[kiran_v]

Originally Posted by nowwhat?

Chethan, I agree with most of your points above...

Regarding Apollo, the Chalakudy (Perambra) factory did have a lockout but I am not aware of the other operational aspects of Apollo.

Anyway the fact is that Polo has 185/60 R15 (HL) and 175/70 R14 (CL, TL) tyres whereas the Fabia has 185/60 R14 (1.6 Elegance) and 175/70 R14 (Classic, Ambiente, 1.2 Elegance) tyres.

I am not sure, if we should be burning our heads too much thinking whether Polo should have had JK Tyre or Apollo. To me, both are Indian Tyre Manufacturers....I don't think how they should be different from each other, with respect to Technology. When I carefully observed, the following quote was there on the tyres in my car " Developed in Technical collaboration with Continental, Germany". Hence, I fell VW must/should have done its homework on what is the best next practical one to be used after shutdown of Apollo Chalakudy factory.

Please enlighten me if somebody feels otherwise....

I heard somewhere that the Polo HL (R15) tyres are a bit of an oddity in the world of tyres and that is one of the reasons why they were thinking of importing these from Russia especially around the time when Apollo had production problems.

Perhaps someone else can elaborate on the tyre situation better than me.

I agree that the Fabia 1.6 is a great deal for those who had booked the Polo 1.6. On paper, both cars are almost identical. There is some addition/deletion of features in both, but nothing to make up the 21K difference. I must say that I was very tempted by the Fabia 1.6!

However one thing that goes against the Fabia is the pricing they had all these years. We all knew that the Fabia was overpriced back then. The Indian car market is a brutal one and doesn't usually give second chances. I am hard-pressed to think of a model that did badly at first and then did well subsequently.

All this may therefore reflect in the resale value of the car.

By the way, if I were an existing Fabia owner I would be pretty miffed for sure.

Originally Posted by Chethan B G

I have used Sonax - I think it is similar to Waxoyl. Teflon from DuPont is the best product, if you are looking at paint protection. I do not know about any contact in Bangalore. Let me know, if you find any.

Can you please tell me where you got it done? And i thought Teflon is in the "Not Recommended" list of TBHP...Isn't it so??

Originally Posted by anubhavarya

Kiran: I congratulate you on this class leading car! And the colour actually reminds me of the Murcielago LP640 that came out a few years ago in that scheme

Thanks Buddy!!!!

Originally Posted by nowwha?

No, I never implied that a car is an investment. Which other "investment" will give you half the money in 5 years?

I said some people tend to look at cars as an investment. I guess they do so because its a tidy chunk of change.

Yes, it will be interesting to watch the "X" factor.

I checked out the Fabia site and cudn't find too much of a difference in features WRT Polo. All I could see, atleast in pics, is that maybe the rear leg room is slightly more in Fabia.
Personally, I feel Polo looks better than Fabia, please no offenses to Fabia owners. I am a fan of Skoda cars - was in love with Octavia (when it was launched here in India), Laura and to a certain extent Superb (The only thing i dislike in Superb is the rear end), from the first time I saw these cars. But haven't felt the same for Fabia. Probably because they were trying to mimick the success of Swift with an almost similar design and premium interiors...

I feel Polo is a better car minus waiting period obviously...

[kiran_v]

I am back from the Bandipur Ooty trip. It was fun to drive around the car for around 600 odd kms in ghat section as well as normal terrain!!!!

I will be soon posting my driving report in detail and few pics of the trip as well...

[kiran_v]

A small travelogue of my visit to the bandipur forests. Pardon my narration style!!!!I hope it doesn't bore you guys.

It all started when few of my friends from college got together after quite a long while for a movie cum party on 23rd of October. We thought its been long since we did spend some quality time together - so why not plan a trip to some place.

Options were limited since all of us have been to one or the other place - so our options were Bandipur or Chikmagalur. I played a big role in convincing everyone to do the trip to Bandipur, since I was fond of wildlife, though it was the wrong season to go visit and spot wild animals during safari's.

Anyways, the decision was taken, and we were looking forward to starting early on 30th of October.

The D-day arrived, and we never knew it was gonna be one heck of a trip...On a priority, I made sure that the headlights were upgraded before the trip, and so with Chethan's help figured out a place - Junction and changed the lights to Philips Extreme Power(55/60), just hours before the trip...

Day 1
Started from my house by around 1.00 AM. My friends and me assembled together near NICE corridor at E-city. So we 9, along with a polo and Dzire, were all set for the trip...

3 of my friends, my wife and me were in my car and the other 4 hopped into the Dzire. The drive was rather slow than spirited. We cruised behind one another at speeds not exceeding 100 km/h. There were huge lot of humps also on the Bangalore Mysore highway. To me, most surprising fact was that few of those humps did not have any sort of warnings. So both our cars did jump a couple of humps. Now coming back to Polo - with 5 people on board and plenty of luggage, I never felt Polo was underpowered, or as people say. Whenever, I wanted to go past a truck or a large vehicle, it did with not even a sweat and with AC on. I never felt like I should switch off the AC to go past any vehicle. Overall, it was fun driving the vehicle, especially cruising at 100- 120 km/h.

Since it was early morning on a saturday, we drove slowly and stopped at a CCD on way (I guess the one near srirangapatna). Sipped coffee, chatted for about an hour, and the next stop was decided at GopalSwamy betta hills.
So we reached Gopalswamy betta at around 6.00 AM. It was a good place to be. We spend some time there and proceeded to our resort - M.C Resort(Infact, we booked this resort because there were none other available. I accidently stumbled upon some this resort here in TBHP only. Later, upon enquiry came to know that I can get 4 rooms there - To be honest, the resort was good, if not the best. Food was only average. But upon request for our party, they got us some extra snacka or starters - and they were all good.Neat rooms, and good service)

There were couple of hours left before lunch would be served. So we started stretching our muscles for a bit - Badminton, Cricket and stuff. After lunch, we were really tired and decided to hit the bed for sometime - but that is when the resort manager came and told you have safari at 4 - so don't oversleep. We literally were not in a shape to get up after a small nap of 1 and half hours. But then somehow, got upon time and all 9 of us were packed into a mahindra classic for the safari.

First half an hour of the safari was boring, since we couldn't get a glimpse of even a herd of deers, but the last 1 and half hours was as adventurous as it can get. Just as we thought we would return dissapointed, we spotted an elephant on a curve just in front of our vehicle. So the driver stopped the vehicle and we waited for it to move. As soon as it moved out of the way, the driver started the jeep and went past it, but the elephant got irritated with the sound and gave us a charge. It was the first time, I felt so scared of an elephant. I have seen them up close plenty of times in temples, and they always looked calm. But this time, it turned out to be different. One of my friend even shot a video with his digi cam. I still don't how he managed to, but it just happened. Here's a link to the video.

YouTube - Tusker chase in Bandipur

Rest of the safari was very good - again spotting an elephant, this time it din't charge, but it was a humongous one - and if it had charged, neither of us would have been even alive to say this story. And we spotted couple of leopards as well. After the safari, we just hung around in the resort, enjoying ourselves, just like it used to be during our college times.

Time for few pics now!!!!And they would be following soon. I need to collect them from my fellow trip mates, since on the first day itself, my all charged batteries got drained up after clicking a couple of pics and I was camera less till the second day of the trip. And here's the one of the pic that I got to take on Day 1. Rest of the pics and Day 2 details will be uploaded soon.....

[kiran_v]

I have been away for a while from TBHP.

My car has now done over 5000 kms. My overall experience so far is that I'm extremely satisfied. The car is performing beyond expectations. Some of my observations below.

During all my long trips, I have been able to consistently get FE figures of over 19.5 kms/l. I have really changed my driving style from when I used to have my Swift. Recently, I had made a trip to Cochin and back to Bangalore - was able to extract 20.5 kms/l on way to cochin. However, on way back, it dropped down to 16.5 kms/l, due to spirited driving. I was late in starting off from cochin, and had to reach back Bangalore, get a good 3-4 hours of sleep and had office the next day - hence the spirited drive.

In cities, I am able to get between 16 - 18 kms/l, depending on trafiic. So overall, FE-wise, the car is doing wonderfull.
However, one thing I have noticed is that these figures drop immensely when you do a little bit of spirited driving. I know that 16.5 kms/l , as I have mentioned above, is not a bad FE figure. I could not have imagined of these figures with my Petrol Swift because the best I had got was around 15 km/l on highways. In cities, they were as low as 11-12 km/l. However, having driven Polo for hardly over a month now, I feel disappointed when these figures drop down to around 16. Anyways enough of cost saving talks.

Now for some things I plan to do on my beauty.

1) Paint protection - I initially thought this was not required, and I can wax my car once in a month or so to maintain the paint. However, now I feel there is a need for Paint protection since I'm starting to get odd scrateches in the car here and there - looks like ones that I have got while parking my car in public spaces, mainly nail scratches. So I took a reference from the below link

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...ond-brite.html

and planning to go for Jewel Ultra Diamond Brite. Enquired and found out a dealer - Car sparkle spa in forum mall. They quoted around 2.5K ( guarantee for 1 year - with 2 additional services) and for around 4.5K (for 5 years - with 4 or 5 additional services). Any thoughts on this?

2) Art Leather Seat Cover/Leather seats - The seats of Polo looks and feels fabulous. However, since it's fabric - the tendency to get dirty is quite high. So I am thinking of putting in art leather seat covers or change it to origina leather seats.
Have been quoted around 5-8K on G-Sport art leather seat covers and between 25 - 38K on Stanley leather seats depending on material chosen. Is there a need for putting original leather seats? I know that they feel lot more comfortable to sit. One additional reason is that my dad's car has got OE leather seats, whereas I had art leather seats put in my Swift from a not-so-known vendor in Hyderabad. After 2-3 years of use, the art leather was completely worn and torn out. I had to remove them from my car. And I have seen the same in numerous other cars as well. However, my the OE leather in my dad's car looks as good as new.

3) Finally, a change of HU - I have many options here now with most of our fellow BHPians following different suite. The options are Pioneer AVH 3250BT, JVC-AVX836, Witson or CASKA. Have not made a decision on this so far. :(

Any help on finalizing the above options would be well appreciated....

[Chethan B G]

Originally Posted by kiran_v

planning to go for Jewel Ultra Diamond Brite. Enquired and found out a dealer - Car sparkle spa in forum mall. They quoted around 2.5K ( guarantee for 1 year - with 2 additional services) and for around 4.5K (for 5 years - with 4 or 5 additional services). Any thoughts on this?

This one looks good. I also have it on my Spark. Go for the 5 yea package. Usually, their 1st coat will be better if the warranty is for a longer time. This is from my experience.

2) Art Leather Seat Cover/Leather seats - The seats of Polo looks and feels fabulous. However, since it's fabric - the tendency to get dirty is quite high. So I am thinking of putting in art leather seat covers or change it to origina leather seats.
Have been quoted around 5-8K on G-Sport art leather seat covers and between 25 - 38K on Stanley leather seats depending on material chosen. Is there a need for putting original leather seats? I know that they feel lot more comfortable to sit. One additional reason is that my dad's car has got OE leather seats, whereas I had art leather seats put in my Swift from a not-so-known vendor in Hyderabad. After 2-3 years of use, the art leather was completely worn and torn out. I had to remove them from my car. And I have seen the same in numerous other cars as well. However, my the OE leather in my dad's car looks as good as new.

If you can afford, go of the leather that breaths - available with Stanley AFAIK.

3) Finally, a change of HU - I have many options here now with most of our fellow BHPians following different suite. The options are Pioneer AVH 3250BT, JVC-AVX836, Witson or CASKA. Have not made a decision on this so far. :(

For exact OEM fitment Witson / Caska.
For features / quality - Pioneer / JVC
For Audio - Pioneer
For Video - JVC
Depends on your requirements. You can see my system and decide.

Any help on finalizing the above options would be well appreciated....

My reply in bold.

Bandipur is a nice place. I have been there N number of times!!

[kiran_v]

Thanks Chethan for the advice.

In fact I was also thinking to get the 5 year package because the rate is only double from the one year package and covers 5 times the period. Hence more VFM, I would assume along with the point you mentioned.

For Seat covers - which is the one that you got? Is it the Stanley one?

As far as the HU goes, I prefer going in for the stock look. However, don't want to compromise on audio/video qwality as well. A little help from AnkitPrashar can help probably - I would rather PM him, get his no and try speaking with him.
Features I like about WITSON - is RVC, Phonebook, GPS, and DVD. So there are no external entities required. However, I guess for Pioneer - there is no support for RVC...or is it there?Same goes for the case for JVC - I guess I have to a seperate GPS setup to integrate with the HU, right?
These were the let downs I feel which makes me more inclined to go for WITSON and concentrate on setting up Amps and Components/Co-axials to take care of the audio.

[Chethan B G]

Originally Posted by kiran_v

For Seat covers - which is the one that you got? Is it the Stanley one?

Features I like about WITSON - is RVC, Phonebook, GPS, and DVD. So there are no external entities required. However, I guess for Pioneer - there is no support for RVC...or is it there?Same goes for the case for JVC - I guess I have to a seperate GPS setup to integrate with the HU, right?
These were the let downs I feel which makes me more inclined to go for WITSON and concentrate on setting up Amps and Components/Co-axials to take care of the audio.

I have no personal experience with Stanley. But I have seen their product. It is good.

Rear View Camera is a common feature in all these units. But GPS is additional in Pioneer & JVC. But you get fantastic MapMyIndia - Map Version 5.1 with it.

Your option of going with Witson & Amp is also good. Between Witson & Caska, no point spending the extra money on Caska - for the sake of Warranty. My interaction with Caska has not been very good. I am not sure how far the group can be relayed upon.

[kiran_v]

@Chethan : Thanks for correcting me; I felt Pioneer and JVC model was without RVC. However, when you say we can use MapmyIndia, did you mean we need to connect to the physical device?

An update - So far 59 days have passed by since I got my polo. My car has totally covered 6200 kms as of today. I am visiting Pondicherry during this weekend. So I guess by end of this week, my car would complete 7000 kms.

-ves and +ves so far
1) I have noticed a slight left pulling at times; guess this is a common defect in every polo.

2) I have had no problems with the rear view mirror. Have not felt that the field of view has changed while changing Day/night modes.

3) Noticed a feeble sound coming from the rear side while going over rough roads. It is not loud; and would never be heard if A/C or stereo is on. Need to get this checked. Anybody else facing the same problem?

4) Getting consistently mileage of over 16 kms/l on cities; and around 18 - 20.5 kms/l on highways.

5) There is a huge difference in the way the car plunges forward now. Feels like a lot more powerful car right now.

6) Got my Paint protection done a week back - was from Sparkle Car spa; costed me Rs.4400/-; with a warranty of 3 years and 5 extra services. Slight differences from what I posted before (I had said the warranty is for 5 yrs) and they use Wax polish for 3 years paint protection; I guess for 1 year, its diamond brite. However, there is a chance that I may be away from Bangalore for almost a year, hence I felt the 2 extra services cannot be utilized. Hence I took the 3 year paint protection scheme. The difference can be seen. There was a slight drizzle in the morning on way to office, and when I reached office, they looked like water droplets on a leaf. I parked my car in the basement, and when I was about to return, I saw most of the drops remaining as such over the top portion of the car. Will post pics soon.

7) Planning on getting sun films tomorrow before trip to Pondi; as I feel privacy is being compromised. I know most of our fellow TBHPians having a polo; have suggested against going for it. And for some of the night drives; i guess it would help because currently the entire light of the vehicle behind me is directed straight at me due to ORVMs.

8) And need to finalize on the seat covers as well; since I got my first stain on the rear seat, and even after applying upholstery cleaner; it still remains. Since I have got to rush in to get the seats done, might go for G-Sport Art leather.

7) Overall, I am enjoying mile cruising in my polo.

[drmohitg]

Congratulations on your new car kiran_v. This is the first time I saw a polo in this colour and it sure looks fantastic. This is the best colour on this car for me now. Wishing you many many happy miles on this beauty!

[Swooper]

kiran_v,

Mileage figures looks very healthy. Are these figures with light accelarations? In particular, the city mileage quoted is very healthy. Is it to do with your driving style?

With polo well insulated, how is the TDI noise at high speeds?

Can you post boot space pic when you find time?

[Chethan B G]

Originally Posted by kiran_v

@Chethan : Thanks for correcting me; I felt Pioneer and JVC model was without RVC. However, when you say we can use MapmyIndia, did you mean we need to connect to the physical device?

GPS device is a separate hardware. It has to be bought and connected to the ICE. Both the models are only GPS ready.

An update - So far 59 days have passed by since I got my polo. My car has totally covered 6200 kms as of today. I am visiting Pondicherry during this weekend. So I guess by end of this week, my car would complete 7000 kms.

-ves and +ves so far
1) I have noticed a slight left pulling at times; guess this is a common defect in every polo.

Yes.

2) I have had no problems with the rear view mirror. Have not felt that the field of view has changed while changing Day/night modes.

Lucky guy!

3) Noticed a feeble sound coming from the rear side while going over rough roads. It is not loud; and would never be heard if A/C or stereo is on. Need to get this checked. Anybody else facing the same problem?

Check tools and the stepney. Are they secured in place?

4) Getting consistently mileage of over 16 kms/l on cities; and around 18 - 20.5 kms/l on highways.

Dream mileage!

5) There is a huge difference in the way the car plunges forward now. Feels like a lot more powerful car right now.

I believe you!

6) Got my Paint protection done a week back - was from Sparkle Car spa; costed me Rs.4400/-; with a warranty of 3 years and 5 extra services. Slight differences from what I posted before (I had said the warranty is for 5 yrs) and they use Wax polish for 3 years paint protection; I guess for 1 year, its diamond brite. However, there is a chance that I may be away from Bangalore for almost a year, hence I felt the 2 extra services cannot be utilized. Hence I took the 3 year paint protection scheme. The difference can be seen. There was a slight drizzle in the morning on way to office, and when I reached office, they looked like water droplets on a leaf. I parked my car in the basement, and when I was about to return, I saw most of the drops remaining as such over the top portion of the car. Will post pics soon.

You should have posted the pics first - and then the details!! Can not wait!!

7) Planning on getting sun films tomorrow before trip to Pondi; as I feel privacy is being compromised. I know most of our fellow TBHPians having a polo; have suggested against going for it. And for some of the night drives; i guess it would help because currently the entire light of the vehicle behind me is directed straight at me due to ORVMs.

8) And need to finalize on the seat covers as well; since I got my first stain on the rear seat, and even after applying upholstery cleaner; it still remains. Since I have got to rush in to get the seats done, might go for G-Sport Art leather.

G-Sport looks good. You are not interested in pure leather?

7) Overall, I am enjoying mile cruising in my polo.

My comments in bold. This car really gives us the thrill!

[gyak88]

Beautiful car!! Lovely pictures. Waiting for a full review now