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-   -   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-324.html)

The GT has undergone lots of upgrades in the past couple of years - touch screen HU, cruise control, auto dimming mirrors, rain sensing wipers, 16" wheels to name a few. If you go the used car way, you will mostly miss all of these features.

If you are a DIY person, you could do a lot of improvements as the GT is a very mod-friendly platform. There are lots of GT ownership threads with lots of DIYs (Gannu's GT thread, frankmehta's, TheSaint's, mine etc). If you are not into DIY, my suggestion would be to go for a new car.

Not sure about how to go about getting good deals. As far as I know, the GT usually does not get any deals or offers.

Replica ones are easily available across most of the auto accessories shops and will cost around 4k.

As we know that in recent models, the spoiler is not a standard fitment. So, going for a Polo genuine roof spoiler is a good idea ?
And are they as good as the factory fitted one's ?

Happy Diwali everyone!

I got delivery of my Polo GT TSI (white) yesterday. It's Sept make and comes with the integrated black spoiler and the 340G infotainment system and 16-inch alloys. I did not get the sports kit but I would have definitely liked to have all-leather seats on this variant.

Looking forward to exploring more of the GT TSI.

Congrats, i also took delivery of GT TSI on 11 Oct and it is also Sep make. But strangely yours is the only GT which came with Spoiler, many other people have confirmed theirs also did not come with the spoiler.

Anyways, congrats and wish you many happy miles.

Congratulations and best wishes for a hassle free and pleasurable drives with your respective steeds.
clap:clap:

Thank you so much for your reply! I have been through the threads on DIY upgrades from frankmetha to Gannu etc. and I appreciate the effort that goes in to making a car a beauty.

I'm leaning more to buying a new stock car and taking that up for DIY upgrades (if at all). Now I need to research and find a good PDI list and stuff! I'm so excited about this!

Thanks grajaa! and thank you team-bhp. I will keep posting updates...

Peace

I doubt that the spoiler makes much difference at the speeds most of us are able to do. But... it is part of the distinctive GT look. I would never add on a spoiler, especially not a third-party "bookshelf" as I call them, But I certainly like the subtle one on my GT TDI.

I thin that removing this visual distinction is a bad mistake by VW. It's great that they keep adding stuff to Polos, but, with something like this on the GT, I wonder if any real marketing man has actually thought about what this tiny difference means to buyers.

Oh, and congratulations to the new GT owners.

I wonder why the TDI gets so much less attention: maybe I'm just missing thethreads.

The Voice command on my car is one thing that I am not at all using because the Voice assistant VW girl never understands me. Yesterday, was telling my colleague how bad it is. He asked me to show. I pressed the button on the steering. Probably I had used this button after 6 months. Nothing happened. Forget understanding me, the Voice assistant VW girl never woke up (probably she is angry with me for neglecting her for so many days :D ) I pressed many times, the mic symbol on the screen was greying out and then becoming active again. Nothing else. Although I'm not going to miss this functionality, I want to know what is the problem. Does anybody here know more abou this issue?

Hello All,

I was in the market for a good all rounder automatic hatchback.

After reading through many threads, talking to a lot of people, deliberating on options, pulling back many times, I finally went ahead with my booking of GT TSI and took the delivery on 25th.
Thanks to bhpian Hemanth Anand whose valuable inputs helped me along the way.
The car has spoiler fitted from the factory, has new R16 wheels and a new touch screen infotainment system, three items different from the earlier GT TSIs.
My initial experience has been nothing short of fantastic. Coming from Ford EcoSport experience, this car feels so different at so many different levels.
Would like to share my take on the car. My points are specific to how this car is different from Ecosport (ecoboost) which is my previous ride.

Let me count the positives first.

1:
Engine and the gearbox, of course.
The engine is a gem. If I compare it with the Ford's turbo charged unit, this outperforms the Ford with its low end torque.
While the ecoboost always complained in the low speed driving, I notice that TSI rarely struggles. Hardly ever comes to first gear.
Also the engine grunt so very enjoyable you want to hear it every time. Sounds sporty. Reminds me of old Need For Speed gaming cars sounds.
However, whether the TSI will match the EcoBoost's very powerful midrange is a thing to be seen.
Gearbox is fast, is beautiful, but yea it is DQ200. So you know. BTW, my wife is loving the automatic and yes, the hill hold.

2:
The ride.
What feels dramatically different from Ecosport is the ride. Its really good. A ride over a bad road will testify immediately that it is way better compared to Ecosport.
There was considerable amount of head heaviness in Ecosport over uneven surfaces, but this one glides through without any such discomfort.

3:
New infotainment system.
I always believed Ecosport had the best speakers and thought any other car's audio will only be a compromise.
But this car has good speakers. The infotainment system is good too. (340g-PQ)The resolution is great, workflow is intuitive.

4:
Boot space:
Good enough boot space for a car of this size. However I feel there has been an undesirable compromise here. I will talk about the cramped rear seats in the negatives.

5:
No thick A pillars.
I am sure you agree, the less we talk about Ecosport A pillars better it is.


Let me count the negatives now:

1:
The front seats.
The front seats are OK but not as good as Ecosport's. But I figure out that none of the cars can match the Ecosport's comfort in the seating.
I test drove most of the ATs available and found this car seats best only next to Ignis's. I find the head restraints are laid back. The hugging effect of Ecosport totally missing. I could drive ecosport for 8-9 hours without any pain. Need to see what effect will these seats have. They are not painful, but I'd have loved better ones.

2:
The back seats.
There are a few problems at the back.
Space is cramped. Hardly any leg room. The deep wells and the center wall add to the misery. Wife is really skeptical how comfortable/uncomfortable long rides will be. Seats are small, lack under thigh support.

3:
Steering.
Its not as light as I wanted. I like light steering. All the other ATs I tested were light. Even Ecosport was very light.

4:
Pedals placement:
I am sure not many will relate to this but I am going to say it anyway. The AB pedals are placed just a tad bit higher up.
To make room for rear passengers if you pull up your front seats, you really have to wrest your feet up (band backwards) to exercise the AB pedals. Of course I find Hyundai i10 the worst ever here, but again Ecosport was perfect.
In Ecosport you'd rest your feet on the pedals as though you'd almost rest on the floor. That suited me.

Sharing some pictures:



In summary, I am loving the automatic. I am enjoying the car. While EcoSport is a great car, this car fixes my issues I had with Ecosport: ride, AT, compactness.

I use the voice command every day and it understands my Chennai accent flawlessly. I use it for calling contacts and navigation as well.

In fact the voice button starts the Google assistant in my case not the VW voice assistant. I think you will find it a lot better if you connect your android phone to the HU through bluetooth.

Hi Friends, Please weigh in your thoughts.

My search for the Hot hatch had these contenders, the Polo TSI, TDI, Figo S or the Abarth Punto.

Test drives of all but Abarth is leaning me significantly towards TSI. Last year I did drive the Avventura Abarth and I can gauge how the Punto experience shall be.

In summary, why TSI

1. The body design is neat, urban, top notch quality of interior just nails it over Figo & Fiat. Simply superb.
2. The latest features such as window down without ignition ON, anti-pinch windows (all four), rear seat arm rest, touch screen (i don't need it though) and very importantly ESP+ABS combo.
Figo in comparison felt like poor plastic quality which will show as the car ages.
3. Now on the Hot hatch factor, performance & high speed stability.
Having experienced TSI on Vento last year my expectations were high and Polo TSI didn't disappoint in any driving mode. Taking the car to triple digit speed is top notch pleasure and the taking on semicircle like curves at high speed didn't roll the occupants at all or if it did they didn't notice it. At the end of TD my family was all praises for this experience and the fact that they didn't know what insane speeds I was doing all this time only points to quality of structure & stability the car provides.

Figo TDCi performance is great but not as smooth and neat as the TSI. It did feel a bit crude and the springy clutch was a bit annoying. Sure it's a great car to throw around but that's not the majority of my usage.

4. Noise: the main reason why I didn't even take TDI out of the dealer compound. I really can't live with such noise in a classy car, perhaps in an SUV

For TSI, I will change the tires to take the awe inspiring fun to the next level.

5. Ride quality: It'll stay on tarmac and it does well there.

6. Both head and heart are happy

The only 2 points that bothered me (slightly) at start of the TD were slightly cramped rear seat and my left knee pressing uncomfortably against the dash frame. But these were quickly forgotten as soon as the focus shifted to performance. Nothing for you dear TSI, I can file my knee a bit.

At almost 2.5L costlier than Figo S, I conclude that the Polo TSI is worth every paisa.

Now the only Question or rather worry is the maintenance/re-sale once the 4 yr warranty is over. I have a 1000+ days to think through it though.

that's exactly why it is recognising you. Google assistant is way better. How do I set the voice assistant to google?
My phone is always connected via Bluetooth (both my old phone and the new phone are all android).

I think for that you have to connect via USB to Android Auto.

I have the 2016 HU. It supports only Mirrorlink and it doesn't support for Android Auto