[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by souravc

Ninja , waiting eagerly for the breakup . How many KMs is done at your end that you did the checkup ?
Folks can we expect a winter check up camp lik the summer and the monsoon ones love the free stuff

Sorry posted on the wrong thread
Post updated on my thread.

[mdsaab]

Hey Noops,
And so i finally make it back to Fraulein's thread.
Was impressed by the pleasant service experience you had at VW Service recently. Earlier had my doubts on their quality of service. But it seems they are exceeding expectations and that is great news indeed.
Especially since i saw the VW Jetta for the first time on the road today.
What a stunner i must say, at first i thought an Audi had pulled up beside.
On second glance i realized it was the Jetta. Need i say anymore?

Fraulein is looking gorgeous as usual. Looking forward to catching up soon.
A photo shoot with Fraulein & The Golden Beauty should come up soon.
Looking forward to that.
Congratulations on crossing 500 Posts on Fraulein's thread as well as 500 on the Thanks Count. It's the BIG 5-0-0's all around Noops. and so well deserved too. Thanks for this wonderful thread.
Drive Safe!

[noopster]

Originally Posted by souravc

Noops , seems you are all set to rock Bengaluru Wish you loads of fun when you hit metal(lica) to the pedal

You bet man...and these last couple of working days before that starts are going to be horrid, I can tell ya!

Noops has an AT , hope you are comparing apples to apples

True. The Torque convertor saps the car of a bit of FE. I would reckon an MT Vento petrol giving around 11 in Pune traffic.

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Just went through the entire thread. Very well-written and amply detailed by some wonderful and exquisite pics, Noops. It is an immense help to anyone on the hunt for a petrol Vento, like me.

Thank you for those wonderful remarks and am glad I could help you in your decision-making process.

Loved all those snaps of the outdoors, the walk you took in the rains, Lavasa, and the great meet - the Admiral, dotty, mdsaab and you. Superb pics, and moments to cherish. Good to see the Fraulein serving you well through good times and bad, goes a long way in certifying how good German engineering is.

It's been a good run but too early to call on the reliability aspect, frankly! But thank you for the sentiment and going through the thread in such detail- that is the best compliment you could have given!

Originally Posted by mdsaab

Hey Noops,
Was impressed by the pleasant service experience you had at VW Service recently. Earlier had my doubts on their quality of service. But it seems they are exceeding expectations and that is great news indeed.

So good to have you back bro! Clarifying that this was not a full service but rather a paid-for "general checkup" that seemed in order before subjecting Fräulein to her first serious long trip (expect to cover around 2000-2500 km next week). VW mandates first service at 1 year/15,000 km which is why this sort of check may actually not be a bad idea for all Vento owners.
The complimentary summer/monsoon checkups are very similar and in case someone has not had one, I highly recommend spending the 150 (or 350 in Ninja's case) for some peace of mind!

Fraulein is looking gorgeous as usual. Looking forward to catching up soon.
A photo shoot with Fraulein & The Golden Beauty should come up soon.
Looking forward to that.

I look forward to that- let's plan it after Diwali- the weather will be gorgeous and we can club it with a family drive to somewhere nice!

[noopster]

Quick update on the Bangalore roadtrip for Metallica that we completed over the extended weekend.

Odo clicks after the trip:


The team:
13 of us in two cars and two bikes.


11 started from Pune, 1 joined in Belgaum and one at Hampi.

Route: Onward- Pune-Kolhapur-Belgaum-Hubli-Gadag-Hospet-Hampi (overnight stay)-Hiriyur-Chitradurga-Sira-Tumkur-Bengaluroo.
Return- Bengaluroo-Tumkur-Chitradurga-Davangere-Hubli (overnight stay)-Belgaum-Kolhapur-Pune

NH4 most of the time. Hubli to Hospet is state highways.


Total distance covered: 1831 km
Driving time: 36 hours including breaks spread over 4 days. Max we drove was 13 hours on Day One. Average of just over 50 sounds bad but it is par for the course when there are state highways and entering/exiting cities. NH4 average was around 90.

Peak speeds in the mid-100s is doable but not advisable since traffic is indisciplined, with wrong side driving being common on the KA side and all manner of livestock crossing the highway at will. Still there are stretches with high visibility where you can rip.


The weather held up for the most part. Bar a small stretch between Chitradurga and Bangalore on the way in, we had picture perfect conditions throughout.




Hampi was an unexpected and absolute delight. The cameras were clicking away like nobody's business. But you have to wait for the official travelogue for that

Here's a teaser though.


This trip cemented one opinion: the Vento AT is a perfect highway cruiser. I drove for most of the 1800 odd km, and my friend who has never driven an automatic before did about 300 or so on the Hubli-Gadag stretch and on the run into Bangalore. He just texted me now saying he badly misses the AT in Mumbai traffic!

The only problem is when you have to slow down suddenly from cruising speeds, which happens quite often on the NH4, and then getting back there requires a fair bit of effort. Wish VW had given this engine more low-end grunt.

But on EVERY other count, this car delivered: handled every speedbump, pothole and crater thrown at it with elan, kept all of us-5 most of the time- comfortable and safe, glided noiselessly and allowed us to enjoy our music thanks to the excellent stock speakers (and Dot's FM transmitter )- all this with no breakdowns or funny behaviour of any kind.

Here she is posing against the magnificent backdrop of the ruins of the Vijayanagara empire at Hampi.

[mdsaab]

That sounds like one awesome trip.
Can't wait for the upcoming TL.
How about the mileage figures?

[mikon]

Nice pics!
Awaiting the detailed TL - route, cost incurred, road conditions etc. I would be doing a bangalore trip soon.

[ajay_satpute]

Good one Anoop. The teaser is a good enough indication of whats in store in the travelogue. When the Gurgaon show got cancelled, I was a bit concerned about the Bangalore show and thought about you and your well-planned trip, but thank God, nothing happened.

Waiting for the travelogue.

Cheers.

[souravc]

Wow excellent teaser , can't wait for the travelogue !!
I was wondering a few hours back where you have vanished , thought you must be recovering from the head banging at the Metallica concert

Our other friend Ninja was not so lucky with Metallica at Gurgaon but he also had am amazing drive to Delhi and back

[Swanand Inamdar]

Nice teasers there! Bring on the whole thing, and dont take ages the way I do .
Have been eagerly waiting for the entire log, especially since you were being persistent enough to make us poor souls (subodh and I) jealous, by giving live updates via BBM!

Fraulein looks great on the roads. Glad to see its identity (logos) back on. Dont remove them now. Let them be.

[noopster]

Splash-and-dash stop to answer some queries!

Originally Posted by mdsaab

That sounds like one awesome trip.
Can't wait for the upcoming TL.
How about the mileage figures?

12 kmpl, give or take. I can live with that, given we were fully loaded most of the time. GQ sections were about 15 kmpl.

Originally Posted by mikon

Nice pics!
Awaiting the detailed TL - route, cost incurred, road conditions etc. I would be doing a bangalore trip soon.

Will post all details soon, promise! Good luck with your Bangalore trip.

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

When the Gurgaon show got cancelled, I was a bit concerned about the Bangalore show and thought about you and your well-planned trip, but thank God, nothing happened.

Tell me about it . We were on absolute tenterhooks till the very ast minute. Only when the intro to Creeping Death started did we actually relax!
It was fun...every time someone booed, banged a barricade or did something remotely disruptive, the others would yell out, "Oye Gurgaon!" and the scene would quiet down (no offence to Dilliwalas- we had a couple of them in our group as well!)

Originally Posted by souravc

I was wondering a few hours back where you have vanished , thought you must be recovering from the head banging at the Metallica concert

That's a fair guess! I was absolutely fine on the drive back, but the 2-3 days after that went by in a lethargic daze!

Our other friend Ninja was not so lucky with Metallica at Gurgaon but he also had am amazing drive to Delhi and back

Well, he did watch the F1 race didn't he? I feel terrible for the good folks of Delhi who landed up to watch the show though.

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Fraulein looks great on the roads. Glad to see its identity (logos) back on. Dont remove them now. Let them be.

Yeah, dammit! Don't jinx it.

[Monaro CV8]

Hey noops,

Must compliment you for the near 2000ks negotiated during your round trip to Bangy. And those are quite impressive FE figures for an AT - 12kmpl. Fraulein must be edging to go past the 15k milestone now.
Do share your travelogue, so that I can figure out what all I've missed

BTW, we still have to catchup and go over the entire Metallica Weekend story.
soon..

[noopster]

Thanks! By the way, the travelogue is already up. Will update the concert description and return trip over weekend.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ravelogue.html

[fiesta]

Originally Posted by noopster

Got my leather seating installed! Much excitement. It's a beige shade almost matching the original fabric colour. I opted for 100% leather (none of that touch stuff for me ).

It's 1.2mm satin leather which to touch feels a little better (at least to me) than the 0.9mm classic leather I've seen installed in some cars.

Wifey was impressed! I didn't expect this reaction since she was anti-leather (some hangover from too much rexine exposure in her childhood perhaps). She kept saying it smells wonderful and asked why doesn't it smell like leather? (my answer: because what you think leather smells like is actually fake leather!)

Fit is perfect OEM stuff, though I was a little unhappy with the way the joints at the top of the seat are looking: uneven and a little lumpy. But my leather guy assures me that's the way all of them look, so will take his word for it.

I was also keen on getting leather door pads done a la the Laura, but this was shelved in the end. I don't really care. The Vento's door pads are fine the way they are, on second thoughts!

The front and rear armrest feels wonderful to the touch now (I use the front one almost always while driving). I got the feeling thigh support is now better thanks to the additional thickness but this may just be flight of fancy!

The whole job set me back a pretty bundle (PM me for details). But it's about 35% cheaper than the Stanley quotes I got in the same spec, so not complaining!

Took some more pics with the new debadged look. This is growing on me now!

Also got a front windscreen film done. Am seriously thinking of plonking in a 2DIN DVD/MP3/Mp4/GPS/Bluetooth unit in there. The stock stero is pretty sad, doesn't even show the name of the song when I play an MP3 CD!

Some more pics to round it off:

@noopster: I am getting my Vento TDI (Shadow Blue) on Wednesday (16/Nov). I liked the leather seats on your car and want to go for the same. Please share any contact no. from where you got them fixed, in Pune.. Tx.

[noopster]

Hi fiesta- I can't PM you since you are presumably a newbie. I got them done at Car Cupid, Sus Road. Can you drop me an email at noopster@gmail.com and will give you more details?

[fiesta]

Thanks! I have dropped a mail to you.