[omranga98]

Hello all!

took delivery of my Taigun GT+ 1.5 DSG in silver yesterday. Have driven about 400 kms till now and it's lovely!

Was pleasantly surprised during the delivery to see:

a) Updated and improved headliner! It was one of the sore points for me. Now it's 10 times better IMO.

b) Now only the red exterior in GT model comes with red interior inserts. Earlier, both red and silver had red inserts which i did not like.

c) ORVM folding is back again!

During the test drive, i found the horn to be lame. I don't know why would they fit Taigun with a horn that sounds like you're choking a duck. So i got it swapped with the Tiguan's unit and boy oh boy, it's the best 1.5k addon i've spent on any car

[omranga98]

Just a quick update on my 1.5 DSG.


It's about 3 months old and has clocked 2100 kms.

Average fuel economy using tankful is about 12.8 kmpl. This is from 100% city driving, mostly sedated.

Car has been pretty lovely generally. Don't want to go through this since the pros have been covered many times here.

The couple of issues i am facing are:

a) Driver side window which has auto up/down feature will stop going up mid way and roll back down. It's very annoying sometimes. The fix for this is to do a soft reset by holding the window switch down for 10 seconds and up for 10 seconds. This fixes it for sometime, but the issue crops back. I have read somewhere that the service guys will replace the window winder(?) don't have the time right now for this but will get it checked and update here.

b) The rear left door's hinge is creeking when we open or close it. This seems like a simple fix. Just a little lubrication and done.

c) Rear right side door rubber beading has come loose from one socket. It's not causing any issues when the operation but just noticed this. Will get it fixed during the next visit.

[omranga98]

Took my Taigun 1.5 DSG on a 1650 Km Road Trip Ft. Mini Review/7000 Km Update


But first, here is a little back story on why I got the Taigun over the others.

So in short, i really wanted to get a FAST turbo petrol before the whole EV scene. Generally we keep our cars for 7-10 years so 2022 seemed like the perfect time.

The price segment i was looking at (18-22 Lakhs) had/has a lot of options but here is why the others did not make it to my garage.

Tata Harrier/Safari

Reasons for not getting either:

a) Too big.
b) Did not want a diesel.
c) It is a Tata, so it is given that it comes with a few free add-ons like poor QC, everything in the car feeling unfinished and the horror ASS stories on the forum itself.

MG Hector

Reasons for not getting this:

a) Too big.
b) Soft suspension setup = a very comfy ride. Sometimes i crave this in Taigun but then again, i was not looking for this.
c) Petrol being unpowered and pretty fuel inefficient.

Hyundai Creta/Seltos

Reasons for not getting this:

a) Did not like both the cars. Creta stills looks odd (borderline ugly), Seltos just did not feel like the car i would want to drive as my last non-electric car (probably).


MG Astor

Reasons for not getting this:

a) Even though i loved the interior and the red colour scheme, 1.3 Felt unpowered. The car generally did not feel that good to drive and that robot thingy on the dash kept staring and intrupting me like a kid wanting your phone at a family function.

Virtus/Slavia

Reasons for not getting this:

a) Was not launched yet.
b) from what i had heard, it was supposed to be reaaally long. Which could be a problem.

Skoda Kushaq

Reasons for not getting this:

a) No virtual cockpit. After driving the Taigun, i really wanted this.
b) The interior quality was more creeky than Taigun and felt a level below.
c) Boring rear end.

VW Taigun
Seemed like the perfect choice. Here are some pros and cons after driving for about 7k Kms.


Pros:

A) 1.5 TSI Evo engine paired with DSG is a gem to drive. Be it at city speeds or out on the highway. It never fails to bring a smile on my face!

B) My car is manufactured in April 2022. It was the first batch where they improved the headliner, removed the red inserts in the dash from the silver colour and got the folding ORVM back!

C) ACT or active cylinder technology works like a charm. It switches from 2 cylinder to 4 and back to 2 without a hint. The only way you know the switch is when the virtual cockpit indicates it. ACT makes the 1.5 more fuel effecient than the 1.0 TSI. At city/highway speeds when the car feels it can do with half the engine at work, it switches seemlessly.

D) Fuel economy: Not a very important point for me but for people who are curious here: In city moving traffic, the car gives about 12-15 kmpl. In bumper to bumper situation, i have seen it drop to as low at 8-10 kmpl. Out on the highway with cruise control, you can very easily get 18-20 kmpl out of this.

E) Paint quality is great IMO. I had initially booked white but changed to silver after i saw it in flesh. I think it looks lovely and really helps pop out the creases and design lines. GT plus comes with black roof.


F) Comfortable seats: The side bolsters keep you in place, the cushioning is spot on. Driving 300-400 kms in a stretch is never an issue. Although i could use a little under thigh support.

G) The interior lights: GT Plus comes with red interior ambient light across the dash while all the buttons are backlit with white LEDs. One of the coolest moment for me after puchase was finding out that there were small LEDs inside the interior door handle. None of the reviews had mentioned this.
The interior looks so good at night!

G.1) Interior shot at night:


G.2) The light inside the door handle:


H) Big enough interior space. Although i have never been driven around while sitting at the back, my parents and friends appriciate the leg space and the comfortable seats.

The list can go on and on but let us keep it to this much for now

Cons:

A) The interior quality could be a lot better: For a car that costs upwards of 20L, the interior plastics creak. Whenever i take the car out, for the first one or two bumps, you can hear the dash and the AC controls area creak but then it stops. It almost feels like the plastics expand and come loose (?) and needs a bump or two to fall back in place? I dont know if this makes sense.

B) I guess you have already read/heard about this but only the driver side window gets auto up/down powerwindows and almost everyone has the issue of the window rolling back mid way when the auto up or down is triggered. You then have to half press the button so as to not trigger the auto funtion to put the windows up or down. From what i have heard, this issue has been fixed via a software update that i am get to get (7500 km service is due).

C) and of course, the three magical ̶w̶o̶r̶d̶s̶ letters: DSG. Taigun comes with DQ200 gearbox It is a dry type gearbox that has left a lot of the owners dry out in the middle of the road. Now i gently brush off this when talking about, i smile a little but deep inside it haunts me to a point where if i have decided to start an SIP or an FD as a contingency fund to cancel out the expense that might arise (read: will arise) over the course of years.
and yes, i did take the extended warranty!

D) Plastics on the rear light bar: Although the light bar looks great at night, the plastics surrounding can get scratched very easily. The car is 11 months old and i have gotten the thing detailed twice but keeps getting micro scratches. Planning to get PPF done on this.

E) Slightly stiff suspension and narrow sidewalls: GT Plus comes with 17 inch alloys. This makes the ride sort of stiff and a lot of bumps can make its way into the cabin.

F) Low Speed + DSG = mildly annoying: As you list off the foot from the brake pedal, the car takes a good 1 second to start moving. This lag is something that i am used to now but it used to be very annoying. Also the gearbox does get a little jerky at low speeds.

With that said: The car has now done about 7.2k Kms and i am quite happy with it. I recently did a 1650 km long road trip with my childhood friend in the Taigun where we drove from Kolkata to Puri and fairly deep into the eastern ghats! The car was lovely to drive!

I will make a detailed post regarding the road trip perhaps later but
adding a few shots from the road trip here!







Attachment 2442943

[omranga98]

You know the car is good when your daily driven car has lesser kms on the ODO than the weekend car

So sometime around May last year, i got an Ignis and a Taigun (15 days apart). Ignis does my daily office/factory duty while Taigun is for the weekend runs.

As of today, Ignis stands at 10500 Km and Taigun is at 11000. Which brings me here again after a couple of months to give a 11K Km update. Oh, and you can check out my 7000 kms update/mini review here:

https://www.team-bhp.com/news/buying...7000-km-update

Will try to keep it simple and touch a few key points along with some interesting findings. Starting with:

Hitting 10000 KMS


It has been a breeze! The car works like a charm and being the more powerful 1.5 TSI coupled with DSG, you can never get bored of how this car pulls when it needs to or how well this car can behave at higher speeds or at city speeds.

I guess i have faced two issues with the car till date:

a) The power window for the driver side had an issue and would not work with the auto up/down half of the time but this was later fixed by VW. But in the process of fixing it, they created the second issue:

b) The driver side window rattles when it is not completely shut and power window switch housing also creeks when i play a little bass heavy tracks. It almost sounds as if some clip has broken inside the door housing and causing the glass panel to have a little play. I have not gotten the time to visit VW and get this fixed because it has been a very busy year. In fact, i opted for their pickup and drop option for car servicing. I thought it would be convenient but i ended up stalking the car with the VW tracking app to keep the speed and location in check haha.

Some interesting discoveries

a) I noticed this recently but VW has different suppliers for different glass panels on the car. The windshield, rear glass and the quarter windows is supplied by ASAHI INDIA GLASS LTD. while the windows are supplied by SAINT-GOBAIN SEKURIT. Here is a picture for reference:




b) I found an option in the infotainment that said : Reminder message or something along these lines. So i toggled it on. Why not huh?
Now this gives me this screen everytime i switch off the car and open the door.



Talk about German humour? well, It reminds you to not forget your children in the car (fair because there might have been a situation) but then it reminds you to activate Valet mode before that. Heck even turning off lights is 3 points higher than forgetting your kid in the car.


c) ACT or Active Cylinder Technology is underrated: This is for the folks on the sideline of deciding whether to get 1.0 TSI or 1.5 TSI. The bigger engine comes with ACT which basically shuts of ignition in cylinder 3 and 4 when the car is driven at a constant speed on a flat gradient. This makes this car really good for long distance cruising. I have seen upwards of 18 kmpl on one of the days when i felt like driving a bit sedated.



I have seen 2 cylinder mode get active at 110 Kmph and as low as 30 kmph. The switch is seemless and it is actually effective!

So i feel it should be another point to consider when making the decision between 1.0 & 1.5. This is if the drastic power difference is not enough!


d) I feel most do not know this but Taigun does not have a dual barrel setup like it appears to have. ie. both low and high beam is from the projector in the headlamp unit while the reflector looking like setup beside is a dummy.




With that said, it is a good setup if not great. I have driven through pitch black highway/hill sections and the throw is good. Way better than what my Polo had! Maybe down the line, i might add one of those light bars in a sneaky manner so it does not look out place.

Each projector houses about 12 high powered LEDs which you can notice projecting on my wallet in the picture below.




e) I really like how it looks.

Be it during the day time:



Or as the Sun sets



The rear light bar as it gets darker.



or a quick view out of the office window



To sum it up, it has been a pleasant experience owning Taigun. Although DSG failing nightmares have reduced, they have not gone completely. I had started an SIP when i booked the car called DQ200 contingency fund. It should be adequate by the time it might actually fail haha.

[omranga98]

You know that one thing that does not feel right with your car?
I mean, everything seems perfect but that one aspect that once you realise you don't like it, there is no overlooking it?

Well, it was the wiper for me.

Is it a big deal? well, if it was not in my constant view, maybe.
But this is what i saw everytime i looked in the IRVM.



and this is what it looked from the outside.



Solution?
I got myself from Amazon and to be exact:

For the rear windshield:
Hamaan Soft Arm High Performance Graphite Coated Automotive Replacement Windshield Platinum Wiper Blade (Black) (12")



and for the front:
22 inches-

Bosch 3397006509E7W/3397016583KTS Clear Advantage 24-CA Front Wind Shield Wiper Blade for Cars, 24" & 3397006508E7W Clear Advantage Wiper Blade for Passenger Cars, 22"

and 18 inches-
Bosch 3387006504E7W Clear Advantage 18-CA Front Wind Shield Wiper Blade, 18"

So this is how it looks now:



Been using it for over a month now: quality seems much better. Cleans dry with a swipe but more than anything, LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER!

I know someone in the forum who has replaced the entire rear wiper arm to a frameless one: i am assuming from the Polo. But this does it for me for now!

Here is a nice sign off picture of my Taigun:

[omranga98]

14000 km update (692 days into ownership)

Previous updates:
1) 1st day update: Click here (Volkswagen Taigun Review)

2) 2100 km update- Click here (Volkswagen Taigun Review)

3) 7000 km update- Click here (Volkswagen Taigun Review)

4) 11000 km update (Getting car coded by CodeMyVag) - Click here (Volkswagen Taigun coding | Unlocked hidden features)


Latest Update:


Being a car that is mostly driven on weekends, it is still 1000 km ahead of my daily (IGNIS )


Mostly last few months have been uneventful, Just a few pointer:

a) Fuel Economy has been consistent at about 10-12 in city, 16-18 on the expressway.

b) The interior creeks for the first 2-3 bumps but then it is silent. I have mentioned this before as well. It is like, the plastic parts expand and need a bump or two to settle down (?).

c) Calcutta is a land of unmarked random bumpers, few weeks back, out on a midnight drive, I was driving at 70 ish kmph and BOOM, 8-10 inch high unmarked bumper. Spotted it too late, the car most definitely got some air time. It was a pretty hard one. Luckily no visible damage to the tyres or any visible damage to the under body. Got the tyre inspected the next morning, got a green light here.

d) Door rubber makes squeeky noises. This is a known issue and VW had applied some sort of tape to fix it but it is back again, will be addressed in the next SC visit.

e) The driver side power window switch console creeks and the window, when open makes rattling sound. I suspect this was caused when they fixed the power window motor issue 6-7 months back.

f) I replaced the wipers to frameless wipers. They look better but i suspect they cause a lot of wind noise at speeds north of 140. Not like it matters in day to day conditions anyway. (more on this here (Volkswagen Taigun Review))

g) The paint has a lot of swirl marks, need to get the car detailed soon!

h) DSG has been working alright till now (:

Signing off with a picture i took last night.

[omranga98]

14950 km update!

Just picked up my car from the service center after It's 2nd year service.

Had sent in the car on 2nd May, it took them 6 days because apparently there was an update that needed to be done but they were having some trouble getting it sorted.

Lucky for me, Taigun is a weekend car. Trying to imagine 6 days without car does not sound fun haha.

Other than the regular service, there were a few things that were to be fixed:

a) The sunroof needed lubrication: Was making a grinding sound when opening/closing. Fixed
b) The driver side window had a rattling issue when it was fully or partially down. Fixed
c) The powerwindow console on the driver side was rattling. (This was since they fixed the common powerwindow issue). Fixed

The experience was rather smooth and SA was keeping me updated.

All was cool till i sat in the car and was greeted with low fuel: Distance to empty: 5KM

I checked my phone and the nearest petrol pump was a good 8 kms away. SA told me he could not do anything about it and the car would have enough reserve fuel to go 10 km, so i should not worry too much and just drive without the a/c.

This is how i recieved the car:




So here I am, driving the car out of the service center with 5 km remaining to a destination 7 kms away though evening congestion

Light as feather on the accelerator, with the a/c off, windows rolled up to make the car slicker through the air and minimise drag, Infotainment system switched off and headlamps off from Auto mode.

All of this just to be stuck in traffic within 2 kms. Bright side, at bumper to bumper speed, i could roll down the windows since no air resistance here.

But then i wondered, how many times can i roll the windows up and down?

Maybe if i roll it down now and the traffic cleared up, i would have to roll it back up and this down and up of POWER window would waste more energy and hence use up more fuel?

Well, lucky for me, i had a much MUCH bigger issue at hand to distract me.

The distance to empty was now at ZERO.



Stuck in traffic, i texted a few bhpians about it.

One fine folk replied “I have driven my Slavia about 20 kms after it showed 0 kms. You are good.“

Another guy said, “It is good for next 5 kms“

and rest just laughed.

So what is it? 20 kms? 5 kms? Should i average it down?
What about traffic? what about my weight? I cursed the pizza i had last night and settled with anxiety kms remaining.

As the traffic cleared, i drove smooth and slow on the left most lane thinking about the worst. At least this way i would not bother other people on the road.

5 kms into the drive and just when i was a bit more settled, the tyre pressure warning goes off.



Here is the ODO when the tyre sensor went off.



2.8 kms from the petrol pump, 0 kms fuel remaining (technically now in negative) and now apparently with a punctured tyre. I continued towards the location.

How else can this situation get worse? Can it actually?

Oh yes,
Turns out, the petrol pump i was heading to was, according to the map, was inside a bedroom of a nice bunglow.

Here it is



So other than the fact that a Taigun would not fit inside a bedroom and this was most obviously incorrect data on the map, it was not solving my issue.

Checked for another petrol pump and this time, i actually zoomed in to make sure that it looked like a petrol pump.

This time, the petrol pump was about 0.8 kms from where i was.
I was rather calm by now, old to the situation, i was battle hardened. The car did 7 kms on 0 kms remaining, what was another 800m for it?

Battle hardened but still not too brave, light on the accelerator, i made it.
It was once of the nicest sight of this year. It almost feels like i can talk about it on Tedx.

Took a historic shot of the moment. Almost had tears of joy rolling down.



Did a full tank, the sight of the DTE going from 0 to 560 km was gooood!
Got the tyre fixed from the shop next door and now back at home.

Here is the parting shot for the day.

[PratikPatel]

Originally Posted by omranga98

14950 km update!

Just picked up my car from the service center after It's 2nd year service.

All was cool till i sat in the car and was greeted with low fuel: Distance to empty: 5KM

Why on earth would you do this? I have never understood the propensity of people to give their car (which is worth lakhs of rupees) with a bare minimum amount of fuel (where the cost of fuel will be couple of thousand). The effects of sediment getting pulled into fuel pump, fuel lines & injectors can cost you far more that the couple of thousand buck you are trying to save.

[omranga98]

The car had about 60km worth of fuel when I gave it.

I understand the guys must have driven a bit to check if the rattling issues were fixed and I do not mind if they burned through the entire tank by doing so. The issues at hand were much bigger.

The least they could do was to leave enough fuel so I could drive to the nearest petrol pump without counting my stars!

Think about the ”propensity” of the VW guys to ask me, ”SAAAARRRRRR, JUST DRIVE WITHOUT AC AND WINDOWS UP, NO PRABLEM. IF CAR STOPS, WE WILL SEND IN RSA WITH FUEL.”

[07CR]

Originally Posted by omranga98

The car had about 60km worth of fuel when I gave it.

Even that is quite low. I make it a practice to always fill up when the DTE is 100 kms. Always make sure there is atleast 7L worth fuel in your car to avoid fuel pump related issues which might cost a fortune to resolve.

[RahulRV]

Originally Posted by 07CR

Even that is quite low. I make it a practice to always fill up when the DTE is 100 kms. Always make sure there is atleast 7L worth fuel in your car to avoid fuel pump related issues which might cost a fortune to resolve.

I strongly agree with 07CR on this, In my case I regularly drive an 2014 Octavia Diesel and always make sure the tank is refilled when DTE is more than 130-150KMS & My dad daily drives an 2019 Audi Q3 Diesel. My dad isn't the best in looking after the cars and usually doesn't bother with keeping an eye on fuel level & most of the times it will be refilled after he sees the DTE is 20 KMs or so . In recent service it was bought to our notice that there is an issue with the fuel pump pressure.
Drive safe.

[FAIAAA]

As I understand, Distance to empty ( DTE) doesn't consider the reserve fuel capacity of the car. Usually it's about 7 litres ( you can confirm for Taigun). DTE will be calculated using your average FE and the remaining fuel. It is done to handle situations like this. Which means when DTE showed zero and your average FE, say, is 12-13 kmpl, you still have 80-90 kms worth fuel in the car. It's not to say one should draw down fuel to such or even lower levels, for reasons others have already mentioned here. Rather to clarify that you won't get stranded, in case of such a situation, which should be an exception rather than norm.

[TheGearBox]

Originally Posted by omranga98

I got myself from Amazon and to be exact:
for the front:
22 inches and 18 inches

The front wiper blade sizes for Taigun are 24 and 18, officially. How is the 22 working for you?