family felt that it would be better if both cars are automatic. I thought hard about this and finally decided to switch to AT. So Abarth Punto and the Polo GT TDI were knocked out. It took a while to convince myself to leave out the Abarth. And in the cars listed for my wife, Celerio was knocked out because the combined budget would cross our limit.
Finally, our criteria could be summarized in one sentence as:
Two top-variant AT cars within a total budget of 15+ lakhs
Test drives
Polo GT TSI
I visited the Volkswagen showroom on Mysore road. I asked for a test drive of the Polo GT TSI. They were a little surprised at such a specific enquiry. The receptionist asked me to wait and in a minute the sales guy Mr. Ramesh came in and he asked me if I only wanted the GT TSI just trying to understand my requirement. When I told my criteria, he asked me to look at the Ameo Diesel which comes with all the features of the Polo GT TSI plus a diesel engine at only a marginally higher price. I took a look at it and it was impressive on paper but I just couldn’t imagine myself buying that ugly car.
He then told me that the GT TSI TD car was unavailable and offered a Vento DSG TD. I didn’t want it because a sedan and a hatch with the same engine are different experiences. Anyway I decided to take it but told him that I would also want to take a Polo DSG TD when it is available next. The Vento was really a beautiful machine to drive and I returned impressed. That was the first DSG I drove and it lived up to all the good words that people write about it. However, a sedan and a Hatchback with the same power train are two different things. I told them that I’ll only decide once I get to TD the Polo. The sales executive told me that he’ll arrange it in the coming week.
True to his words, he came to my home with the TD vehicle on a Tuesday evening just when I came back from office. I got a good 30 minutes and did a complete TD to my full satisfaction. The vehicle impressed me with all the features loaded into it. The steering was the best EPS I drove in this segment but still it was not as perfectly weighted as the Fiat’s steering (HPS). I almost decided that this will be the car.
But then the DSG reliability issues were always in the back of my mind. So, I couldn’t decide completely. Also the sales guy told that it will take a minimum of 3 months to deliver a vehicle if I booked it. So, since I anyway had to wait for long and my Punto was there with me, I didn’t book it immediately. Based on many people’s suggestions I decided to take the TD of Ecosport DCT
Ecosport DCT
I went to the showroom on the ORR in JP Nagar. The vehicle was available immediately and within 5 minutes I got to TD. The seating position was high and nice. The Executive explained all the features to me and it ticked most of the boxes. My wife didn’t like the dashboard and its futuristic theme, but I liked it. But that’s where it all ended.
The drive was totally unimpressive and the Gearbox was one of the most confused ones I saw. It’s calibrated too much to suit city driving and is best driven very very (include another very if you want) sedately. It doesn’t respond to you as well as it should when occasionally you want to drive spiritedly. 5Kms is what it took to me to decide against it. If I was looking for a MT, then things might have been different though. So my car was decided here…Polo GT TSI it would be
Alto K10 AMT
I went to the Kalyani motors on Mysore road on 3rd November. Due to a huge traffic jam, I reached 30 minutes late than planned at 7:30PM. The showroom looked more like a village fair than a car showroom. 10 display cars (yet no Alto K10), 100 staff members standing everywhere and some 10 customers. Out of the crowd, one person came and introduced himself as a sales executive and I told him I want to TD an Alto K10 AMT. He told me that the test drives are not available after 7 and also asked me to take a look at Celerio. Since my budget was fixed, I told him I want the Alto K10 AMT VXI only. He told that he would get the car to my home in a couple of days. I told him to get it the next Sunday which he did.
The AMT performed as expected and honestly I didn’t expect too much either. For the price-point I was not dissatisfied. It was here that I discovered that AMT comes in VXI (O) variant as well. Feature-wise, it slots between the VXI and the Manual VXI (O). Its basically a VXI plus a driver side airbag. It is not in the website but only present in the dealer price list.
Nano AMT
Soon after the Alto TD on 5th November, I headed to the Tata Showroom for the Nano AMT. It took the dealers 25mins to arrange for the AMT vehicle. I used this time to check out the features of the nano in the MT avatar parked in the showroom. We always liked the cute looks of the nano but hated the exhaust note. However the exhaust note was not a deal breaker. Also it would come at a lakh cheaper than Alto or Kwid; which made it a good offering.
The test drive was nice with the executive explaining all features and he also demonstrated how the AMT would behave in a steep gradient by driving to the first floor of the building on a ramp. I knew that without disc brakes it would be weak, however, when I drove the vehicle, the brakes were scary! This was the deal breaker for me. I wonder why Tata missed it when they provide power steering and other features. I decided I’ll not buy this for my wife. We were buying a new car for her with safety as the biggest concern and these brakes would not give me that safe feeling at all. I came away having made the decision that this will not be the car for her
Kwid AMT
This was the car that I most eagerly was waiting for. I went to the showroom and checked out the manual version and was impressed with the vehicle at that price point. When I first saw the knob style mode selector, I was thrilled. It was a first in segment and looked premium in the poster. But when the actual car’s photos came in and when I saw that there was neither a manual mode nor a creep mode, I decided not to go for it. While the creep mode’s absence could still be compromised, no manual mode meant it would be risky in some situations. Finally the decision was made even without a TD of the Kwid AMT. Alto K10 AMT it would be.
Colour
For the Polo, I wanted Black. But I was surprised to hear that GT doesn’t come in black. The options were limited to White (would be a repeat), A Red (Too flashy for my tastes) and a Grey (Dull and boring for the car’s character IMO). “Why Volkswagen Why?”. I was forced to repeat white because of this. I consoled myself that it is at least a different white than the Bosso Nova White of Punto. Just for the similarity sake, and because my daughter also told white, we decided to go for white in Alto too.
Booking
Polo
When I was still reading about the DSG issues everywhere, I was talking to owners of Polos that I know. The only thing everyone told me was to buy the extended warranty and also be prepared for the lax attitude of service centres. However, having been with Fiat, they told that they knew I could manage it.
Swami Vivekananda’s quote came to my mind at this time:
“Take risks in Life,
If you win; you may lead,
If you lose; you may guide.”
So I made up my mind to go ahead.
On 28th of November, I was talking to a colleague of mine who had purchased a GT TSI recently. When I asked her about her experiences, she was all in praises for this car. During the conversation, I told her that the waiting period indicated to me was 3 to 4 months and asked how many days she waited for her car. She was shocked and told me that she got it in 4 days and that too because of the loan processing time. She immediately called the sales executive of the dealership from where she had purchased. He told he’ll get back to me with the current status.
The next morning he sent me this message (exact words). “Good morning sir, it’s me Deepak from Volkswagen. U was interested on the GT TSI. Thought of informing that I have one GT TSI white colour which I can give u .I can deliver immediately." That was nice to hear. I spoke to him and got the quote. I also told him that I will go for the extended warranty immediately (although I could have purchased it anytime during the main warranty period of 2 years). I wired the booking amount of 10000 on 1st of December. I had told him that I’ll not be able to visit the dealership since it was in Whitefield and I would need at least 2 hours from my home to reach there. I got the booking acknowledgement copy on e-mail. For Signatures however, he asked me to come once which I did on Saturday, 2nd December 2016.
Alto
After returning from the VW dealership, at 7:00 PM, I called up the Kalyani motors sales guy that I want to book the car and a white one at that. During the TD itself he had told us that a white VXI (O) is readily available. I told him that I want to take the vehicle on Christmas Eve-My Birthday. He told me that the white is sold but he’ll surely get it since we still had more than 20 days.
He came immediately to my home and took the booking for a white Alto K10 AMT VXI (O) with a booking amount of 10000. I told him that since the RBI was thinking about interest rate change and I would want to wait for that before going ahead with the Loan processing. He suggested that I could go for SBI as it was a floating interest plan and any change will be passed on to me. He told that he’ll get the finance guy to call me. I never had imagined that we’ll have a Suzuki again in our family, but here I was, holding the booking form of one, having no other better match for our criteria!
Colour change
On 13th of December, I called the Alto sales guy to confirm the delivery date and colour. He told that it wouldn’t be possible to deliver a white car on 24th(the promised delivery date) but he can only get one dispatched from the factory within that date. I was really annoyed with this as the guys who were in such a hurry before booking, had not done anything to keep their promise and now delaying things. I gave a piece of my mind to him and told him that I’ll cancel the booking. I also checked with other deales in Bangalore but none of them had a white AMT VXI (O).
Meanwhile the sales senior then called me and told that they can give any other colour but white. I told her also that it is really pathetic that they promise everything during booking and then take the customer for granted after booking. Also the white being a solid colour would mean that any change and I would have to pay 5K more. After a lot of arguments, she told that the maximum she can do was to give me an additional discount of 5K on accessories. I was really unhappy but then told her that I’ll make a decision the next day since I didn’t want to decide when I was not in the right frame of mind. We spoke about this at home and finally decided that a Silky silver will not be a bad option after all.
It was the same colour as my first car-M800 and it was really easy to maintain. Only thing was that both cars will not be of the same colour as we had wanted it to be. We decided to go ahead with the silver as taking delivery of both the cars on the same day and that too on my Birthday was more special than both being same colours. It would’ve been better if both were same colours but the 5K accessory discount was a good bargain for that compromise we felt.
I went to the dealership and took the accessory list a day before the car went for registration. I found that the reverse parking sensor was 4999/- I asked him to put just this and nothing else. He told me to take Teflon coating, MS Dhoni kit and what not! I just told him that I don’t want anything else. This way I got the reverse sensors free of cost for the change in colour
Finance
When I spoke to the Suzuki Finance guy, I asked him if they could process loans for both cars together, he told that it wouldn’t be possible. When I went to the VW dealer, I asked the finance guy if they could process two loans, he initially told that it wouldn’t be possible. Then he told that he will do it separately in 2 different SBI bank branches and I had to visit both the Banks Once. Both the branches were far away from my home-I was not happy. I told this to the Suzuki guy, he spoke to his supervisor and then told me that he’ll do it for both cars in the same bank branch but as a joint loan. Also this bank branch was very close to my home. So, we went ahead. Loan was logged in on the 6th and approved on 7th. We went to the bank and signed agreement papers on 8th. With two cars and joint loan, we both made a total of 108 signatures to be precise! Due to holidays and communication/documentation issues (The first time this bank guys were doing such a thing with two different dealerships), the amount to the VW dealer was released only on the 15th of December 2016. The Maruti guys had got it on 11th itself.
Insurance
I had 50% NCB on my Punto and I wanted to transfer this to my new car. But since this process would take at least 2 months, I decided to use it for the second year renewal. However I told both the dealers that I will get the insurance outside as I had already enquired and found it to be a lot cheaper than what they were quoting. 10K less on the Polo and 6K less on the Alto.
VW guys were ok. Suzuki sales guy told that if I go for insurance outside, it will be difficult to get a claim approval if any. I was really pissed off by this threatening tactic and I told him to try this tactic somewhere else and not to worry about my insurance. He then told me that a 5000Rs off offer would not be applicable if I go for an insurance outside. He told that since it almost evens out the advantage, I could go with them itself. I told him that I’m really unhappy and even though I will lose the advantage, I will not buy it from them. After the PDI, I got the necessary details and got the insurance done for both the cars from outside from a known person.
Final Pricing
This was how much the cars cost us in total with all offers
MS gave a meagre corporate discount of Rs 1000 while VW gave nothing! There were so many offers on the normal Polo but nothing for the GTs.
Registration
A day before the registration, I had visited the Maruti dealership for some missing signatures. It was here that I was told that since it was a joint loan and I was the primary borrower, they will register both cars in my name to avoid confusions. I told that I would want the Alto in my wife’s name. But they insisted that it will be a problem (or more efforts on their part) to do this. In the last moment, we had to agree.
Since we would be taking both the cars together, I wanted serial registration numbers. I asked the Maruti guys if they could do it. They told that it would cost me 5k per car. I told him that I didn’t want anything fancy, but just serial numbers. But they told that since it is two different dealerships, it would be considered fancy. I felt it was too much. I asked the VW dealer if they could do it. He told that I would need to pay a small amount (unofficially of course) for this. The next day he told me that it would cost me 2500. With the cash crunch situation at that time, I had just a bit more than that with me. I paid it and made the deal. On 20th of December 2016, the files were at the RTO and registration was finished with 2 consecutive numbers allocated to our cars.
My Beloved Punto
As soon as I booked the Polo, I told a few of my friends about this decision and in a Whatsapp group. Immediately one of them asked me what I had done to my Punto. I told him that I have to sell it. He told that one of his cousins is on a look out for an used car. He asked me the price. I told him that with all the Mods, I’ll give it for 2.5 lakhs. He spoke to his cousin and he asked me if I can sell the car for him without the mods.
I thought over it and told that I will sell it for 2 Lakhs. After some bargain, finally it was sold for a tad less than that. He told that he’ll trust his cousin and without even looking at the car, he wired me the money. My friend himself drove the car on the day I took the Polo. The emotional moments when I let go of my car is in put in words in the below link
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-...ml#post4121695
As regards to the modifications, all were removed from the car. The Abarth logo set (9 logos in total), tail lamps, ORVM with indicators, Blackened headlamps, blackened fog lamp cowls, Honeycomb Grilles were all sold to one friend of mine having a white Punto. The OE parts were with me and I fixed those back. The armrest was sold to another friend. A set of used steel wheels+tyres were purchased from a person selling it in one of the fiat forums and fixed. The 17" 100PCD scorpion alloy wheels were taken out. It is still unsold. A friend told that he'll buy but later backed out. I Have put it on TBHP classifieds but haven't received any good response. I wanted to finish this review and try to sell it more aggressively.
Delivery
Alto
After getting wishes from many people for my Birthday, we reached the Suzuki showroom in an Uber at 10AM. The car was ready for delivery as promised.
Car ready for delivery
I made some more last signatures. We were handed over a Kalyani motors Backpack with a Sonax car shampoo bottle, a Puncture repair kit, a Ganesha idol, a box of chocolates, an air freshener and all the documents.
A backpack delivery kit. Nicely done.
I was explained all features and the key was handed over to me while taking a photograph on my mobile phone. By 11AM, we drove out to the petrol station and filled the complimentary fuel and headed towards the VW showroom.
My nephew excited with the new car 
The ODO taken at the fuel station 1Km away from the dealership GT TSI
The plan was that my Bro-in law would come in My Punto to the VW Showroom from where my friend would drive it away to his cousin’s place in Hubli. We all co-ordinated this very well and at 1PM, all of us reached the VW showroom in Whitefield. The 2 hour drive in traffic didn’t bother me much because I was driving an AMT. The dealership was decked up for Christhmas.
The little Santas
The delivery took only 45 minutes. Initially he explained the service booklet and other such info. Then the car arrived at the delivery bay and he explained all features in detail. Along with a bouquet and a box of chocolates, he took a customary key-handing over photograph and put it in a frame.
One box of chocolates each
Upon my request he also put the Alto in the delivery bay and we took some photographs.
From here all of us headed to the close by mall and had a celebratory lunch
Ours Two 
A complete family 
ODO reading at fuel station 8 Kms aways from the dealership
Two days after the delivery, I was at a fuel station for refill the Polo and I thought I'll check the Air pressure because something was not feeling very good.. The attendant asked me how much to fill and I told 34. To my shock I found out that three wheels were ar 44 and one was at 46!!! After reduction to 34, The ride felt balanced.
That evening, I removed all the plastic covers of both the cars. Polo’s was easy to remove and it took 20 minutes. Alto’s was really tough as all other attachments were fixed after the plastic wrapping was done. It took 30 minutes for two people to remove it.
So called protection Dealership experience
Volkswagen-Apple Auto Whitefield
The sales guy was friendly and knew very well about the car. Although he was slow in sending me the details like VIN, Invoice and other such things needed for insurance and loan processing, it was just in time and since I had ample time, it was ok for me. Delivery was fast and in fact the vehicle was ready and they were waiting for me to arrive. Overall I’ll rate a 3.5 on 5.
Volkswagen-Mysore road
This was where I took the test drive and a special mention has to be made about this. They arranged the test drives as promised. When I finally told the sales executive Mr. Ramesh that I will book it in Whitefield since I’ll get the car early, he understood and let go. He didn’t make any false promise to get a customer. I’ll rate 4 out of 5 for the limited interaction I had with them.
Kalyani Motors-Mysore road
The first impression itself was not very nice. The showroom is like a village fair! Then the sales executives’ attitude towards the customer is not that great. The sheer amount of cars that they sell is mostly the reason behind this. They take the customer for granted. Although he did everything right and at a fast pace, the sales executive doesn’t connect with the customer. This experience justified to me, the need for the Nexa dealerships. Over and above this, they promised me white and later made me change the colour. I could’ve disagreed but it’s the false promise that left a bad taste. It somehow feels like everyone is just going through their motions. Overall the buying experience leaves a lot to be desired. Overall I would rate 2.5 out of 5
The cars
Alto K10 AMT VXI (O) What I liked:- Decent 1litre engine which makes for a good drive
- Good looking compared to the many ugly cars in this segment
- Airbags and disc brakes make it a pretty safe offering
- The dashboard including the music system is neatly put together
Things I disliked:- Boring AMT. but enough for its usage.
- Terrible NVH levels
- Skinny tyres
- Only 2 power windows and the placement of the front power window switches
- Elbow room is bare minimum
Exterior
Barring Nano, all the cars in this segment have been turning ugly over the years. Kwid was a breath of fresh air with its SUVish appeal. However I felt that the Alto K10 has an offend-none kind of looks. Compared to the Alto 800 is far more subtle in its styling. The AMT VXI (O) doesn’t get fog lamps, body coloured door handles and mirror caps and remote lock/unlock which the VXI (O) gets. So the AMT VXI (O) looks same as VXI Manual from outside. The AUTO GEAR SHIFT badge at the rear is the only difference and gives away the fact that it is an AMT.
Decent looking Japanese face 
Simplistic rear-I liked the tail lamp design 
'Offend-none' looks 
Front-on looks
I had inserted this sticker into the number plate frame for taking photos and forgot to remove it. After driving for a while I saw it in the ORVM of the other car and took it out. Thankfully I didn't lose it.
Another view-Look at those skinny tyres! 
The mark Interior
The dashboard is neatly laid out IMO. The plastic quality is strictly average. The colour used gives the interior a roomy feel-Top potion is dark grey and bottom is beige. The seats are beige which help in this cause too, but they'll easily gets soiled after some time. The steering is a Basic 3-spoke design with a prominent Suzuki logo at the centre and AIRBAG inscribed on it showing away the fact that it is the VXI (O) variant. Because of the airbag, the horn pad is slightly harder to operate than usual.
Basic 3-spoke wheel with a clean design
The right hand stalk has the light and indicator options. The left one has the wiper options (no rear wiper). Many would call it the right placement, but having used a Punto and the same setup in the GT; I had to make conscious effort not to mix up!
Light and Indicators 
Wiper options
The instrument cluster is simple and legible with a large speed gauge at the centre and a smaller rpm meter on the left. The digital display panel under speed gauge gives out the Fuel level, Distance reading, Current selected driving mode and a big current gear indicator. The tell tales on the right are the usual ones. It also has a trip adjusting stick jutting out of the console. A seat-belt warning light is present which is not in the Polo!
The Instrument cluster
The central console houses the head unit with a big prominent Power button cum volume knob and a host of buttons around it. It supports CD, Aux and USB input. The cover of the Aux and USB is also shaped such that when it is closed, it looks like just another button which is nice. But on the contrary, if you have a USB stick inserted all the time, (which most of the time is the case), the cover can’t be closed and it dangles out which is not very nice. The radio antenna is the previous generation pull-type fixed to the A-pillar on the outside
Above the HU are two AC vents and a Hazard lamp switch between them. The AC vents on the Far ends of the car are circular. Below the HU is the manual AC unit. The AC is quite powerful for this car.
The Complete centre console 
The ICE HU and the AC vents 
Old school Antenna 
The AC unit
Below the AC is a small storage space enough to accommodate a smartphone. And then comes The Gear lever/mode selector with the 12V socket and front power windows switches located below it. The Manual had a cup holder here too.
The Glove box is small but enough to accommodate the documents and a few other things. Moving to the front doors, it is very thin but when closed, doesn't feel very cheap. Apart from the door opening lever, It has a handle for holding the door. A very small storage area just enough for a microfiber cloth is at the bottom. The speaker is also located here. The lock/unlock is the traditional push/pull stick. On the far end is the ORVM adjusting stalk. ORVM is big enough and the view is decent too. Above the doors are basic grab handles for all passengers.
Front door pad 
Old gen! 
Driver side ORVM 
Passenger side ORVM. Note the adjustment stalk and the circular AC vent 
Grab handles
On the roof, there is a light with off/door/on modes above the IRVM. IRVM is also basic with no day/night mode, but the view is good enough.
The passenger side sun visor gets a mirror also
The seat belts on the A-pillar are not height adjustable but neatly integrated to the B-pillar.
Internal lamp 
IRVM View 
Passenger side sun visor 
Front seat belt
The rear bench is average and good for only 2 people. The doors are very thin and hence no bottle holders here too. The rear doors have window rollers and not powered windows. It is soft and comfortable. There is sufficient difference between the least and highest available leg space.
Rear seat and the legroom available
The boot is roughly big enough for two cabin baggage. I have not loaded cabin baggage, but some stones!! (more on that story later). More space can be liberated by folding down the rear seat (no 60:40 split though). Under the boot-floor is the spare wheel and a jack. Tools and Warning triangle is provided. on the hatch door is an additional brake lamp.
Boot space Driving 
AMT 
Instructions
The car only starts in the N mode with brake pedal depressed. To change between modes, pressing the B-pedal is required. Instructions are provided on the door on a sticker. The sticker also instructs the driver to use the Handbrake for hill assist and also to read the owner's manual.
Firstly about the driving experience in D mode. The immediate thing that a guy used to MT, notices is the gear change speed. Gear changes are way too slow. You can take a small nap while the gear changes :D .When you are flooring the A pedal, it’s more evident. Of course it was expected in an AMT.
But thankfully the engine is quite powerful for this size of a car and overall it doesn’t irritate you too much. Since my wife’s new to driving cars, she has not been able to feel anything unusual.
Manual Mode is the mode I have driven this car 99% of the times. It’s like a second personality of the car. Pushing the mode lever to the left when in D mode will get you to the manual mode. You have to push the lever up to downshift whenever you need it. If you don’t downshift below a certain speed, the car downshifts automatically to avoid stalling. The car will not up-shift until you pull the lever down and order the car to up-shift. A driver-used to a manual will be able to manage with this car in this mode.
A special case for me is that I have to take care that I don’t mix up the up-shift and downshift. This is because, in the Polo you have to push up the lever to up-shift and pull down to downshift (exactly the opposite).
The car cruises well at 80Kmph in 5th gear but a 90Kmph cruising is also not that tough for the car. Anything above that and it not just starts to strain the engine but also start feeling unsafe.
Overall it is a decent driving experience. I hated the Auto mode but liked the manual mode very much. For the usage this car of ours will be put to, it is a good buy among the choices.
Accessories
Apart from the reverse sensor at the dealership, I got an autocop remote entry for the car from an outside accessory shop. Since the central locking was already present, the accessory guy fit only a part of the Autocop package for a slightly lesser rate. This was the only Accessory that was needed IMO. Probably if the need arises, a fog lamp will be fixed in future.
Service
The car had run 375Kms (Wife not taking to office just yet) in the first month and it was time for its first service. The Dealership called me and booked a pickup. Since it was the first service, I didn’t go personally to drop it. The driver came promptly to my home and picked it up on time. I was told that I’ll receive the car the next day. But he called me in the evening and told me that if I can drop him to the closest auto stop or bus stand, he would come the same day itself. I agreed and he delivered the vehicle in the evening. The total bill was 500Rupees. This was for some unnecessary coating which was made without informing me. I had declined the underbody coating which the Service executive suggested on call. I told him not to do this in future and took the car and dropped the driver to a close-by bus stop. Its two months now and the car has now run 540Kms
Polo GT TSI What I liked:- Powerful
- Gearbox is a bliss to drive-not boring at all
- fit and finish. No other hatchback appeals after a Punto
- Loaded with technology-ABS, EBD, ESP, EPS, Hill hold, Cruise control, Auto wiper,pinch sensor
- Good looking-although not as beautiful as punto
- Features like Touchscreen ICE, reach and rake adjustment steering wheel, Height adjustable seats
Things I disliked:- no 60:40 split
- no seat belt warning light/buzzer
- no seat belt height adjustment
- pathetic rear seat legroom
- worst horn ever
- MID is Average. No possibility of even setting 24hr format time
- No date display
- no seat back pocket
- No boot lamp
Would’ve been better to have:- Start stop/Keyless entry
- Rear camera
- Rear AC vent
- Black colour option
- Navigation
- Armrest
- 4 disc brakes
- Mirrors with better field of view
- Sunroof option
Apprehensions:- Troublesome DQ200 gearbox
- below average service experience
- expensive service
Exterior
I like the clean lines of this car and is very simple. After Punto, this is the next best looking mass market premium hatchback we have in our market IMO. It looks 99% like a normal Polo. People hardly take notice of it. While this is how I like it, many non-enthusiast people (including my dad) say “why pay so much for a Polo!”.
The front has clean straight horizontal lines with chrome line running all along the bottom grille. A big VW logo at the centre and a GT badge on the driver side define the front view. Apart from the GT badge on the front grille, the cheap looking GT TSI vinyl stickers on the C-Pillar, The GT and TSI badging on the boot, the Black mirror caps and the Black spoiler are the differentiating factors of a GT TSI from a normal polo. Thankfully VW have nowhere put the long VOLKSWAGEN or POLO badges on this version of the car. GT TSI badging is very minimal and hence I have decided to keep it. Or else I would’ve debadged it soon after coming home.
The blackened headlamp, the sleek indicators on the mirrors, the absence of key hole on the boot(which many of my friends only saw now!) all add to the clean design of the car and just the way I like it. I had got some of these done on my Punto as aftermarket modifications.
Headlamp housings have separate halogen bulbs for high and low beams, parking lamps and indicators. Fog lamps are part of the lower grille. Fog lamps also act as corner lamps which light up when steering in a direction. A dedicated corner lamp would have been good.
The radio antenna is short and on the rear. Probably I'll go for a black shark-fin antenna later on. But I'm not sure if the radio signal reception will reduce because of this.
The rear tail lamp is simple and elegant. The rear bumper has only one fog lamp and one reverse lamp like most European cars. The rear windshield gets a wiper and demister. 4 rear parking sensors and a HMSL under the spoiler is standard. the wiper liquid spray is housed here too. Thankfully this car gets a rear tow hook. Punto had only a front tow-hook.
The car sits on 15” Alloys with 185/60R15 Apollo Alnac tyres. The alloy wheel design is very simple and not very cool. I would’ve kept my Punto’s 17” alloys but Polo has 5 bolt holes on 100 PCD but Punto had only 4. May be sometime in the future, when finances permit, I’ll go for a 17” GTI wheels.
Clean Elegant looks 
The minimalistic rear 
Badges around the car 
ORVMs with Indicators. looks nice on the inside too 
The Shoes. 195 would've been ideal but 185 section is not too bad Interior
Open the door and you are welcomed by foot-well mood lighting and a GT TSI Scuff plate. Close the door and immediately what you notice is the THUD sound. First signs of a premium car. What you also notice is that you need sufficient force to close the door. I’ve had to tell people sitting in to close hard. They used to close softly thinking it’s a new car. I told a couple of people to think of their spouses when they close-That sorted it out :)
Foot-well lighting 
GT TSI Scuff plate
Sitting on the seats, I can feel a textured black and beige fabric. But the rear portion of the front seat is art leather. I found this unusual as I thought fabric was still cheaper. I also noticed that the seat is flat and under knee support is not as good as in the Punto. The height adjustment range is less I felt. I have now set it to the top most position but doesn’t feel too high. It’s just perfect for my height.
Firm Fabric+art leather seats-could've been better sculpted IMO
The leather wrapped flat bottom steering wheel is nice and firm to hold and is of is top notch quality. The thumb contours should have been a little bigger and the entire steering wheel must have been a size smaller though. It can be adjusted for both reach and rake.
The Steering mounted ICE controls and phone controls are very useful and one which I’m still getting used to (My Punto didn’t have it). The telephone buttons are very nice but it would’ve been nice If I could use the arrows to control or browse through the contacts. The voice command is just a useless button on the wheel. It can’t recognise anything of the Indian accent. It is so American that when I press the phone button and she says “say call” , It sounds like “psycho” :) I tried hard to Americanize my accent, but it failed to recognise me. Only thing that happened was the muscles around my mouth started to pain.
The flat bottom steering 
Steering mounted controls
When I look around, I see all-black plastics and grey roof lining-Perfect for my tastes. No soft touch plastics anywhere but the quality of the materials is premium. Although it is a dust magnet, the black really looks premium. The steering has airbag engraved on it and also on the dashboard of the passenger side.
Two Airbags
Now coming to the Instrument cluster, it’s simple and black and white in with red accents. Perfect for my tastes. A big Tacho on the left and a speedo on the right with a MID at the centre in between these two dials. Red line marking on the Tacho starts from 6000rpm and above. The speed markings are marked up to 240kmph. There is a red accent on 30Kmph and 50Kmph which I didn’t understand why and what. May be an economy area but why not green and why so low? This simplistic theme looks nice even at night. There are two buttons on the Instrument cluster using which I can toggle between the trip meter and check the service reminder. I can also reset the trip meter using this. Call me old style but I like an analogue temperature gauge and fuel level gauge instead of these digital ones. But the biggest miss in the Instrument cluster is that there is no seat belt warning tell-tale, forget the buzzer
Instrument cluster at night.
Now for the MID. It is split into 3 areas but two horizontal airlines. The bottom most has a permanent digital fuel level gauge. there is a arrow pointing right showing the petrol lid location...nice! Just above that is the ODO reading. When you set the trip or you have a service reminder, it is displayed here. I would've preferred a permanent ODO display too. With the up-down arrows on the steering, In the LCD display, I can toggle between some indicators like DTE, Engine temperature, avg speed, drive time, Ambient temperature, speed limit, Speed. The top most section has a time display and the current mode and gear
Things I disliked about the MID:
- It does not have any wordings of what it is showing and only digits and symbols. People new to cars will find it hard to understand what is what.
- It doesn’t display the date anywhere. Not good for people taking photos for stats (like me). You should take it from the metadata of the photograph.
- It cannot display date in 24hr format. I’m comfortable with 24h format. But this cluster cannot display that. Seriously!
- It has only one trip meter and trip details like FE and trip drive time and avg speed kinds aren’t available. My 7 year old Punto had all these!
The MID
If I leave the car on and open the driver door, MID displays a warning message.
Warning
The left side stalk has indicators, cruise control and Light dip/dim/pass options. I somehow like Cruise control on the stalk than on the steering wheel. So I like this. The right stalk on the steering wheel has the wiper options. Three speeds, one auto wiper option, and intermittent speed adjustment on top. The sensor for the auto wiper is behind the IRVM.
The stalks on either side of the steering
Talking about the IRVM, it is auto-dimming, which is really helpful. But they are slender and just about perfectly show the rear windshield. It should have been a size bigger.
And as a typical VW car, the light on/off, parking lamps and fog lamps on/off are on the dashboard on the right side. It took me a couple of days to get adjusted to this placement.
Light console
Moving onto the centre console, only three buttons above the Head unit have some functions. The hazard light, ESP off, and the Rear dehumidifier. Remaining buttons are dummy. Not a good sight in a top variant but I can’t buy a GTI for that, so it is ok :)
Above these 3 buttons are 2 AC vents with separate volume and direction controls. Rear AC vents would’ve been good but the AC is powerful enough to cool the cabin in a decent amount of time.
The centre console
The glove-box is also cooled with a separate open/close knob inside. but I found this cooling to be really weak though. The glove box is accommodating with a separate storage area at the base or around A4 size. This is a place for the Navigation unit in Europe IIRC. Also another good thing about the glove-box is that there is a sunglass holder which I use it to keep for small items. Very useful as they tend to get lost without this. Also there is a coin holding area which is a nice touch
The glove-box cooling vent 
coin holder and sun-glass holder in the glove-box. Nice
The roof lamp housing comes with a single lamp and three settings. A double lamp would’ve been better IMO. Also a lamp near the centre of the car would’ve been better for rear passengers.
Roof lamp at the front
Next the seat belts are not adjustable for height. My Punto had this and people of different heights were all comfortable. Since My Punto didn't have seat height adjustment but this one has, it's a workaround.
There are a couple of hooks on the pillars. There are spring loaded folding grab handles above 3 doors but I would've loved the slow closing ones.
The passenger side sun shade has a mirror and the driver side sun shade has only a ticket holder strap. A cover on the mirror and a light for the passenger side would've been lovely though (or am I expecting too much?).
Non height-adjustable seat belts and Hooks on B pillars for small things 
Grab handles for passengers 
Passenger side sun-visor
The front doors have a bottle holder, Which is wonderful. something which I was missing in my Punto. Apart from the bottle, storage in the door can accommodate more things as well. All 4 auto closing and auto opening power windows, A knob for electrically adjusting and closing of the ORVMs, Door lock/unlock switch are located on the driver side door. A security system light is located on the driver door which keeps on blinking after the car is securely locked.
Doors with good storage spaces 
The security system indicator
Let’s go to the back seat now. The immediate thing I notice is that ingress is tougher than Punto and seats feel lower too. Once seated inside, the horrible leg room in immediately evident. I keep my driver's seat forward so people sitting behind me will be happy but on the other side, their knees will always be touching the front seats. And 5th passenger is not welcome at all! I had to once travel with 4 of my other friends for around 50kms and in that case, Healthy adults were always in the front and I being leaner than the others, was forced to sit in the rear. The leg room was a known thing to me. Our usage of the rear seat is less and with not too many really tall people in the family, we can manage with this. It is this less leg room, that translates to the more boot space. When My BIL had a 1.6 some years ago, we had compared and found that a baby stroller would neatly fit in the Polo and not in my Punto. And people in the rear seat were happier in my Punto than the Polo.
The windows do not roll down fully because the window is not split. but because of this same reason, it feels airy too. No complaints in this regard. Moreover, we were used to this in our Punto.
One basic omission is that The rear passengers don't get any seat-back storage pouch. It baffles me, how much more would it cost to add this!
Rear seat. Best for 2 people only
Talking about the boot, the boot opening is the logo itself-typical VW, but I had to tell many people how to open it. The boot is very spacious for a hatchback. However, it is missing a boot lamp which even my Punto had. it is really useful after evening when you have to access the boot. There are two useful hooks on the corners that can be used to hang covers/bags with small things. One more big omission is the absence of 60:40 splitting rear seats-A feature I had used so many times in my Punto. the seats fold down full however.
Under the boot floor is the spare wheel-A space saver 15/70 R14 steel wheel :( However the tools are arranged well within the wheel. The boot door has a slot on the inside which can be used to open the boot from inside using the key (or anything that can pass in that slot as per the sales guy) during an emergency situation when all doors are locked from inside.
The Spacious boot. Note the hooks on either side 
The Space saver wheel. Neatly arranged tools 
Emergency boot opening lever
On the topic of key, it is similar to what I had for my Punto. A press of a button and the mechanical key flips out. With so many features in the car, I'm surprised they missed out key-less entry and start/stop button. With VW upgrading their models every year, I was thinking that I'll miss this because the 2017 model would be released soon. But as I write this, it looks like the only change is that the wheel size is increased to 16"(the space saver spare size remains the same still). So I'm happy that I haven't missed too much! One good thing about this key however is that a long press of the lock or unlock will also roll-up or roll-down all the windows. If they had linked the ORVM closing/opening to the lock/unlock, it would’ve been even better. The third button to unlock the boot remotely is very useful as well.
Key fob ICE
The 2016 Polo gets a RCD330G which is a touch screen unit with Aux, USB, SD card, FM/AM radio and CD inputs and Bluetooth telephony. For me it’s a HUGE upgrade from the crappy Fiat ICE. I’m not a always-music guy so I lived with the Fiat OE ICE all through. When I say that it is crappy, imagine a music buff-He will hate it to the core.
The RCD 330G and the speaker setup of 4 speakers and 2 tweeters together sing nice music. It may not satisfy a music buff, but I’m really happy. My wife says that I’ve started to listen to more music in the car and at a higher volume than I used to. All thanks to the good (although basic) ICE setup. Till now I’ve only used the Aux and a 32GB SD card. USB will come in handy but I don’t think I’ll ever use the CD. VW could’ve used a different unit with a bigger touch screen and without the CD. Again, maybe they’ve kept it for the 2018 upgrade.
There is no reverse camera or navigation. People say that a reverse camera is a plug and play for this HU, I’ve not checked it still, but if it is, I’ll probably get it done soon. There is mirror link that can be used to mirror a phone(some apps) but I checked the mirror-link website and found that my phone is incompatible and I didn’t go into further details. More on the RCD 330G is in this thread.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/car-en...ento-ameo.html
The drive 
DSG-Where all the magic happens
As I turn on the key, a host of tell tales glow and then turn off. The Depress-Brake symbol comes on. When I press the brake and start the car, it starts with a nice growl. On cold start, for a few seconds it revs at 1100rpm and settles down at a nice 700rpm. Car only starts in P or N mode. The temperature at 25 to 35 C takes around 5/mins or 2 kms to move up and settle at 90C.
Slot it into the D mode and I lift my foot off the brake pedal and the car starts creeping at 5kmph in 2nd gear. I use this to move out of my parking slot. As I slowly start pressing the A pedal I drive around 30kmph. The car will be in 3rd or 4th gear. All these gear shifts are hardly felt inside. once the car reaches the optimal 90C temperature, I can use the full potential.
I depress the A pedal and the car is very eagerly moves to 60 and 80kmph very soon. It changes to the next higher gear at around 2000rpm under normal conditions…just the way I would do in a manual. And the quick shifts-I was surprised; enough has been said about the wonderful DSG gearbox. It's can only be experienced. With the long clutch travel and long gear throws, I would be slower in a Punto. It’s those milliseconds that matter. But that is not where the good things end. It is so adaptive that it feels like it can read your mind, based on the accelerator input it changes the gear at higher rpms whenever you want to drive it spiritedly. It never feels confused. In the D mode itself, I have seen gear changes between 2000 to 3500rpm based on how the driver presses the A-pedal. The car cruises at 100kmph somewhere around 2000rpm which is quite low for a petrol but that is all because of the 7 gears. It’s so relaxed in all gears and all practical speeds. It's hard to believe that its after all a 1.2litre engine. But this nothing…
...Switch to S mode and the real fun begins. As a rough rule, the car goes down 2 gears when you shift from the D mode and the car’s beautiful exhaust note is heard for the first time. The gear changes are at higher rpms than in D mode and it feels just amazing. Floor the pedal and it keeps on building up speed effortlessly. Gear changes are anywhere between 4000 and 5500rpm. You have to be on a really empty and straight highway to enjoy it fully. In City, S mode is hardly needed. The width of the smile that I have in my face is the only way I can explain the feeling-5 Inches wide :)
Then there is another mode-tiptronic mode or the manual mode. When buying this car I had thought that I’ll most probably be in this mode most of the times. Senior BHPian
KarthikK had told me that it won’t be the case and he was absolutely right. The D mode itself is so nice and adaptive that I rarely have moved out of it. To switch to the Tiptronic mode, I just have to push the lever to the left when in D mode. Then pushing it up, up-shifts and pushing it down, down-shifts. When braking, if you downshift proportionately, it will down-shift or else after the speed comes down a certainlimit, it down-shifts automatically to avoid stalling. If there were paddle shifter available, then maybe the case would’ve been different, but for now at least, Manual mode is hardly used. Only in uphills with bad roads and downhills I've used it till now.
Overall, it’s a fun machine to drive. As a mechanical engineer, it feels so nice to see and feel this technology (of course electronics also play a huge part). Staying on Technology, the cruise control is another such item I love having in my car. Indian roads hardly support that but the roads on which we can use this are increasing day by day. The Mangalore Highway, The Pune Highway and NECE roads do give us many options to use the Cruise control. Apart from being able to rest both your feet, it also aids in better FE. The other use is that it helps you to maintain a permitted speed limit.
Accessories
With a car loaded with so many features, you hardly need anything. But we humans always crave for something more. Although you can be content with whatever this car has, few things I’ve changed already.
10 days before the car delivery, I ordered the armrest. I was so used to this in my Punto that I definitely wanted this. A good OE armrest from Aliexpress was delivered to me just a day before I took the car. The weekend after car delivery, I took it to a FNG and got his fixed. A 15 minute easy job and I had the leather wrapped armrest in my GT.
Armrest 
View from the rear-It has a bottle holder too 
Top view-Not intrusive at all 
Armrest storage
The bulbs needed an upgrade. I went in search of Osram night-breaker plus to a know Accessory shop. He had only Philips extreme visions which are equally good. I got all 4 bulbs changed and also got the Philips LEDs for the fogs. It’s really easy on my eyes now during the night drives.
The horn badly needed a change. The beautiful Skoda horn that we are used to in VW vehicles have been changed to a bad one which sounds Horrible. I got the Hella chrome twin tone- its loud for my liking, but I don’t honk continuously. So one small beep of this is good enough for all those deaf people to give way. And if I encounter some idiot (which we have plenty of on our roads), a long press will really shake him up.
Philips extreme vision
I ordered a German font number plate online. German plates for the German car! I received it on the day of the car delivery itself.
German font number plates
The ORVMs really show very less of what’s behind me. The blind spots are huge. So I got blind spot mirrors-the need of which I didn’t feel at all in my Punto. Now lane changes are more confident. Before that, I had a couple of close shaves.
Blindspot elimination mirror
A nice GTI rubber keychain was ordered too. Now, like Abarth is to Fiat, GTI is to the Polo. This GT will also take a path similar to my previous car and try to emulate the GTI; but very slowly. The key chain is just a small toddler-step towards that. With so many GTI lookalikes already on the road, I want mine to stand out. So I’m in no hurry to mimic the GTI looks just yet and will wait for something nice yet subtle.
GTI Keychain
The scale model…similar to how I had 4 different scale models of my Punto. I already got 2 scales- 1:43 and a tiny 1:87, scale model of this car. While 1:43 was the smallest scale of Punto I had, it is the biggest of the Polo. I found a Polo 1:18 model too but only in red. These models were only available in Netherlands at that time. So I ordered one to a friend in NL and it was delivered the same day as the 1:1 was delivered to me. They later sent it through a person know to them by January first week.
front quarter view of the 1:43 
Mud roads 
Peeping tom 
going upwards 
VW polo 1:87 
GT 
Coming up 
VW Polo GT TSI 1:43
On Valentine's day, I gave my car a BHPian friend for detailing. I got the Opti-gloss and Opti-glass coating done. The car had already started developing swirl marks. But now the car is gleaming and looking at it, my face is glowing too.
The next planned things for my car are 3M underbody coating, CR70 for the windshield and either 3D mat or the 3M-noodle mat (not able to decide between the two)
The Trips
As I write this, The car has crossed 5000 Kms in 2 months. 3 weeks drive to office and some weekend trips. 3 times towards Mysore, 2 times towards coastal Karnataka, thanks to a lot of weddings in my friends' and colleagues' circle. And with the car being new, I wouldn’t miss out on the opportunities will I? :)
On an average, I’ve got about 14.5Kmpl with AC On all the time. The City FE has been 13kmpl. All figures are calculated by tank-full to tank-full method. Till now I’ve filled fuel a dozen times and only once I got a FE of 9kmpl which was the worst and surprising.
Down under 
Speed! 
Hot revvs Issues and complaints
No car is perfect and every car has its share of niggles. Mine was also not spared either. When I had removed all plastic covers, I had forgotten to remove the plastic cover on the Speedometer console. It was really dirty after a week with a lot of dust accumulation. So I removed it which left glue residue on the transparent fibreglass. I un-boxed a brand new 3M microfiber cloth and wiped it. And HEY! The display on the centre console distorted! I was shocked. I switched off the car fully and restarted but it didn’t go. It slowly started to reduce and after 5 minutes it gradually came back to normal. It was a Sunday evening and I thought I’ll check it later.
On Monday, I went to a team in our company who are into this clusters and I asked them. Irony was that I discovered that it is our own company who manufacture these :) They saw it and told me that it is because of ESD. Although there is nothing wrong functionally, they suggested that I take a replacement.
The next weekend, I took it to the service centre on Hosur road. They took an hour to just enter my data! Then an executive checked and gave me a hilarious answer, "Sir, If this problem is coming because of wiping the cluster, Don’t wipe it!!" I was like "What!!??" When I asked for a replacement, he called his supervisor and he told that If I really want to get it replaced, I will have to leave the car for them to make a report and call the VW guys. After they approve, they’ll order the part and replace the part. I was ready and asked how many days will it take? He told that It might take 15 days to one month and they needed my car to be there all the while and no replacement car would be provided!!
The attitude all this while was very lax and it was as though they are making me a favour. Meanwhile some of my friends came to know about this over a Whatsapp chat when I was still there, told me to come out of that Hosur road service centre at once. They really didn’t want me to give my car to such a bad place. So, I came out without giving my car.
Next day, I again went to the team in my company which designs and manufactures these. They told me to wait for some more time as the ESD might gradually come down. Thankfully, last week when I checked, this problem has vanished. With this, I experienced VW Hosur road service centre and I can already say that I’ll not go to them again. I will have to find a better service centre. Fiat service already feels a lot better!
Distorted MID 
Gradually reducing 
Almost gone in a few minutes Mishaps
I had planned a photo-shoot of both cars at Kanva dam with BHPian
avinashsg. I wanted to take pictures along the lakeside. Seeing the dry lake bed, I grew adventurous and took the GT close to the bed. Before even I could realise, the front wheels sunk in. “Damn!” I thought and I didn’t try to come out in the fear of sinking the wheels in further. The tow rope was not long enough for the Alto to pull from a hard ground. So, we loaded the Alto with stones to place under the wheels and try getting it out.
But before doing it, I found some villagers close-by who told that they could arrange for a tractor and one guy called his friend with a tractor. He told me to try and drive out once before the tractor comes now that it was anyway arranged. So I sat in, slotted to reverse and floored the pedal. Voila! It came out even without any stones or help whatsoever, much to my relief.
We later finished the photo-shoot far away from the lake border :) But in this episode, while pulling out, a small sharp stone left a scratch on the underside of the bumper. This was the first scratch. It hurt but then it was better than something bigger that day.
GT TSI sunk here 
Alto to the rescue
After this incident, I've got two other scratches on both the bumpers; both of which are unknown-I don’t know when, where and how they have happened. By the looks of it, it looks like a neighbouring car in a parking lot has scraped past my car while entering or exiting its slot. I just have to move on. Also probably since this not my first car - it doesn’t hurt as much as the first scratch on the first car.
The last 2 months have gone by really fast. While the Alto's first service is over, the first service reminder (scheduled at 7500Kms) has started coming on on the instrument cluster of the GT after it crossed 5000Kms. The reminder appears every time I switch on the car. With the current pace, the service might happen sometime in April.
The journey so far Here's how I can summarise my upgrade from Punto to Polo- Fiat to Volkswagen
- Italian to German
- 68 to 105 bhp
- NA 1.2 to Turbo 1.2
- MT to DSG
- Reasonable to Expensive maintenance
- Rare to Common
- 99rpm to Aliexpress :D
In this whole exercise I've realised that cars in general have become more expensive. Comparatively some cars may feel Value for money but in a broader sense all cars offer very less value for the money they demand.
With this change, Its also time to change my TBHP signature which was unchanged for a long time now
An Indian with a French beard working for a German company driving an Italian car with British alloys
I'm still not able to get something catchy and unique to replace this. Any help would be appreciated!
That’s it from me for now. Thanks for reading. I’ll come back and keep updating this thread about both our cars.
Until then, wishing you well, it's WE TWO, OURS TWO.
Personal Disclaimer
This is a my personal account and any views or opinions represented in this blog are entirely mine. They do not represent those of people or companies that I'm associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any group, club, organisation, company, or individual. All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. I make no representation to the accuracy or completeness of the information here or found somewhere else following any link. I take no liability for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. I will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.
Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!
Amazing write up.
The product catalogues / brochures look useless in front of the write up.
Happy for you. Wish you TONS of safe MILES on the ODO's ahead.
Congratulations Hemanth on two drastically different hatches that are each great at what they're meant to do :)
Are you 100% sure the Polo doesn't have a seatbelt warning lamp/reminder? My Vento TSI has a sweet chime and a warning light. I don't imagine it to be any different on the Polo.
Also, could you share the model of the Philips LEDs you've replaced your stock fog lamps with? I've been looking to upgrade my headlights and fogs too but haven't done anything yet out of concern for warranty.
Did you have to dismantle the front bumper for headlamp replacement?
Congrats Hemanth. :)
As for the MFD getting distorted when you wiped it, I think it is due to the static discharge. Happened with us once when we went for the new Rapid's test drive. Got me worried for a moment but the distortion went away after a while.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeKay
(Post 4156025)
Are you 100% sure the Polo doesn't have a seatbelt warning lamp/reminder? My Vento TSI has a sweet chime and a warning light. I don't imagine it to be any different on the Polo.
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Could you please share a snap of the cluster with the warning light? This looks like a recent addition. When did you buy your Vento? Looks like VW has changed the ACU to support this feature (the cluster supports it anyway).
What a fantastic piece of writing. For 2 cars that are well spoken of on the forum, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read! Congratulations on the acquisitions and I can see from various parts of your post that you really miss your Punto! No wonder Punto is a great car but I am pretty sure you will fall in love with GTs dynamics over time. That fact that you literally bough either side of cars on the hatchback spectrum should give you enough variety to drive too!
Superb pics, beautifully written. Have fun with the hatchback beast!
Congrats Hemanth on your GT and Alto. I am sure Abarth vs GT discussions would have given you severe headaches :D. With the kind of mods you had done to your humble Punto 1.2, I am sure you are going to do a lot more on your GT. Enjoy your ride. Didnt know that the TSI doesnt come with navigation, but I guess that will be taken care by mirrorlink?
Every time I read your blogs Hemant, I just feel so connected with the "Emotion(guess now I know why Fiat decided to use this name for one of the variants :))" of motoring in you. Congratulations on the twin purchase. VWs like you said are not really cheap to maintain, but the overall interior fit and finish is way better than our Italian beauties. By the way you might have to hold on to any kind of modifications till your warranty expires. My friend who owns a Polo was not able to change his horn as VW cited warranty be get void even if a minor modification is done.
When I read your words "My Beloved Punto", I somehow felt sad. You had put a lot of tender, love and care for your Punto. And I know how it feels to get attached to the car we own. I wanna enjoy my Punto(Victoria as I call her) for kingdom come and don't want to think of that day when I might have to let her go.
Well now it is time for you to churn more miles with your new beauties. Happy motoring.
I was so sure that you would be going for the Abarth after your 1.2 Punto.
Nevertheless, the TSI is another breed altogether which is as good as an Abarth, in its own way.
Was it 198 on the speedo ?
I noticed on my sisters Polo 1.2 there is surprisingly a 5-7+ error on the speedo across the range, compared to the gps.
Congrats on both the cars and what a way to celebrate your Birthday!
P.S: Don't run over the scale model forgetting it on the wheel:D
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