[SLK]

Originally Posted by veyron999

My first post on team-bhp!

Welcome!

Originally Posted by veyron999

>The suspension/ride:
- Too soft. Maybe it's the new 16 inch rims which has made it that way, but it's too soft for highway runs, and spirited drives.
- There's a lot of vertical movement on undulations, and quite a bit of body roll on sudden manoeuvres like to avoid potholes. It is much more pronounced with luggage, and/or passengers.

I rather find it stiff by most standards! - and yes, its is not a 4 seater, but lets say no car is! for spirted drives and sudden maneuvers with 4 and luggage!. My old Honda city was probably stiffer, but it wasn't as planted, felt all over the place at high speeds and Indian highways.

Originally Posted by veyron999

- With passengers on the rear bench, the mud-flaps touch almost every other speed breaker. Bad design?

Possibly! but bad designs of speed breakers is more likely! I've never had that issue! in and around Delhi but for jumping footpaths in Gurgaon!

Originally Posted by veyron999

- Seems noisier at idle than our Honda City, and Brio.

Yes it is, even compared to the Maruti K series.

Originally Posted by veyron999

- Responsiveness in D7 at city speeds is just sad. One has to depress the accelerator pedal almost 3/4th to get the box to downshift.

Drive as if there is no kickdown, it is worthless feature even if it is one.

Honestly, for any kind of spirited driving, D is not the place, and S is not for sane driving! you got to be driving manual. Get pedal shifters, the car is a different animal if you take manual control of its shifts. You can get the best of both worlds, economy and sports.

Originally Posted by veyron999

- Better fuel economy, and responsiveness on high octane fuel than regular. (highway runs)

Its too sensitive to fuel quality, I've had my car knocking at low revvs even on premium fuels.

Originally Posted by veyron999

- With the AC on, there're some vibrations on the steering, and A pedal at crawling speeds. Probably something to do with the compressor clutch engagement. Is this common?

On a very hot day, yes, there is humming from the compressor.

Originally Posted by veyron999

- I've noticed that the RPM needle drops fast between gear changes on some gears, and drops gradually, specially on higher gears. Does this happen to everyone ?

Yes, its normal. Normally depends on how much hurry are you in! In relaxed drive, it often goes slow in higher gears. In aggressive more it only does that if it is trying to slip the clutch to catch breath

Originally Posted by veyron999

- Before the first service, sometimes while shifting from D3-D4 or D4-D5, there would be a "tuk" sound from the front right, and could be felt on the A pedal as well. Not sure what this is all about. I've read some more posts on this, but I couldn't find anything conclusive. Insights would help.

I'm not sure, if its the same thing, but there is a click when you cross 40km/h for the first time. Don't know what it is! but I've imagined it to be some sensor activating airbags or something like that.

Originally Posted by veyron999

- The AC blower speeds vary even if set manually

Yes, they are awesome! actually the best ACC i've ever used. If set to 'low' the fan speed is fixed on the display but actually varies within a small range. If the temperature is set otherwise! then yes, it isn't still automatic to some extent, normally only goes down when it reaches the target.

Originally Posted by veyron999

- Outside smells seep into the cabin even when on recirculation.

Happens in every car! they are never airtight! can't be! But if you think this is more than normal, try putting the re-circulation on/ off a few times to get the flap closed properly.

[veyron999]

Originally Posted by keith2524

Congrats!
D7 kick down - easier and much fun to simply flick gear stick to the left and tap down to 6. Flick back to D. Simple. No need to press gear lever button.

Not that there aren't workarounds. Either a kick down OR a manual downshift, or maybe even just waiting a second for the rpms to be in the turbo zone.

I was just pointing out a minor niggle.

Tweeters - appreciate if you could please elaborate on price and photos of mounting.

I love OEM. I found these on vagtune, where they're quite expensive, and then this
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3295...AbTest=ae803_3 on AliExpress. These transform the sound in the car. It adds the high notes to the sound, which were the only thing missing from the stock setup. The volume is much higher too, now. The sound seems to bounce off the front windscreen, giving it a surround sound effect.
The best purchase I've made.

Smells - Strange coincidence. I noticed this today after two weeks of ownership. I live and commute in smell-free parts of the city. But I can imagine Mumbai. The smells pierce the airplane cabin the moment it pulls up to gate. Lol!

Originally Posted by SLK

I rather find it stiff by most standards! - and yes, its is not a 4 seater, but lets say no car is! for spirted drives and sudden maneuvers with 4 and luggage!. My old Honda city was probably stiffer, but it wasn't as planted, felt all over the place at high speeds and Indian highways.

I've driven both - the City i-vtec (2015), and the latest GT TSI extensively on the highway. The City handles waaaay better any day. The steering is more precise, suspension setup is better to handle quick manoeuvres, such as avoiding potholes at speeds. There's no denying that. But the NVH levels on the City are too high, the GT is much calmer from the inside.

I so wish that they had given a better suspension setup on the GT. Having toured so much already, I find that to the be the only lacking factor.

The problem, well, at least with the 16 inch rims GT is that the suspension feels too stiff at slow speeds, but too soft at high speeds. You have to slow down quite a bit for small potholes at city speeds. On the highways, there's body roll, and vertical movement at higher speeds. They've managed to get the worst of both worlds somehow.

Possibly! but bad designs of speed breakers is more likely! I've never had that issue! in and around Delhi but for jumping footpaths in Gurgaon!

I haven't had that issue in Delhi either. The roads here are way better than many other cities.

This has happened on those yellow/black rumblers, but only when there're passengers. Not while driving solo.

Yes it is, even compared to the Maruti K series.

Yeah, even more than it's bigger sibling the 1.8 TSI on the GTI, and Octavia.

Drive as if there is no kickdown, it is worthless feature even if it is one.
Honestly, for any kind of spirited driving, D is not the place, and S is not for sane driving! you got to be driving manual. Get pedal shifters, the car is a different animal if you take manual control of its shifts. You can get the best of both worlds, economy and sports.

Pedals would be a great addition, but for the warranty hassles later on. I enjoy driving it in manual mode every now and then, specially within city limits.

Its too sensitive to fuel quality, I've had my car knocking at low revvs even on premium fuels.

Agreed. I've heard knocking even on Shell V-Power. It's difficult to hear it with all the noise around. But I heard it when I was at Yeoor hills late night, when it was really quiet outside. I also had the windows rolled down.

I'm not sure, if its the same thing, but there is a click when you cross 40km/h for the first time. Don't know what it is! but I've imagined it to be some sensor activating airbags or something like that.

Hasn't happened after the first service that I had a few days ago. But IIRC, it wasn't predictable.

Happens in every car! they are never airtight! can't be! But if you think this is more than normal, try putting the re-circulation on/ off a few times to get the flap closed properly.

Noticed this on our Octavia too. Could be common.

[vnabhi]

Outside smell seeping into the car is common in most cars, but not all. It does not in my Fiesta or Figo when the intake is set to recirculate mode. It does seep in on the WagonR that i have though.

On the Fiesta/Figo, I make sure to turn the mode to fresh air every half an hour so that I don't get an overdose of Carbon Dioxide. Another option is the roll down the windows by a centimeter for a few seconds.

[rawdeal]

Do any of you guys have trouble with people complaining about hearing themselves when on a call?

Have to lower the volume to a point where I can barely hear the other person for them to not hear the echo

Happens every single time
Android Auto
Phone: OP6

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by rawdeal

Do any of you guys have trouble with people complaining about hearing themselves when on a call?

Have to lower the volume to a point where I can barely hear the other person for them to not hear the echo

Happens every single time
Android Auto
Phone: OP6

Mine is crystal clear. Echo or hearing ones own voice is usually a bluetooth bug in some Android Phones. Please try with another phone and let us know.

[Traveler]

Has anyone faced the issue of the instrument cluster getting scratched. The transparent plastic window is very delicate and even a little firm cleaning with a microfiber leaves scratches. Is it possible to replace only the plastic or does one need to get a new instrument cluster.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Outside smell seeping into the car is common in most cars, but not all. It does not in my Fiesta or Figo when the intake is set to recirculate mode. It does seep in on the WagonR that i have though.

On the Fiesta/Figo, I make sure to turn the mode to fresh air every half an hour so that I don't get an overdose of Carbon Dioxide. Another option is the roll down the windows by a centimeter for a few seconds.

No car is airtight. That would be very dangerous! Just see (or preferably don't: it isn't much fun )how quickly the car fills with water in a flood.

(I don't know if this true, but I recall from about forty years ago, someone saying that they had to slightly open a window before shutting the door of their VW Beetle, as the seal was good enough to make it hard without doing so.)

[s4ch]

Originally Posted by veyron999

I love OEM. I found these on vagtune, where they're quite expensive, and then this
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3295...AbTest=ae803_3 on AliExpress. These transform the sound in the car. It adds the high notes to the sound, which were the only thing missing from the stock setup. The volume is much higher too, now. The sound seems to bounce off the front windscreen, giving it a surround sound effect.
The best purchase I've made.

These look great! Would you mind also mentioning how you have done the wiring and if it is plug and play?

Many thanks.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by veyron999

I love OEM. I found these on vagtune, where they're quite expensive, and then this
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3295...AbTest=ae803_3 on AliExpress. These transform the sound in the car. It adds the high notes to the sound, which were the only thing missing from the stock setup. The volume is much higher too, now. The sound seems to bounce off the front windscreen, giving it a surround sound effect.

The best purchase I've made.

Interesting!

The product is listed at 1.6k, is that for one piece or does it come as a pair? I'm assuming this is without the actual tweeters? Did you have any trouble with customs?

Originally Posted by veyron999

I've driven both - the City i-vtec (2015), and the latest GT TSI extensively on the highway. The City handles waaaay better any day. The steering is more precise, suspension setup is better to handle quick manoeuvres, such as avoiding potholes at speeds. There's no denying that. But the NVH levels on the City are too high, the GT is much calmer from the inside.

I so wish that they had given a better suspension setup on the GT. Having toured so much already, I find that to the be the only lacking factor.

The problem, well, at least with the 16 inch rims GT is that the suspension feels too stiff at slow speeds, but too soft at high speeds. You have to slow down quite a bit for small potholes at city speeds. On the highways, there's body roll, and vertical movement at higher speeds. They've managed to get the worst of both worlds somehow.

I would very strongly suggest you switch to Sachs Super Touring dampers. Sachs makes a great OE damper for the Polo, and the difference between the Super Touring dampers and the factory Gabriels is night and day!

It's delivers about 70% of the Bilstein B6 dampers' performance without compromising on the ride, which is firm admittedly but not Bilstein-stiff. The ride remains firm at city speeds, and although it doesn't crash into potholes, you do feel every square inch of the road surface underneath you. High speed compliance is spectacular! My only grouse is the car appears to sit a touch higher than I would have liked.

[keith2524]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

No car is airtight. That would be very dangerous!

The question was about odor control. Not air tightness. VAG India sells Carbon Activated Air Filter (Prod. code 6RG.091.700) as an optional accessory. Which I think is ridiculous and as good as saying "We know you live in a smelly country and we have installed a sub grade air filter, expecting you to shell out more money to take care of the problem with our accessory".

[veyron999]

Sorry for the long post!

Originally Posted by Traveler

Has anyone faced the issue of the instrument cluster getting scratched. The transparent plastic window is very delicate and even a little firm cleaning with a microfiber leaves scratches. Is it possible to replace only the plastic or does one need to get a new instrument cluster.

yeah, the other day I did see some scratches although I've barely ever had to clean it. Not sure whether it is available separately. Maybe others can pitch in.

Originally Posted by s4ch

These look great! Would you mind also mentioning how you have done the wiring and if it is plug and play?

Many thanks.

Trust me, these are absolutely worth it. And they're completely understated. For the unsuspecting eye, they'd be no different from the stock A pillar trims.
Here's a picture:



Unfortunately, I wasn't a part of t-bhp when I got them installed. Don't have many pictures, but should be able to highlight the general process.

I got it done from a person, who was recommended by an acquaintance. (Shouldn't have done that ). He didn't have the right tools, and ended up very slightly damaging the new LHS A pillar trim.

Any local car stereo fitter should be able to do this, as it should be very straight forward. (or so I thought )

Pre-requisites:
- speaker wires
- prying tools (something like this)

The general process would be :
- remove the original A pillars
- wire the tweeters on the new pillars, and route them inside the dashboard, and connect the wires to the HU where the front speakers are connected. This guy told me he had to splice the wire on the harness going into the HU though I would've preferred otherwise. I'm sure there must be some way to route the wire to the doors, and take the connection from the front door speakers instead.
- enjoy the much much better music!

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Interesting!

The product is listed at 1.6k, is that for one piece or does it come as a pair? I'm assuming this is without the actual tweeters? Did you have any trouble with customs?

That's the best part. It comes with OEM tweeters pre-installed.
You have to order LHS, and RHS separately. The grey colour matches perfectly with the original trim.
Ordered it from AliExpress. Didn't face any issues with customs, and the shipping was relatively quick too.

Originally Posted by suhaas307

I would very strongly suggest you switch to Sachs Super Touring dampers. Sachs makes a great OE damper for the Polo, and the difference between the Super Touring dampers and the factory Gabriels is night and day!

It's delivers about 70% of the Bilstein B6 dampers' performance without compromising on the ride, which is firm admittedly but not Bilstein-stiff. The ride remains firm at city speeds, and although it doesn't crash into potholes, you do feel every square inch of the road surface underneath you. High speed compliance is spectacular! My only grouse is the car appears to sit a touch higher than I would have liked.

Do you have these installed on your car, and would you know where can these be sourced from?

I don't like the idea of having the car sit any higher, but could be worth considering.

I'm just not sure there's anything which will be perfect for touring.
I've encountered under construction patches of road for 20-30 kms at a stretch. I had no option but to crawl in first gear, while all the WagonRs and swifts of the world were flying past. Anything higher than 10 kph was very painful with all the suspension noise, and the movement.
Do note that this was when I was solo, with a lot of luggage, and a cycle mounted on the hatch.
On the other hand, there have been good roads with some high speed corners with that unmarked speed breaker at the end of it. The body roll, and then the dive just make it a bit less composed on the highways.

Is there something that gives the best of both worlds?
I was keen on the street comforts by KW. But I just saw that @graaja had to return to stock because of some leak on the KWs. I was disappointed to learn this to say the least.

Still looking for that elusive "best of both worlds"

Meanwhile, here're some pictures of my GT :

[ameyadchule]

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[keith2524]

Originally Posted by veyron999

I love OEM. I found these on vagtune, where they're quite expensive, and then this
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3295...AbTest=ae803_3 on AliExpress. These transform the sound in the car. It adds the high notes to the sound, which were the only thing missing from the stock setup. The volume is much higher too, now. The sound seems to bounce off the front windscreen, giving it a surround sound effect.
The best purchase I've made.

Thanks for this. Cannot seem to figure out the correct color from the photos. Should I go for light gray or beige? The car is a 2019 model. Also, where is the crossover located? Is it in the door trim? How did you run the wire to the crossover?

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by veyron999

That's the best part. It comes with OEM tweeters pre-installed.
You have to order LHS, and RHS separately. The grey colour matches perfectly with the original trim.
Ordered it from AliExpress. Didn't face any issues with customs, and the shipping was relatively quick too.

Could you share with us the links for both parts, please? I'm sorry, if it's already been shared. Request you to direct me to the said post.

Originally Posted by veyron999

Do you have these installed on your car, and would you know where can these be sourced from?

I don't like the idea of having the car sit any higher, but could be worth considering.

I'm just not sure there's anything which will be perfect for touring.

I've encountered under construction patches of road for 20-30 kms at a stretch. I had no option but to crawl in first gear, while all the WagonRs and swifts of the world were flying past. Anything higher than 10 kph was very painful with all the suspension noise, and the movement.
Do note that this was when I was solo, with a lot of luggage, and a cycle mounted on the hatch.
On the other hand, there have been good roads with some high speed corners with that unmarked speed breaker at the end of it. The body roll, and then the dive just make it a bit less composed on the highways.

Is there something that gives the best of both worlds?
I was keen on the street comforts by KW. But I just saw that @graaja had to return to stock because of some leak on the KWs. I was disappointed to learn this to say the least.

Still looking for that elusive "best of both worlds"

KW Street Comfort coilovers would be idea. I'm not sure how and why Graaja's coilovers had that issue, but I'm certain that these are top notch and provide excellent balance between ride and handling.

However, they retail at an eye-watering 1.15 lakh w/o GST. Even KW's subsidiary, ST, sells the ST XA adjustable coilovers for about 90k pre-GST.

I'm not sure if these coilovers are worth it, as desirable as they are, for the reason that the car itself is about 12 lakh OTR. These setups may make sense on something like a vRS or even a GTI, but hard to justify on a GT TSI. That said, I still yearn for such a setup even to this day.

Regarding the Sachs, my local mechanic friend helped source the dampers and other suspension components that required replacement. The whole suspension soon was overhauled for around 40k if I remember correctly.

With a little research, you can find the Sachs dampers online and get them shipped, but it may make no sense as they are locally available I was told.

For the city streets at low speeds, the dampers are good and although they do feel firm, it does do a better job of damping the rough stuff than the stock factory dampers. On the highway and open roads, it's unmatched. Complies over undulations beautifully and does not feel under damped the least bit. Handling has improved tremendously too, as the car holds its own around fast sweeping bends brilliantly. It makes you wonder why one would get the Bilsteins.

[vishy76]

Originally Posted by veyron999

Is there something that gives the best of both worlds?
I was keen on the street comforts by KW. But I just saw that @graaja had to return to stock because of some leak on the KWs. I was disappointed to learn this to say the least.

Still looking for that elusive "best of both worlds"

Your GT looks hot in the Lapiz blue.

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Could you share with us the links for both parts, please? I'm sorry, if it's already been shared. Request you to direct me to the said post.



KW Street Comfort coilovers would be idea. I'm not sure how and why Graaja's coilovers had that issue, but I'm certain that these are top notch and provide excellent balance between ride and handling.

The reason for Graaja's coilovers causing problems were the shocks themselves I believe. The crappy gabriels are already prone to leaking under normal usage, and pairing them with coilovers shortened their life even further.

If you do opt for quality dampers and pair them with coilovers, I don't see any issues in terms of longevity. Coming to the ride comfort, it might take a hit and become even stiffer at low speeds although you will get a car that sits low and looks better. Depends on personal preference. I would prefer to just swap the shocks to Sachs and then judge whether to invest in coilovers.