Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Official New Car Reviews (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/)

-   -   Volkswagen Polo 1.2L GT TSI : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/135550-volkswagen-polo-1-2l-gt-tsi-official-review-212.html)

Guys, I need some help on the Polo 2015 HU
The HU support SD card, just want to confirm is it SD or micro SD?
Is there any restriction on Folder depth? I don't need anything more than 3 levels deep.
As the card needs to be formatted as FAT32, I think a 32 GB card is enough.
Can Polo owners comment please.

This part I can confirm. It takes SD and can also take microSD with adapter.

Folders 3 levels deep works absolutely fine.

A youthful sentiment? :) OK, I admit that I am not quite "past it" enough not to want to try stuff like a more exciting engine and the new auto gearboxes.

But, looking to the future, finances apart, it may well be a case of which gives first: the car, or my abillity/willingness to drive on our ever madder streets. I'll be nearly 70 when my car is 10 --- and the bikers will still be in their teens :eek:

As to the car itself, the 1.6 was a mistake: it is not as exciting as a 1.6 should be, but still gets through the petrol. On the plus side, at 4, my Swift was falling to pieces, whereas the only thing wrong with the Polo is the minor damage that I have done to it. It may be a long way to the target of 10, but it is doing well so far.

The 1.6 was built really well. Couple of friends upgraded from their bone stock 1.6's to the 1.2TSI and have joined the mod train. It is simply a much better package.
The GTI should be the answer to the lack of power,built and features.
10 years though is still way too long IMO.

Hi,

I am back with some more questions.

1. While doing the test drive, I felt the brakes were not adequate enough for the power the engine and gear box were delivering. I did not have much confidence at all in braking. This is only during heavy acceleration. Is my experience because I am used to Jetta's brakes? Or is the Polo's brake under powered? What is the experience of Polo TSi owners?

2. If everything goes well, there is a chance of getting the car in a couple of weeks. So, I would like to plan for tire upgrade as well. As I have severe hearing loss, I need a very silent cabin for any conversation to be possible.

The SA told me that the car comes with either Good Years or Apollo tires. From my earlier experience with Jetta, I understand Good Years have significant road noise. For that reason I had changed to Michelin P3STs on my Jetta straight out of the showroom. If the Polo TSi comes with Good Years, I will plan to change these to P3STs.

In case, the car comes with Apollo tires, are these better than the Good Years in terms of grip, comfort and noise level? Will there be a need to change to P3STs?

3. How good are the 185/60/R15 tires in terms of grip, braking distance etc., for the power the car delivers? Has anyone felt the need to go for wider tires? If yes, what are the options?

Thanks in advance for all the pointers.

all the best it is a very enthusiastic car and you will enjoy it to the fullest, a pocket rocket perfect for city, parking and highways, the dsg is blissful to drive.

cheers

Do you think that the GT is as solid? Or have they cut back on the quality of body work, etc, with later models?

I have pre face lift and I find mine to be solid in comparison to the face lift, could be the feeling I guess, but that's the case with all the new models if not wrong, like the bmw e90 always felt rock solid in comparison to the current generation f 30. but all in all they are still quite solid as germans are.

cheers

Solid it does feel as compared to the old, however i have doubts on the paint quality. A good, solid ram with my old polo had little effect on the paint but a small nudge by a biker has the paint peeling off the bumper. Even the various pebble hits on the old car had no loss of paint compared to the chips i see now, or is it with the color as my earlier car was white and now i have the red.

Yep. Fully agree.

I always feel that my new Vento is a notch less solid than my old one..but nevertheless, its much much better than some of the other offerings we have in this segment.

My PoloGT is now 4k kms old. I have driven it in the city and also on the national highways (50-50 run so far). So I will share my observations on the car.

1. From what I saw the brake bite has certainly improved post the first 1k kms. Right now I think braking is pretty good, even under emergency conditions. But at mid-triple digit speeds I wont expect 0-drama emergency braking from this car (my tyres are OEM). At sane speeds the brakes are great and I dont foresee any problems even in an emergency scenario. Also I havent yet encountered the problem of ABS kicking in at city speeds that some people here have. Fingers crossed.

This is the first automatic I am driving, so as compared to manual I also felt that it somewhat lacked in engine braking. For eg, when following a car closely in city traffic I could just release accelerator in a manual transmission vehicle and simply coast for a bit, then again accelerate once car ahead moves a bit more, avoiding hitting brakes for most part. On the GT I find I have to hit brakes more often since it wont slow down as I would expect (in D mode). At higher speeds, I find the opposite is true. In D7 if I release the accelerator (say while approaching toll plaza) it wont coast as well as my Superb would. So not sure if this is about tyres or engine braking or aerodynamics. But I have observed this several times in my car.

2. NVH levels in the car are average. For usual driving conditions, conversation with co-passengers is easy. It gets hard during heavy rains. The insulation material on car ceiling seems non-existent. Its like you are sitting under a waterfall! Cannot comment on whether tyre change would help reduce noise.

3. Tyres are fair for fairly high speeds. I have almost red-lined in S6 so you know what I am talking about here. Only once did I face the tyre failing me and car skid a bit before electronics took over. I was doing maybe 100 in my lane and a bus suddenly merged from the left lane entering my lane. I couldnt have braked in time I had, so had to swerve to the right lane - in between two cars. And it didnt help that I was already in middle of a curve at that location. Car skid a bit but maybe ABS and ESP took over. No incident. In hindsight, better tyres may have helped here.

On Mumbai-Pune expressway I tried to push the car a bit and could take steep curves at ~80 kmph while staying put in my lane and car skid a bit. Maybe the car/tyres could do much better, but I wasnt willing to risk further.

Brakes are good.
On my first test drive, I had just started off and getting used to the car. It was a road with free flowing traffic without any median.
I think I was doing about 30-40 when a rick tempo came from right side bylane straight in front of me, without even bothering to check traffic on the main road. The tempo was carrying steel bars (the ones used for construction) and those were protruding out atleast 6 feet!! Just visualize something turning 90 degrees with an additional 6 feet steel bar behind. I braked hard and the car stopped in no time.
For a stock car doing legal speed the brakes and tires are more than adequate.

If you plan to put in mods to increase the performance, better plan for spend on brake and tire upgrades.

Coming to tires. Again, VW expects OEM tires to be of a certain quality. I don't think it warrants a change straight out of the showroom. I would rather use the original tires for 2 years and change it later if needed.

Specifically wrt TSI, do you think the tire noise is going to bother you when all you are going to hear is sweet sugary turbo? stupid:

Yes, I have driven 1.6 and I can say that GT is equally well built. The paint quality panel gaps, everything is as expected (in a good way).

[quote=freedom;3806919]

Coming to tires. Again, VW expects OEM tires to be of a certain quality. I don't think it warrants a change straight out of the showroom. I would rather use the original tires for 2 years and change it later if needed.

Specifically wrt TSI, do you think the tire noise is going to bother you when all you are going to hear is sweet sugary turbo? stupid:

a change straight after the show room is better, as you will get the best buy back, definitely the oem tyres aren't that bad, but if one needs more from cornering, breaking etc it better to have more rubber and also he needs noise free ride then he will be better of changing the tyres, (if good year then noisy).

there is no turbo sound you get to hear from this engine, it is too small a turbo to give you that thrill of turbo sound.:Frustrati

cheers

Hi Guys,
My SA called me and said he wud be able to deliver me the grey TSI in a week. this is after telling me there was no production this month. should i go for it. i think maybe it was a car for someone who cancelled it. shud i wait and see if any offers come next month for sharad.