VW Vento Highline TDI in Reflex Silver (Initial report) How the Decision to buy Vento was arrived
I was reasonably happy with my Getz performance but was disappointed with the FE. Moreover I was getting a bit bored with it and wanted an upgrade. Since I had anticipated an increase in my travels I decided to go for a Diesel car. The cars that were on my mind were the Verna, Polo, Dzire, Linea/punto and also the Honda City even though it was Petrol. At that time the Vento and Altis Diesel launch was not yet confirmed . I had test driven the Verna automatic, liked it but not interested in it because of no Airbags and getting a bit dated. The dzire was omitted because of its looks and cramped rear passenger space. I test drove the Linea, was appalled with the car that they had brought to be test driven. The odometer was disconnected, some of the plastics were coming off and the interiors were grubby. However I quite liked the performance and the features provided with the top end model(emotion pack).
I went to test drive the polo with some apprehension about the 3 cylinder motor and my wife instantly said that it was smaller than the Getz and was not keen to go ahead. The sales person offered a test drive of the Jetta and was completely blown away with the performance and the build and asked for another test drive. Since I had moved up a segment I decided to look around for other cars in that segment. I drove the Laura, both manual and DSG, but I was hooked by the Jetta and the brand VW. At that point the Vento was announced on 6th July with what sounded like a stunning diesel engine with 1.6L, 105PS and 250nm torque in addition to better space than the polo. I immediately contacted the VW dealer and paid the deposit of Rs 50000 as unofficial booking on 7th July. Later I test drove the Altis Diesel, but was put off by all the reports of it being underpowered and more suited as a chauffer driven car. I then patiently waited till the prices for the Vento were announced in August and felt that the Rs 6L difference compared to jetta trendline was substantial and moreover the Jetta was soon to be an outgoing model. All along till the delivery of the car on 26th September I kept reminding the dealer about the date of my booking and that I should be one of the first to get hold of the Vento. The experience with the dealership
The dealership (VW Palace Cross) experience could have been better. They never did contact me once and all the conversations were initiated by me. They would not return calls, reply to emails and were not forthcoming regarding the state of my booking. I kept calling them to find out what was happening and sometime around the 20th of September was told to make the balance payment. A few days later was sent an invite to attend the launch party at Hotel Lalith Ashok where my car would be delivered. The launch party was attended by the bigwigs of VW and 17 cars from 3 dealers in Bangalore were delivered. The car did not come with any accessories and even now, more than a month after the launch they do not have mud flaps and floor mats which I badly want. Overall I am not at all happy with the dealership experience, but willing to wait and see if it gets better considering that they are dealing with a new product. Performance of the Car
So far I have driven the car for about 1100km in about a month, out of which atleast 65% is in the city and about 35% on the highway. The FE in city conditions is about 14km/L and on the highway is about 20km/L with AC on. The car is defnitely happier on the highway than in the city.
The build quality is very satisfactory a notch up above my Getz but not in the league of Jetta.
The minor irritants have all been noted on team bhp before such as the centre arm rest, lack of dead pedal, and poor central locking mechanism. For me the biggest irritant is the lack of dead pedal.
The suspension is on the softer side and I would have preferred a much tauter one to be labelled an enthusiast's car. I don't think the ground clearance is that great and I have once scrapped an unscientific hump in Bangalore with 2 passengers at the back. It had never happened to me in my Getz.
The handling is good and I feel the steering is apt. I don't feel it is light at all.
The best aspect of the car is the torque and it is really a joy on the highway, overtaking is not at all a problem at all. I am yet to cross the 110km/hr speed. The gear shift is excellent and overall feels a good package. I did not notice any significant vibration on the gear pedal and the car feels smoooth on the highway. There is a bit of noise in lower gears but not at all a bother.
Coming to the city driving, it has its problems. The car has a peculiarity and I don't know if others have noticed it. The tendency to surge even when the foot is off the accelerator making it difficult to slow down without changing to a lower gear. This issue of surging has been reported with VW diesel engines in other countries and I have written to VW india about it. So far apart from acknowledging my email they have not done anything about it. A little change in driving style is required to cope with the surging.
Other minor irritants noticed are the driver side wiper can't be lifted off clean from the windscreen in the sleeping position of the wiperblades. You have just lift a little to clean, otherwise you may end up damaging the paintwork of the edge of the bonnet.
The parking light remains on even when the engines and lights are turned off if the indicator stick is not in the neutral position.
Overall the strengths of the car are build quality, responsive engine, FE, highway cruiser and simple attractive design. The weakness appears to be a quite a few ergonomic mistakes, soft suspension and slightly tricky city driving. |