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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-469.html)

Subject: Volkswagen Apple Auto Whitefield has given an estimate of Rs.22 lakh to repair a car which was worth Rs.11 lakh(new), Rs.6 lakh(today's price).

How it happened: Recent Bangalore floods caused water damage to the car.

What did insurance say: They are willing to writeoff as total loss.

Icing on cake: Volkswagen Apple Auto Whitefield charged 'Rs.44,840' to make an estimation document for a car which costs only Rs.600,000 today.

Final verdict: Vw India got involved and settled the estimation document charges to Rs.5000/-

Please read the complete ordeal from the source below. Dealer's attitude towards making a big buck out of someone's loss is pathetic. No wonder people are hesitating to buy Vw/Skoda cars. Vw India has done their job well, while we appreciate that, it is not expected to reach out to country head for everything.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aniru...member_desktop

Hi Ramki, thanks for sharing this. Its been going on rounds in the social media and I really hope the owner gets some workable solution. It is purely crony capitalism, as the owner himself has penned down.

Given this issue, and my subpar experience with other VW ASS in Bangalore (namely, PPS motors Nagavara), I'm wondering which is the best and reasonable VW service centre in Bangalore? I contrast my experience to the one at VW Arcot Road, Chennai which was more than pleasant. I have generally felt that TN has good service experience for any brand.

Hi

I am having a problem with the gear shifter on my 2018 GT TSI.

A few days back I found the car stuck on D2 and the gear was not changing. I did not use the car for a couple of days and I did not have the time to take it to the ASC.

On restarting , the car was changing gear but at times I found, at times, a 'shudder' in the brake pedal while driving.

I still dont have time to time to bring the car in to VW RamMandir . So am using the car sparingly hoping something will not give.

But appreciate if any one with similar problem and the fix for the same

Hey folks.

I have a Dec 2018 Polo GT which has done about 53k kms on stock Goodyear assurance tyres. The profile is 195/55 r16.

These tyres have pretty much run their course and I am looking to upgrade. I wanted to change to Michelin P3 when I initially picked up the car. But hadn’t gone for it. This time around, I want to go for the best (almost best) and really experience the GT with good tyres.

Kindly guide as to what are some good flagship options available to me. I believe the P3s are no longer available and it’s only Michelin P4 ST that are available nowadays and that too only at select dealers.

Also if someone is from Chandigarh, and can refer somebody around here that would be amazing.

While on topic, how is it to shift to 205/ 55 R16 profile?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Yeah, the Lapiz Blue is rather rare, and looks stunning if kept clean, which is a major pain. Swirl marks appear with the slightest hint of a dusty breeze, which is like all the time in Delhi (dust, not the breeze). :coldsweat

And yes, that is the Noida workshop. Nothing to write home about. I get the service done in front of me, so it's alright. They're no experts in diagnosing issues though. Regular work they're just fine.


You can visit sector 28 car market in Chandigarh. I got my GT's tyres changed from Bansal Auto Zone there. I went for Michelin Primacy 4ST, and have been happy so far. That's a reputed shop, and should be able to guide you on brands, and sizes.
I personally wouldn't prefer upsizing unless there's a specific use case for it. I believe it'll also introduce a slight skew in the speedometer readings due to the altered circumference.

Sounds like the dreaded mechatronics issue. Please take it to VW ASAP.

MRF has a performance series tyres called Perfinza, they have very good reviews here on Tbhp, many people have used them on their premium cars and gave good reviews. They are cheaper than pirellis, readily available everywhere, and have 95% of the performance. Just search about them.

Thanks @veyron999 and @yesyeswe for your inputs. Your inputs and other posts here as well helped me in coming up with a decision. Also thanks to @AgamBhandari who helped over pm and @Zazer who is always present on call. Thanks a lot guys .

After a lot of hunting and deciding I finally decided to go for Michelins primacy 4 with the profile 195/55/16. I was very confused about upsizing but that got sorted as the 205 were only available in 60 ratio.

As I think I did a fair amount of research I would like to put it down here for others in need of a change.

According to the dealers here Michelin tyres are pretty much getting extinct post the ban. And who ever is selling them has previous stock so you might get MY21 tyres.
At one shop I also found primacy 3 but it was in 195/60/16 profile. While some dealers claim no new tyres have been coming in from the longest of time. Some dealers claim they have MY 22 tyres.
Regarding how that’s possible specially after the ban in 2020 and Michelin not setting up a factory in India , I am not very sure.

Also comes the case of upsizing. Due to very less stock being available I did not find any of dealers (I checked 5 shops) who had 205 with 55 R16.
Only 205/60 were available.
205/55 R16 profile was available in pilot sports 4 which were going for about 11500 per tyre.

So going by the depleting stock of Michelins, I was either getting 9500 per tyre for my22(I did not see the tyre so didn’t check MY personally)

Or Nov 2021 tyres which I finally opted for and got them at 8625 per tyre.

This dealer also claimed he is giving 1 year unconditional warranty and 5 years total warranty against manufacturing defects.

I am really happy with the purchase anyhow , even though I haven’t really got the chance to test them out well as the drive back was full bumper to bumper traffic.

Now with that happy feeling aside, let’s address the actual problem that kind of sprang up unexpectedly and the more I think about it , the more angrier I get.

So to tell you the whole picture I’ll have to give a small flashback from March earlier this year.
Unfortunately on the way back to Ludhiana from Delhi airport I hit an exchangeable screwdrivers front end(the ones whose handle can be changed with different size fitting) and that went in the tyre and because we were at quite a high speed it damaged the side wall as well before we could completely stop.

I realised this when the tyre repair guy pulled it out of the tyre next day. (I am assuming that’s how it happened)
So because this tyre was left useless I opted to purchase a 2nd hand tyre. I was running on stock Goodyears assurance. And I got a 2019 MY Goodyear at a decent price which was run about something similar to my odo.

At the time as I had done much research and during the process I strictly remember the guy telling me this old tyre and my other tyres would easily last me more than a year and 15k + kms. (This piece of information I remembered/recollected way later)

The old tyre which went burst actually already had 4 punctures and I was relieved it was that tyre of the 4 if any. Now I had total of 1 puncture in each tyres.

Cut forward to September 6th when I gave my car for servicing to Lally motors Chandigarh. I had an issue of coolant levels dropping very low and reduced mileage due to which I gave it for servicing 2 months early. On inspection they told me the water pump is leaking due to which coolant is going below min levels. They didn’t have the part and to procure the part and do the regular servicing they took almost 12 days. During which the car was with them.

Now when I got the car back, the very next day I took it from Chandigarh to Ludhiana. While on the way to Ludhiana I didn’t have any issues(maybe because the car felt new due to the servicing or that I had not driven it in the past 12 ish days.)

On the way back though I immediately picked up and could feel vibrations from the steering and the feeling of going on a continuous bumpy road and when I would leave the steering it would rotate slightly left and then back right. And would just keep doing to and fro.

When I reached back I inspected the tyres. My first impression honestly was that these tyres don’t look like mine because they had weird holes and tears at random places ,but I gave it the benefit of doubt thinking I may be over imagining . The tyres were done for basically.

I went to the nearest tyre place and he confirmed my doubt of the tyres running its course and that they have to be changed immediately due to safety reasons.

This although should have surprised me a lot at the time but it didn’t . Maybe one can call it stress from work or not remembering the experience from March.

I came back home spoke to a couple of friends and we all gave Lally motors the benefit of doubt thinking why and who would do such a thing.
Mind you at this point i didn’t recollect the atleast 12-15k kms life being left in the 3+1 old tyre.
(I remembered this today when I finally went to change my tyres.)

Fast forward to today. After few days of research I went and purchased the Michelin primacy 4. And during the fitting I just happened to pick my old tyres and have a look at inside. Guess it was just to take one last look at the previous tyres and as kind of a final goodbye.
You won’t believe the surprise I got when one of the tyres had a total of 9 punctures and a patch (the kind they put when punctures don’t do the work ) .
According to me all my tyres just had the 1 puncture each.
And here this tyre had 10.
That’s when I also remembered my all four tyres didn’t have the same MY as one of them was second hand. But these all 4 tyres are 2018 MY just as the car.

This brought the whole tyre swap scene back in my head and that’s when I started to piece everything together and recollect everything I could about what had actually transpired .
As my friend @Zazer also pointed out if they could change the tyres they could also have pretty much changed anything from inside the car. Which is my biggest concern.

I am very pissed at the least. And as I may not exactly have the time or the energy to take this fight up(I know things are going to be hard to prove).
I ask you guys as to how should I proceed ?

VW Palace Cross on Hessarghatta Road is good. Both my VWs have been going there since last 6 years. I have a good relation with those guys. Please DM me if you want me to introduce you to them.

My GT TSI is still on the original GY 195/55R16 tyres . I plan to go in for 195/60R16 when I change, these 60 series tyres will be more comfortable compared to the OE fitted 55s which are rather stiff
As a trial, I recently switched from the original size 205/55R16 on my Jetta to 205/60R16 Conti tyres - the car has become so much more comfortable
The lower aspect ratio tyres (55 series ) are good for higher speed on smooth roads (which 99% of the time we dont have), for navigating pot holes , the higher series ( 60 series ) tyres are better

Is there a very noticeable difference between the 55 and 60 profile tires in terms of ride comfort? I am about to switch my tires to a new set, and have been on the fence for a while.

Tyre Experiment#4: Michelin Primacy 4
Ride comfort is good at all speeds. Maybe, the Alnacs were a tad more comfortable at very low speeds, although I can't remember now. After 80 kmph, no more comparison. Michelins offer far superior braking. Has made me accept TSi's stock brakes and appreciate the car even more.

How is the cabin noise levels? I feel like my tires make A LOT of noise over 60-70kmph. It's gets almost unbearable unless I have the music on loud enough to mask it.

Hi all,
Have a polo GT TSI about 3 years old. Have noticed the hill assist has stopped working. Was in bumper to bumper traffic with slight uphill road..Every time I removed my foot from the brake the car would roll back. The scenario was release brake, and apply brake kind-of crawling traffic , which was ok until I hit the uphill part of the road. Thats when I realised the car was rolling back. Wanted to know if anyone has faced a similar situation.
Car is due for service soon & was wondering on what all could possibly be wrong.

For hill assist to kick in , you might have to apply brake all the way in if I remember it correctly. Definitely I too had some instances of this happening and i then assumed I didn't enable it correctly

Hi Pacifier, thanks for the prompt response, but have observed the roll-back multiple times since (never had the issue before on the same road). The car is also driven by other family members who too have noticed this recent change (rolling back on slope). Was wondering if there maybe any other probable causes.