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A Jetta owner upgrades to the Virtus DSG: What he feels he has gained

6th December 2023, 14:53 by Ananth Iyer

Overall we felt happy with our upgrade in every single aspect. We wish we could have kept our Jetta along with the Virtus.

BHPian shiv4747 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Virtus Story:

We were in a dilemma as to whether we really needed to change the car. In September 2024 the FC needed to be done for the car. I was asking my wife that even if we were changing the car, could we keep the Jetta ourselves?

One of my friends was looking to change his 8-year-old Swift diesel with 90K km on the odometer. When I told my wife this, she said let’s go for the test drive with him for the current new cars. The bottom line was that we just tagged along with him and we had no serious intentions of buying a car. My friend wanted to see the SUV types first. Me and my wife were interested only in manual transmission and were really particular about it.

Mahindra XUV700: The car was big enough. The 5-seater was a good option for us. We liked the dark blue colour. When we test-drove it, we were stunned by its power in the city traffic. The 360-degree camera was quite useful in such a vehicle. But for a test drive car with 3K km on the odometer, the interiors were making noises which was a concern. But our friend and we were convinced because of the power.

MG Hector: MY wife was awestruck by the MG Hector’s exterior look and the interior as well. We test-drove it. It was like a cruise ship experience - literally floating. Such spacious seats and nicely done interiors! The engine did not feel powerful. It was smooth though. After the test drive, we inquired with a couple of our colleagues who owned it. Though I don’t want to boast about their reviews here, we had it on our options.

Kia Seltos: The car was big enough for an SUV. We sat inside the Sonet and Karens, but are interested to test-drive the Seltos only. The sales executive told us that the petrol with high power only comes with a clutchless manual transmission which we are not comfortable with. Hence, only my friend took the test drive of the automatic. The car's interior is good and spacious enough for an SUV.

Skoda Kushaq & VW Taigun: Both the cars looked nice from the outside, but did not feel spacious enough on the inside. We drove both cars, but we did not get an SUV feel though they come under the compact SUV segment. Well, I was least bothered as I was not interested in both. My wife, who loved the Kushaq for its looks, was left disappointed after driving it. The mistake we made was that we test-drove the XUV700 first and then the MG Hector:(

The Virtus and Slavia weren’t available for test drives. We were told that they would bring them to our home when they were available. That said, we had a long drive to Wayanad in our friend’s red Slavia and were aware of the car’s ride quality and interior.

Grand Vitara: We weren’t so keen on Maruti, but my friend test-drove it. We all were stunned by the mileage data claimed by the salesman.

Hyundai Creta Petrol SX variant: my brother-in-law has recently purchased it and we had driven it a few times to our native. We did not like the soft suspension, but it is really a good car for daily city driving. My friend was interested in the Knight Edition in Black.

Virtus 1.0: There are 2 VW dealers in Chennai if I am not wrong. We contacted VW South OMR with whom we test drove the Taigun. They said they had only the 1.0-litre version for a test drive and the GT test drive vehicle has gone to Pondicherry for a week. We test-drove the Highline 1.0 variant. Regarding the looks and interior, it felt okay-ish. I don’t like the fancy dash or interior though. Our 14-year-old Jetta’s interior was nice. The power in the Virtus 1.0 was adequate. But we are not convinced overall.

Slavia 1.5: Though we had four trips in my friend’s Slavia, my wife wanted to test drive it. She liked it and the interiors were impressive along with the drive quality. The engine was composed enough for city traffic and had incredible power once the accelerator was depressed. With the digital dash and interiors, she loved the Slavia very much. The sales executive from Gurudev Motors was one of the most impressive among all the ones I had interacted with. So mature and calm and very informative with practicality. A big shout out to him.

This is when we both had our minds convinced to upgrade our car.

Since my wife liked the GT version due to its appearance, we both wanted to test-drive it. The other dealer in our city (VW Sundaram) was prompt enough to bring it over immediately on the same day that we called. There was a slight delay in the timing. We wanted to test-drive before the evening office traffic, but he came at around 5.30 pm. The colour difference between the 1.0 test drive vehicle and the GT version white made a huge difference in the first impression (mainly for my wife). She loved the interiors which are subtle done in the GT version and a few other noticeable things such as leatherette seats with ventilation. We both loved the raw power of the 1.5 engine. We both felt like it would be an actual upgrade if we went for it. She was keen on the Rising Blue colour but then I told her that white would be a better option and she agreed.

Price details:

Initial quoted price from VW Sundaram: Rs. 20.90 Lakhs inclusive of accessories.

Final concluded after discounts: Rs. 20.10 Lakhs.

We did not inquire much about mileage and maintenance stuff which I had gone through of many GT users on the forum and also, we ourselves have been used to VW for a long time

The VW Sundaram sales executive was pushing us to book and wanted us to complete the payment procedure on or before 30th October as the increase in road tax was about to get implemented by 1st November. He was also saying that the next lot will come with electric seats which will cost an additional 45K which he used as a sales pitch. Since we have finalised the Virtus, we haven’t bargained, nor demanded anything from the dealership.

VW Sundaram Motors - Overall a good experience. Though there is nothing to complain about, I hope they improve on approaching the customer and understanding the easy conversion customers among others. Since I have been in Sales for almost 15 years, I expect them to offer much more in terms of customer requirements.

VW had evaluated our beloved Jetta and given us a quote that we were least interested in. We informed our FNG about this and they quoted an acceptable price.

We got our Virtus GT manual white delivered on 3rd November 2023 evening at VW Sundaram's delivery place at CIT Colony, Alwarpet.

We took it to the temple for the rituals and went for a drive of about 100 km on ECR.

Till 28th November we had clocked around 600 km with drives on ECR and the city. And on 28th November, we drove to Bangalore as this was our first long drive since the purchase. The current odometer reading is 930 km.

VW Virtus - Observations/Feedback - All points compared to our Jetta

Driving it with 100% concentration since it's a new car makes it a bit exhausting

White is our preferred colour though my wife wanted rising blue. Because even a small scratch was highlighted in our Blue Jetta. Though it is an interesting colour, sometimes the appearance of a minor scratch makes me worry.

The car feels higher than our Jetta. The ground clearance is much better.

The steering feels light. So does the body of the car. Hence it is easy to manoeuvre in traffic. The soft steering material gives me new car feel over and over again.

The gear shifts are smooth and the gearing is comparatively short between 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. I used to press the A-pedal in 1st gear in Jetta, whereas in the Virtus, the car moves if I just release the clutch in 1st or 2nd in the bumper-to-bumper traffic. The Jetta has relaxed gear ratios for its 1.6-litre engine and has only 5 gears. In the 600 km covered so far, I have used the 6th gear only twice.

The IRVM is a bit small and the rear windshield is also small. I might get used to it in some time. This is where the reversing camera helps. I am ok with its resolution. Not going to complain about it as most of the time, I take care to reverse without the help of the camera.

The power is much better. This is where we felt the real upgrade. Overtaking is ultimately effortless.

This car has made me composed in such a way that I have started driving in a much smoother manner even though it has much more power compared to the Jetta.

Coming from the simple dash in our Jetta, initially, the digital dash was a bit of a distraction with respect to the view, gear shift and notifications. So I have changed to a much simpler view and try not to look at it at any point while driving. The ICE is installed subtly along the dashboard area which looks better in my view.

My wife keeps pressing the A-pedal without knowing that the car is going beyond the speed limit. So I told her to be cautious regarding the speed limit.

The brake is absolutely and ridiculously sharp. We are slowly getting used to it. Still trying though. The tyres are good enough for the initial run. Alloys are decent enough. I love the black alloys and red colour brake caliper combo.

We are using Apple CarPlay. It works seamlessly. The audio system feels better especially while hearing AR Rehman songs.

The AC is decent enough as we always set it to 21 or 22 degrees. The ventilated seats are a boon on highways and long drives.

What I really miss is when we take our Jetta in the noon, I just long-press the unlock button while entering the car and it rolls down all the windows. The Virtus is missing that option.

The LED projector lights are powerful in pitch-dark areas and I am using the fog lamp (halogen) while driving inside the city to spot potholes easily. The wiper blades have been adequate so far even in the recent heavy rains.

The armrest in our Jetta can be pulled up and pushed down based on the body height of the driver. In the Virtus it settles in one position only.

I have been using Indian Oil petrol pumps only and normal fuel only. Though we are used to our Jetta’s fuel consumption which is about 9 or 10 km/l, I am not much bothered about the consumption data shown on the dash so far.

The default car horn is okay-ish. So I informed the dealer to change it to a trumpet horn.

NVH - nothing except the engine’s roar is heard. I want to add the same insulation under the hood of the Virtus which comes as default in older VW cars.

Boot space: Sufficient one just like our Jetta.

The sunroof is neither useful nor useless. I am okay with its presence, though I did not miss it in our Jetta.

I asked the dealership for the dashcam they offered in VW which is Blaupunkt. They said they would let me know once stock was available. But there has been no response from them yet

Been using the VW Connect Plus app. All the data such as trip locations, speeding, sharp turns, sudden braking, car location, etc can be viewed. It evaluates the driving style which is subjective. I don’t want to get used to it though.

Interior quality is good but the 15-year-old Jetta still looks and feels good quality-wise. Though VW provides subtle interiors for the car's price, I believe it will last longer like the previous gen cars.

The fancy dash and the app data make me feel that the machine controls us rather than we control it. Though it helps us in some way, it is a bit of a distraction sometimes.

Overall we felt happy with our upgrade in every single aspect. We wish we could have kept our Jetta along with the Virtus. But practically, we couldn’t.

Ratings out of 5 based on our perspective:

Dealership experience: 3.5 stars (VW Sundaram)

Sales guy approach: 3.75 stars (Mr. Aslam & Mr. Karthik)

Delivery experience: 4 stars

Car:

Engine performance: 4.5 stars
Braking: 4.5 stars
Mileage: 3.75 stars rating just for the sake of it
Handling in city and on highway: 4.75 stars
Gears: 4 stars
Body and safety: 4.25 stars
Looks: 5 stars
NVH: 4 stars
Road presence: 4.5 stars
Rear seat comfort for 4 adults: 4.75 & for 5 adults: 3.75 stars
Headlights: 3.75 stars
Interior and ICE: 3.75 stars

Accessories opted from VW dealer:

Additionally bought from them: VW car cover and Trumpet horn.

Other accessories:

3d mats from Pharaoh
70Mai dash cam - A800s front and rear.

We haven’t opted for SVP yet. Thinking about it. The Virtus will be given for its first Swagat check-up/service (1,000 km) after we return to Chennai.

Hope I have covered all the aspects. I believe it helps in decision-making for those looking to buy Virtus.

Here are some of our Virtus photos for your eyes.

Ready for delivery from VW Sundaram Motors