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My VW Polo Legend Edition is now a month old: 3,500 km update

12th June 2022, 12:20 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

I was expecting the car to be like the Skoda Rapid 1.6 TDI in terms of handling & acceleration minus the pushback from the massive torque.

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Polo GT TSI Legend 1 month, 3500 km update

34 days to date since I got the delivery of Polo GT TSI Legend. It's been a busy month travelling in this 4 wheels of fun.

I have covered a variety of roads in the past month which includes the peak Bangalore traffic, empty highway stretches, steep hill climbs, twisty hairpin bends, windy and narrow roads, unpaved mud roads, unsafe roads with big potholes and much more.

One with the nature

I was expecting it to be like the Skoda Rapid 1.6 TDI in terms of handling and acceleration minus the pushback from massive torque, but was I in for a surprise, the Polo TSI is just insane. There is never a dull moment with this car.

First 1,000 km

I drove the car sedately under 2000 rpm for the most part, occasionally touching 110 kph.

Got the first free checkup within 10 days of delivery, the diagnostics were done within an hour and good to go again. The SA asked me to drive sedately for another 1000 kms and I obliged.

1k to 2k km

This is the first time I drove an automobile sedately post 1k km, but post 1k km, I kept the revs ceiling at 2500 rpm.

Post 2k km

Let's just say I have a heavy right foot and I have put it to good use, love the engine noise when the turbo kicks in.

Fuel Economy

I'm getting an average of 11 kmpl. I've tried different kinds of fuel starting with Shell V power, Shell regular, Regular Indian oil, Indian Oil XP95, Bharath Petroleum, yet to try HP power.

IOCL XP95 returned the highest FE on my early morning highway run at 17 kmpl, but also the full tank of IOCL XP95 which I refuelled at Mysore returned the lowest FE at 8 kmpl. The latter one didn't feel like 95 octane petrol at all.

I knew what I was buying into, low FE and lots of fun. What I heard about the car is what I got and I won't complain about it.

I use fuelio app to keep track of my FE.

Performance

There is nothing to complain about the performance of this car. One of the most rev-happy engines I have driven. There is some turbo lag in D mode but it almost disappears in S mode.
There is soo much power on demand for quick overtakes.
I'm using S mode to overtake then switching back to D mode after.
Other cars will get going faster due to the transmission protection measures which makes you slower off the line but once the car is in motion never felt like anyone else got the upper hand over me.

Transmission

Had to talk about this absolute gem of a torque converter. My colleague said he was disappointed when he heard VW was taking away DSG from polo, so he went with i20 Asta (which comes with a 1-litre turbo and DCT). I had to show him what this single clutch VW TC can do and oh boy was he impressed after a 5km drive with me.
The aggressive crawl is also awesome in stop-move traffic, all I have to do is let go of the brake gently to move. Funnily I drove my colleague's i20 and I was expecting it to move after depressing the brake pedal but it just stood still.
Visited Yercaud after the first check-up. Initially, I thought I have to use manual mode during the climb but D mode is enough for that. It holds the gear perfectly (longer than regular driving) during inclined climbs, doesn't randomly shift gears like many other auto transmissions.
It's not all wins though. There was this one moment on a two-way road when I was overtaking a slow-moving auto with another vehicle oncoming. I floored the accelerator in D mode but for a moment there was nothing, felt like it stalled and I was a sitting duck, but once the revs increased and turbo kicked in, the car just slingshot back into our side of the road. After that incident, most of the time I use S mode for overtakes.
S mode is addictive, the jerky aggressive downshifts, the eagerness to rev hard is just insane and get's to your mind quickly. It also doesn't care about FE, just chugs petrol like a thirsty elephant.

Braking

It's better than many of the cars I've driven but it's not exceptional. The braking power is turned all the way to the max in S mode but it also heats up the brakes quickly and one can feel the braking power fading away after braking from high speeds a couple of times.
Upgrading brakes is in the top 3 of my to-do list.

Comfort

Not the thing you discuss when buying such a car, but it's super comfortable for 2 people, and moderately comfortable for 2 people in the back who aren't that tall.
We did 200 km on narrow windy roads to Coorg with 4 people, 2 x 5'11 in the back (including me), 1 x 6ft and one giant 6 feet plus friend who sat in the co-driver seat in front of me. It's doable but not for super long road trips.
Also during this trip, everyone thought we would hit the speed breakers or potholes due to such a high load but everyone was surprised not once did the bottom of the car touch any kind of surface.
Thank you, VW for this increased ground clearance whose benefit is increased with a short wheelbase.
The Stanley leather seats just made the car much more comfortable.

Stanley Black (noir) Leather seats with red stitching.

Handling

There isn't much to talk about it, it's perfect. Never felt I didn't have enough group, can do much higher speeds on twisty roads than any other regular car.
I was pulling away from all the other cars during our trip to yercaud.
Friends also commented that I weave around traffic way easier compared to their cars.

Things that frustrate me

My only gripe with this car is the skinny steering wheel, I want a chunky steering wheel. They could have used the ones they had in Vento and Rapid or even the ones they have in Taigun and Virtus. Can anyone suggest to me how to make the steering wheel a bit chunkier without replacing it with an aftermarket one?
There are blind spots in rear view mirrors due to my seating position, I have eliminated most of them by fiddling around the seat height and ORVMs but there is still a blind spot.
Headlights, the throw isn't good at all, upgrading to LED bulbs or Aftermarket projector headlamp units is at the top of my to-do list.
Cost-cutting, it's soo much noticeable since I still own a 2014 Skoda Rapid.

Other than these few things I don't have anything to complain about, what you see is what you get.

All my friends are envious, all of them have better cars (cough, cough, costlier cough, cough). One of them is even pestering me to sell him for 1 Lakh over the on-road price. Each and everyone who drove the car is super impressed with it. That's all one can expect from their car.

Few more pics:

Love this pic