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80,000 km review of a used VW Polo GT TSI

11th May 2021, 14:37 by Chirag Moro

Again, this did not fall directly under our budget but then the DSG, evergreen looks, TSI engine's famous tractability caught our attention.

BHPian dhruvritzed recently shared this with other BHPians.

Prelude

After being on Team-BHP for almost 6 years and having gone through thousands of ownership reviews, I decided it was time I wrote one too. Now you all must be guessing seeing my handle name that I must be having a Ritz, but that is not the case now, I had it till around 4 years back.

Flashback 2011, I had recently turned 18 and my metro runs to the college were tiring and the itch for a car started. For the first few months of college, I used to park my old Alto VX 1.1 at a metro station and board a metro that took me straight to my college. That was a simple car that did only the basics right, had par for the course fuel efficiency, modest pick up and just about enough space. It could be excused because daily usage was under 20 kms. Major disadvantages of the car were poor performance with AC and no safety kit. Now there was a slew of launches of B+ segment hatches in 2009-10, mainly the Nissan Micra, Maruti Ritz, Hyundai i20, Fiat Punto & the Maruti Swift was updated with the latest K series engine from the Ritz. Not including the Honda Jazz as that car costed almost C segment money. That was the segment I targeted for my next car purchase.

The Ritz Life

Now was the time to have something that could be used to commute to and from college, so I ended up picking the Ritz from Maruti True Value in November 2011. It was an April 2010 car in Silky Silver and a ZXI as my dad was adamant on safety features. It had done around 20000 Kms at the time of purchase, we picked it up for 4.3 lacs and it carried a 1 Year Warranty with 3 free services. My college commute that time was 70 Kms a day and since we had exam breaks and car-pooling for quite some time, the car would end up doing 1200-1400 Kms a month (pretty much manageable in petrol rather than spending more on a diesel car). The car was comfortable, fast enough for my then needs and very frugal, used to average 16 km/l easily. Also, service was cheap (I used to get bills in the range of 3000-5500 after the free services got over) but part replacement was frequent through the life of the car. I also ended up in a few small accidents with this car as did my younger brother, so it had its fair share of panels painted and bumpers replaced once. It met my needs to the T, so much so that when I left Delhi in 2015 June to pursue my MBA in Mumbai, I wanted to take it along. However, practicality dawned upon me and I didn't take it along because of lack of parking space, just a 2 Km commute to my college from my place of stay in Andheri East and the fact that I just wouldn't get much time to drive it because of a busy schedule. At the time of leaving Delhi, the odo stood at almost 69000 Km, I had done almost 50000 Km with the car in just over three and a half years. Subsequently, dad put the car up on OLX and started getting offers, however he was happy with an offer only in January 2016 and the car was finally sold with the odo reading 73xxx Km.

Here are some pictures of the Ritz that still make me nostalgic:

Had double the Ritz fun when a friend dropped his car at my place for some days, his car was also a Silky Silver ZXi:

The one between the cars is yours truly, the picture dates back to August 2014. Pardon me for the picture quality as all these images were clicked by relatively inferior camera-equipped early smartphones.

Some points regarding the Ritz Ownership:

Suspension bushes were changed within 1000 Km of purchase
Spark Plugs were changed at 37000 Km
Brake Pads were changed at 39000 Km
The car had a recurring problem of caliper pins having to be replaced
Complete front suspension with shockers all around were changed at 50000 Km
Clutch overhaul was done and related components were replaced at 53000 Km
Stock tyres JK Vectra lasted almost 55000 Km but had very poor performance right through.
ABS sensor went kaput at 58000 Km
Wheel bearings were changed at 60000 Km

All these, even though seem plenty, weren't exactly very expensive but then made me aware of the fact that Maruti Parts were no more of the quality that we had in our 2001 model Maruti Baleno 1st generation (a car that carried a lot of Suzuki Genuine Parts). I must mention that maintaining the car at Motor Craft, a Maruti Workshop at Noida Sector 8 was a breeze. The service advisers knew their work well, part availability was never a problem, their insurance tie-ups made claims easier and quality of work done never disappointed me. To date, I highly recommend that workshop to any person asking for Maruti repairs or regular service.

Cut to present day, we have the following cars in our garage:

1. Audi A4 2.0L TDI 2011 that we bought used in 2015 September, currently stands at 97000 Km:

2. Honda City i-Vtec S AT 2009 that we bought used in May 2014, currently stands at 93000 Km:

3. Verna 1.6 VTVT SX+ AT - bought in August 2019 brand new, currently stands at 13000 Km:

4. Polo GT TSI 2014 bought used in May 2016, currently stands at 73700 Km:

5. Baleno Delta Automatic bought brand new in July 2017, currently stands at 26200 Km:

6. Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI Classic 2011-bought used in January 2020, currently stands at 39700 Km:

Story of the "Zindagi Badalne Wali Gaadi" as I lovingly call it:

It is purely coincidental that the car which is featured here, its search started with the booking of a Maruti Baleno. First up, circa 2016 March - I was back in Noida for my Summer Internship and we were on the lookout for a decent large hatchback for our family use once we had sold the Ritz in January 2016. Being used to the convenience of a hatchback and now that most of our cars were automatic (after we bought the A4 in September 2015), we probably wanted to combine the two and were looking at automatic hatchbacks. Since I would stay at home these two months, I would use it for those months and later my brother would use it till I finish my MBA in March 2017. Since NGT had just wreaked havoc in December 2015 regarding Diesel car life being restricted to 10 years and had closed registration of Diesel vehicles above 2000cc entirely, there was a negative sentiment with respect to diesel car purchase, so we mainly considered petrols in our research. Plus, the fact that none of the hatchbacks offered a diesel automatic, made our search easier.

Our primary requirements were:

1. Conventional Automatic Transmission

Having had the experience of driving Torque convertors and CVTs with my current cars and also having driven my best friend's Celerio AMT, I just could not digest the jerky behaviour of made to cost automatics.

2. Safety

We needed minimum 2 airbags and ABS because even our outgoing Ritz had that much. So base models of most hatchbacks were out of consideration.

3. Features

Rear Wash Wipe was one of the basic requirements because we were so used to it in our hatches that we had owned, as were Power Windows, Steering Mounted Audio Controls, Steering Adjustment (at least tilt if not telescopic) and Bluetooth connectivity (sorely missed in the Ritz).

4. Value for money

Our budget was strictly set as 8 lacs after calculating all we needed. Also, we had recently bought the A4 that costed us a bomb, so we needed to restrict ourselves from going over the board.

The cars that fit our budget or could be accommodated were:

1. Maruti Baleno

Well, it was the case of a namesake (we had the previous Baleno too from 2001-14, what a car it was, still miss it) and the fact that after its launch in October 2015, it had generated interest few cars have ever done and commanded tremendous waiting periods of up to 26 weeks for the petrol automatic. Upsides of the car being excellent space, good feature distribution across variants, lots of variants to choose from, neutral design liked by all in my family, proven K series engine (from our Ritz and supposedly made better), good value for money. Downsides being - it was available in only one trim in automatic, poor refinement with respect to outside noise as pointed out by various reviews and very average plastic quality (which we could live with).

2. Honda Jazz (2nd generation in India)

Having two generations of Honda City (2nd and 3rd generation) at home, this was one car that found universal acceptance at home and each one of us at home were looking forward to a test drive. Upsides of the car being the fact that it was a global model, proven 1.2L engine, legendary Honda reliability, good space inside and the looks were really modern, also this particular generation was much more realistically priced compared to the previous generation. Downsides were few, though on test driving we felt it was a bit underpowered. Major blow came in the form of the S CVT trim not having airbags. That was clearly a big miss and the next CVT version that met our safety requirement was more than a lac above our budget. Being a new model, it didn't have any discounts either. We walked out of the showroom a bit disappointed.

3. Hyundai Grand i10 Automatic

Now, this doesn't compare favourably with the other two but it was considered only because its elder sibling, the i20 Elite, did not offer an automatic transmission at all (gross negligence on Hyundai's part as direct competitors had a free run). At that time, the pre-facelift car was available and didn't find much favour at home because of its very neutral styling. We still gave it a shot but most of the dealerships refused test drives citing unavailability of automatic test drive vehicles. Upsides being proven Kappa engine, good value for money, nice to have features and being one of the largest selling cars in India, resale and part availability would never be a problem. Downsides were mainly a smaller size and terrible fuel efficiency as reported by some.

4. Polo GT TSI

Again, this did not fall directly under our budget but then the DSG, evergreen looks, TSI engine's famous tractability caught our attention, so much so that we started looking for used alternatives and also asked the dealership where we test drove the car for some old discounted stock or sale of their test drive vehicles. Upsides were mainly pace unheard of in the hatchback segment, fast acting DSG, lovely flat-bottom steering wheel and good features on the latest model. Downsides being literally no space at the back if my brother or I were driving, DSG horror stories, expensive VW maintenance and supposedly poor fuel efficiency (not exactly proven in that aspect).

The Build-Up up to find a Baleno without waiting for it

In the meanwhile, we booked a Baleno Delta Automatic in Urban Blue at Rohan Motors Nexa because we were almost sure of it and the waiting periods were very long, which would give us ample time to decide what we wanted. Also, Maruti's booking amount of Rs.11,000 was small enough to take a risk over, so we took it. Baleno was coming out to 7.8 lacs on-road (pretty much within our budget). Jazz and Grand i10 didn't really find favor, so were pushed out. Come April and our search became frantic, we rang up various dealers for early delivery of Baleno, even went to the extent of asking for some premium to be paid as part of the deal. Most dealers were promising early delivery of manual petrol cars and all models of diesel but that was not that we wanted. Found a dealer in Punjab who had a display car for sale but just as we were ready to transfer funds, we were informed it had lots of accessories installed that were totalling to more than a lac (complete waste of money because when I saw the car's photos that the Sales Adviser sent to me over WhatsApp, it looked cringe-worthy, white car with an overdose of chrome and wood stickers splattered all over the black insides).

Going all out for a used GT TSI

With a broken heart in the Baleno finding episode, we came across a used Polo GT TSI 2013 on OLX. It was a car from the initial batches and had done 38,000 km and the final negotiated price came to around 5.5 lacs. Just as we were going to sign the dotted line, the thoughts of a pre-facelift car with no flat bottom steering, the old generation red backlighting, beige interiors (not entirely suited to the GT TSI IMO) and one whose service record we hadn't checked came to our mind. So we left the owner's place citing a return once we verify the service records. We visited VW Noida (Viraj Automotives) the following day to ask again for sale of test drive vehicle, to which their reply was a certain no and to check for the service record of the car we had shortlisted. To our surprise, the car didn't have extended warranty (must have in my books for the GT TSI) and since the owner didn't visit the service centre after the 2 year standard warranty got over, we became a bit wary. Also, all was not well with the car as we got to know, it had premature replacement of brake pads, suspension bushes well within the 2 year mark.

We decided against this car and told our sales advisor that we can look at used options if they had any. A week passed looking at OLX for GT TSIs, at that time there weren't many available. We were also following up for a Baleno with different dealers but to no avail, we even thought of manual cars at that time and went and test drove the S-Cross, the i20 Diesel and the Brezza, but all felt too cumbersome in traffic compared to the breezy automatics.

Later that week, we got a call from VW Noida that one of their customers was looking to sell his 1.5 year old GT TSI. On enquiring further, we got to know that the car was a post facelift car from September 2014 in Flash Red, had done just 7000 Kms, asking price was 7 lacs, had extended warranty. Also, the car was sold by VW Noida and had full service record. We immediately asked for pictures and boy they were impressive, same day evening my brother went to see the car and was of the opinion that we should act fast. Very soon, we made our mind regarding it and I, my father and my brother went to the owner's place to finalize the deal. Now came the real thing in front of my eyes, it was in really good condition and had just a faint, small scratch on the left door, nothing else. As we sat on the negotiation table, the owner told us the car was on loan and he needed full payment wired to pay the bank and then the bank would release the NOC post which we could take delivery. This seemed fishy to us and we proposed he take the money from some relative and pay the bank in case he didn't have liquid cash. The owner asked for a day or two regards the same and called on the third day for a final price to be negotiated and to tell that he had cleared the loan. The three of us, I, my dad and my brother got on a conference call with him. Started at 6 lacs and ended up at 6.45 lacs as the final price. We transferred the token amount and the rest to be paid on the day of delivery with NOC and form 29, 30. Final price after transfer of the car and commission came to 6.55 lacs and here we were saving on almost 3.5 lacs over a new car with an almost new car.

In another 5 days, we took delivery of the car and what a drive it was that night, our first fast hatch with a proper sports mode, great manoeuvrability and stability in the league of the big German we had at home. Here are a few pictures of the car just post delivery: