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Booked a Volkswagen Polo, brought home a Taigun 1.0 TSI AT

I switched to the Taigun 17 days later. Neither of the dealerships I visited tried to upsell me the Taigun. It just happened organically.

BHPian throttleflick recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I took delivery of a white Taigun 1.0 Topline AT on the 9th January.

Took it straight to Lonavala temple after the delivery from Autobahn Vashi. I paid 17.31 OTR. BH series, my employer having offices in more than 4 states has made it possible for me.

I had visited the Thane dealership in November to check out the matte gray Polo but was disappointed to learn that the color was only available in the GT and not Highline Plus. I ended up booking a white Polo Highline Plus with a delivery time frame of 2-4 months. I wasn't in a hurry with the delivery anyways so the time line suited me.

I switched to the Taigun 17 days later. Neither of the dealerships I visited tried to upsell me the Taigun. It just happened organically. I was getting tired with the bike rides wearing me down and wanted to have a car that could be easy to manage in city and on the highways.

Both Polo and Taigun were satisfying my criteria of being well mannered cars, with the Taigun and its ventilated seats going an extra mile to pamper the primary occupants. I honestly can't say much about the build quality of both the cars as both seemed pretty solid to me.

The car hunt began in 2020 as a joke, as a consequence of not being in the right timeline to end up with a Punto Abarth, day dreaming of the next best thing - a Polo TSi, and come December 2021, I found myself doing a PDI of a car I never thought I'd buy. I hope my dreams never come true.

I love the Taigun exactly for the same reasons as the Polo:

  • Cruise control: I wanted to try this especially because a friend who drives an AT verna also has cruise control and choses not to use it. I set it up at 79km/hr on the Mumbai Pune expressway and just focussed on the road. I can't wait to do this again.
  • TC gearbox: I briefly looked at Renaults offerings in the Polos price range, but didn't want to go the non TC gearbox route. Driving my uncles 2021 Baleno CVT also didn't instil excitement. TC was the way to go without having any benchmark to base this decision on. I was tired of driving our 2007 Innova MT and wanted an automatic car as my first car.
  • A potent engine with a scope for DIY - this was for Polo. I've religiously followed BHPian fluidicjoys diy threads and was blown away by the kinda potential Polo holds for mods. I'm also glad that I'm not going to have to do any of those now that a Taigun stands in the garage. I'm all for "built not bought" (but "built after I bought" really) and I am the primary service advisor, head mechanic, chai wala and chief accountant when it comes to the maintenance of my 2017 Dominar, having added functional and aesthetic mods on it. But I want a break from all that diy and focus on the driving a bit more this time.
  • Everything that the Polo doesn't have is an add on on the Taigun and I don't have particular excitement over the value addition of these features except for the ventilated seats. Mom was surprised to know that such a thing exists and was happy and comfortable throughout the lonavala drive on delivery day. The paddle shifters are an addon I was going to add to the Polo but happy for it to come as standard on the Taigun, although I am waiting to cross over 1-1.5k on the odo to use them.

However, the Polo has a lot of character over the Taigun. This will never stop being true for me.

The allure of the sunroof quickly faded away now that our car has it. The Innova which stands in the garage doesn't have a sunroof and both my mom and I used to wonder what it'd be like to have a car with a sunroof. Uncle with his XUV500 encouraged putting the head outta the sunroof when the car stood still and the experience was pleasant. Now that there is one on the Taigun, I don't think we've looked up more than once through it. We just end up removing the roof liner cover and that's that. It just sits there, we're happy it is there but we'd be indifferent if it weren't.

I love the wheel setup as well. On a smooth tarmac, the car glides. As if riding on an aircraft. The road noise is absent and I just love the way it drives. On concrete tarmac, the story is a bit different. There is a fair amount of road noise, the undulations are felt in the cabin and it starts making sense as to why the 16 inch tyres are a better swap for this car. Not that I'm going to right away or later as well, but it did debunk a thought I had in my mind when I used to read about most of the folks preferring the 16 inch wheels over the 17 inch setup.

I also find it weird that the car on PDI and on delivery day seemed so tall, and now that it is with me and among other cars, it just feels short. Like me.

I love the gearbox but can only talk so much about it right now. I've done around 288 km, 77 was the odo meter mark when I took delivery. U-turns are scary. Probably because I'm not willing to floor the car right now hence a mild panic sets inside of me trying to negotiate a u-turn with a sense of calming urgency. Will I make it, will I not? Will the truck driver uncle curse at me, will he not? Or maybe because when I press the accelerator, the car has a noticeable delay until it darts forward (probably in d2) and pushes me back into the seat.

The headlight setup is a miss for me. I wish for something more powerful. It reminds me of my struggle with my Dominar. It looks good when I'm alone on the road. I can scare insects, owls, and make the moon blush on a full moon day, but if a halogen power guy comes in the opposite lane, I'm sure to miss a bump or a pothole. These lights also perform poorly for me when someone with a powerful setup is behind me, the effect of my headlights gets cancelled and blends with the more powerful setup.

I've always thought these LED headlights with the kinda temperature Dominar has to be a problem and the ones on the Taigun will inspire no confidence on that front. Good to have the fog lamps in an aesthetically out of sync color temperature. I've had my eyes tested and my doctor said I have a good vision. As long as I could see her, it was 6/6.

The car does hold gears properly. On the TD car, I felt it did spend a fair amount of time in D2 even at lower speeds but that doesn't seem to be the case with the car I've got.

How and why I went in for a Polo and came out with a Taigun in a span of 2 months is something that is in the works on the assembly line. Hope to cover a lot of the things other than what I've mentioned on the post.

However, I have a lot of gratitude towards BHPian sameer_vwagner, soumyajena whose virtual presence has made me buying my first car a smooth experience. I couldn't have done it without Sameer's encouragement and Soumya's help moving to a different dealership in the Mumbai area. These two among other gents have had a significant impact on me and the kinda human I aspire to be. Thank you guys.

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