[goandude]

Congrats shantanu on your great looking and fuel efficient car.

Two points I noticed from the pics, one is that the speedo needle is illuminated, great at night. The other is that the carpet is very light color, so if you don't cover it, there is high chance of it getting soiled.

[evilshantanu]

Originally Posted by goandude

Congrats shantanu on your great looking and fuel efficient car.

Two points I noticed from the pics, one is that the speedo needle is illuminated, great at night. The other is that the carpet is very light color, so if you don't cover it, there is high chance of it getting soiled.

Yes, very true about the carpet. Its just been a week and it ha sstarted getting dirty already. I am looking for beige colored Kagu 3D mats, not finding them anywhere :( BHPians please give me some pointers

Additionally the car clocked 1000 KM today, I think I would be easy on it for another 500 KM and then maybe a long drive, at good speed to test the beast in her :-P

@Other Vento TDI owners: what is the run-in period you guys have considered ?

[noopster]

Run-in should be around 1500 km. So you're almost there!

Re. the floor mats, I got the Vento standard rubber ones in beige- they look the best and are easy to clean as well. Think they cost about 1800/- Don't rise around without mats dude- you'll ruin the carpets. Who in their right mind designed carpets in that shade? Should have his designer's license revoked!

[evilshantanu]

Originally Posted by noopster

Run-in should be around 1500 km. So you're almost there!

Re. the floor mats, I got the Vento standard rubber ones in beige- they look the best and are easy to clean as well. Think they cost about 1800/- Don't rise around without mats dude- you'll ruin the carpets. Who in their right mind designed carpets in that shade? Should have his designer's license revoked!

Ok, another 500 KM of run-in :(

I totally agree, see they gave "black" mats to Jetta :(

I am using the basic transparent mats, but still the sides of the carpet are getting dirty. Wanted to try Kagu 3D mats....

[evilshantanu]

I am glad that I had ABS in my vento, had a life saving moment today.

I was on the elevated highway (Electronic City) and there was this water tanker, giving water to the plants on the median / divider. well there were a lot of cars infront of me, so I wasnt able to see the tanker. There was a white Vento infront of me (KA51-MA .....) he took a pickup, so I thought that there is nothing infront of him, I took the pickup as well. But maybe there were cars infront of him as well. He braked suddenly, I had to brake, there was a tempo traveler behind me. I must be doing 100+ km/hr but the car was always in control, didnt skid even an inch and came to a halt! Thanks to the ABS that everything went by peacefully. the Tempo traveler skidded but was able to save my boot.....

After thoughts: why on earth do we need to water the plants in peak hours (it was 8:40 am) ? Dont these guys have grey matter in their heads ? The speed that the cars / bikes do on the elevated highway, and these clowns organizing the highway, now I am always scared to go on it :(

[Schoudhury]

Originally Posted by evilshantanu

I am glad that I had ABS in my vento, had a life saving moment today.

I was on the elevated highway (Electronic City) and there was this water tanker, giving water to the plants on the median / divider. well there were a lot of cars infront of me, so I wasnt able to see the tanker. There was a white Vento infront of me (KA51-MA .....) he took a pickup, so I thought that there is nothing infront of him, I took the pickup as well. But maybe there were cars infront of him as well. He braked suddenly, I had to brake, there was a tempo traveler behind me. I must be doing 100+ km/hr but the car was always in control, didnt skid even an inch and came to a halt! Thanks to the ABS that everything went by peacefully. the Tempo traveler skidded but was able to save my boot.....

After thoughts: why on earth do we need to water the plants in peak hours (it was 8:40 am) ? Dont these guys have grey matter in their heads ? The speed that the cars / bikes do on the elevated highway, and these clowns organizing the highway, now I am always scared to go on it :(

Oh man, that was tight .
Ya true, i also dont understand why they have to water the plant in the morning time when there is the maximum traffic and most of people are driving quite fast in that road .

When i do use that road i always try to maintain a good amount of distance from the car which in my front and dont overtake untill and unless i get a proper clear view of the things in front of me .

Recently i also had a close escape while going to tirupati last weekend ( that's why i was not able to meet you ) .
I was following my friends car, who knew the route properly,and he overtook a truck on the left and i was about to overtake the car thinking that the road in front will be free, but to my surprise he immediately came to left lane after overtaking without any turn indicator where as im sure when we was able to see the truck which was coming from the opposite direction and should have used the trun indicators to give an idea that he will turn left after overtaking ,so i saw a truck coming towards us ,luckily i wasn't traveling fast and was maintaining a proper distance so was able to control my car properly and get behind the truck which he overtook.
So the point which im trying to make is that , people dont use the turn indicator properly to make other drivers who are driving behind them to give an idea what might be in-front of them.
I always make sure , i use the proper turn indicator while overtaking , and im sure almost all the bhpian does the same .
I also feel if we drive safely ("safe" doesn't mean drive @ 50 kmph) and with proper lane discipline everyone can enjoy their ride.

Sounds like a gyaan, isnt it , but im sure if people can use the basic things properly driving around will be fun.

Cheers

[souravc]

Originally Posted by evilshantanu

Ok, another 500 KM of run-in :(

I totally agree, see they gave "black" mats to Jetta :(

I am using the basic transparent mats, but still the sides of the carpet are getting dirty. Wanted to try Kagu 3D mats....

May I suggest that you check out the synthetic carpet which comes in a slightly darker shade of beige and have neat velcros attached underneath which fixes it to the original carpet . On top of the carpet you may put any good (heavy) foot mats .. I have used a heavy synthetic mats which has hidden blunt spikes underneath - these help in keeping it firmly planted. My experience has been that however hard one tries , its practically impossible to save the beige carpet from being soiled without another layer of detachable carpet or teflon coating the carpet. I disliked the teflon coating option since I was worried about its longevity and how it would look when worn down and also possible adverse impact on the original due to wear tear

[loyalcasanova]

@evilshantanu, thank your lucky stars that you are safe and sound (also thank VW ABS). I always ask these speeddemons whats the fun in going so fast if you cant enjoy your surroundings and risk your life and limb- all for a measly few minutes, which you would have anyways wasted updating your facebook pages.
I intend to put those rubber beige mats over the carpet. Guess a car vacuum cleaner is a must for vento.

[F458]

Hi to all the contributors to this wonderful thread,

This is my first post after becoming a member of team-bhp, i have been closely following on whats being said, i am a disgruntled owner of a white higline vento TDI. I agree about the part of the car being great on acceleration and great looks and all.
I probably am one of the first chaps in cochin, to get the vento. I booked my car on June 16th 2010. I was customer No.2 at EVM volkswagen. But as usual I was given the car not in september, but by Oct 15, and after going through hell of a tussle both with EVM Kochi and the sales chaps in Bangalore, lets put it this way EVM was not interested in giving me a car from the first lot.
Well I got the car on the 15th of October, and was immediately vowed by the looks and the feel, but I wish they had given us the feel of the dash of the european spec polo(same feel as the Beetle dash), atleast for the highline version. Unfortunately there were no accessories available at that time, i was just lucky to get vento textile mats for the car, which i personally like. I immediately drove the car to the airport to pick up my dad, and give him a surprise.
In the meanwhile i had ordered stanley seats (winchester color i think, same as the cream color of the dash).
i sat in the car and felt good, did not want to play any music, as i wanted to hear every sound, and music the car made. Surprise, as soon as i pressed the clutch to change from 1st to second, there was a grinding noise!!!! I was shocked as i have never heard something like that coming from any car in my life, and this sound would come every time i pressed the clutch to change gears, and also under heavy engine braking.
I initially did not want to think anything negative, the car was just flying in terms of acceleration and i had a hard time controlling myself in letting her loose. My first MID reading for the airport read 19.5 km/l and i said WOW!!1 that s great. I hit my first pothole and heard clank!!!, i asked to myself what happened, i stopped the car and checked and i realized the front strut travel is really short. the spring coil of the strut actually hit each other if you are not careful.
At the airport my Dad sat in the drivers seat admired the layout and was impressed with the looks. But the moment he started driving, was taken aback by 2 things, one the tendency of the car to self accelerate and the of course the grinding noise !!!

Gotto Run will post what happened in the last 5 months in the next post.

[evilshantanu]

Originally Posted by F458

Hi to all the contributors to this wonderful thread,

This is my first post after becoming a member of team-bhp, i have been closely following on whats being said, i am a disgruntled owner of a white higline vento TDI. I agree about the part of the car being great on acceleration and great looks and all.
I probably am one of the first chaps in cochin, to get the vento. I booked my car on June 16th 2010. I was customer No.2 at EVM volkswagen. But as usual I was given the car not in september, but by Oct 15, and after going through hell of a tussle both with EVM Kochi and the sales chaps in Bangalore, lets put it this way EVM was not interested in giving me a car from the first lot.
Well I got the car on the 15th of October, and was immediately vowed by the looks and the feel, but I wish they had given us the feel of the dash of the european spec polo(same feel as the Beetle dash), atleast for the highline version. Unfortunately there were no accessories available at that time, i was just lucky to get vento textile mats for the car, which i personally like. I immediately drove the car to the airport to pick up my dad, and give him a surprise.
In the meanwhile i had ordered stanley seats (winchester color i think, same as the cream color of the dash).
i sat in the car and felt good, did not want to play any music, as i wanted to hear every sound, and music the car made. Surprise, as soon as i pressed the clutch to change from 1st to second, there was a grinding noise!!!! I was shocked as i have never heard something like that coming from any car in my life, and this sound would come every time i pressed the clutch to change gears, and also under heavy engine braking.
I initially did not want to think anything negative, the car was just flying in terms of acceleration and i had a hard time controlling myself in letting her loose. My first MID reading for the airport read 19.5 km/l and i said WOW!!1 that s great. I hit my first pothole and heard clank!!!, i asked to myself what happened, i stopped the car and checked and i realized the front strut travel is really short. the spring coil of the strut actually hit each other if you are not careful.
At the airport my Dad sat in the drivers seat admired the layout and was impressed with the looks. But the moment he started driving, was taken aback by 2 things, one the tendency of the car to self accelerate and the of course the grinding noise !!!

Gotto Run will post what happened in the last 5 months in the next post.

Nice to have you onboard f458!
The delays and deliveries are an eternal pain with VW. hopefully the situation seems to be improving now.

Well that strange noise seems to be some serious problem wit the engine. I hope you got it checked and everything turned out to be good. I have done 2025 KM on the ODO till date and have been very satisfied with the performance of the car.

Well a European Dashboard is a good to have feature, but we should understand that everything comes with a price tag, and the pricing of the Vento is extremely aggressive. Just compare it with the pricing of ANHC. So I am satisfied with the interiors of this car!


As far as the GC goes, I am extremely satisfied with it. It has been 3 weeks and 2000 KM since I have been driving this beauty around Bangalore and never ever the Car has scraped any speed hump / pothole. Maybe the scraping sound that you hear is the noise of the mudflap scraping the pothole. That is a known problem, but I guess changing to the semi soft ones solves that problem

Looking forward to hear your 5 month journey.....

[F458]

Hi Shantanu

Thanks for the prompt feedback, the clutch/gearbox noise is a known issue in some of the cars, as a matter of fact even the test drive car at EVM seems to have it. I f you check the feb issue of Autocar, in their complain section a person from ludhiana has faced the same problem and a lot of owners in blogs in carwale are complaining the same. I have driven a friends car, the funny thing is the intensity varies from car to car. They are still to find a comprehensive solution.
Will update soon.

[NoRules]

Glad you escaped unhurt, evilshantanu. That elevated highway does make you floor the pedal. Safe driving.

[evilshantanu]

@F458: I hope that this problem has no serious effects on the engine and VW is working on finding a solution to this problem. If that is the case, then that is good enough assurance to me that it would be solved soon

Originally Posted by NoRules

Glad you escaped unhurt, evilshantanu. That elevated highway does make you floor the pedal. Safe driving.

Thanks NoRules, now I am extra cautious on the BETL

2200 km done on the ODO, it has been a fabulous ride so far. Tried giving open stretches to the Shadowfax some days back and it did 160+ comfortably on the highway, with still some breath remaining in the engine to push more.

One thing I have noticed is, if the Diesel tank is "full" there is a little audible sound of the fluid wobble in the tank. Didnt hear this in my swift ever. Got the tank filled last night and heard it while parking, maybe because it was pretty late in the night and there were no noises around. But still found it worth mentioning it here.

The car has an amazing hunger for climbing hills, Went to Nandi hills last weekend for a drive, just before reaching the top of the hill, the climb / road is pretty steep, I always used to climb this stretch on 1st gear on the Swift, but the Shadofax seems to take on these challenges quite comfortably on the 2nd gear.

The FE is consistently 15.6-15.7 kmpl on my commute to work + a lot of 2nd and 3rd gear travel on the weekend in the city. There is a 1200 KM round trip coming up this weekend on the highway, this would clear all doubts about the FE on the highways I guess.

New pics coming soon!

[evilshantanu]

More pics

Trip to Nandi Hills

[loyalcasanova]

Any petrol Vento owners here in this post? A colleague of mine has given a very poor feedback on the Fuel Efficiency of this model (around 7kmpl in city). Can someone comment if this is the exception or the rule.