[prithwi-81]

am officially over the 4k mark. A lot of fun driving this car. Try it on the highway.. it will put a huge smile on ur face.

[chase_nt]

Having owned the GT for a little more than 5 months now, I can safely say that this car is the BEST car (in terms of outright performance) that I have ever owned. I have owned several cars in my lifetime and my first 4 cars were when I was in Australia (they were all automatic). Subsequently I have owned another 4 here in India with the GT being the first automatic that I have owned in India. Of these 8 cars my first 5 cars were used vehicles. I have also driven several other cars such as Hyundai Santro, Hyundai i10, Suzuki Zen, Toyota Echo, Mazda, Daihatsu, Hyundai Verna, Suzuki Swift, Hyundai Eon, Mitsubishi Verada, Mitsubishi Scorpion and Toyota Corolla to name a few. All the cars that I had owned or driven were stock vehicles.


The one car that evoked a lot of fond memories was my fourth car which was the first and only sports car that I have owned. It was a 1st generation 1984 Toyota Supra which had a 2.8L 6 cylinder engine and pumped out 150 bhp. Now that was not too much to brag about considering today’s engines but it was a car from the early 80’s and that sort of power made it quite a performance oriented car in its hey-day. Add to that the great looks and impressive equipment levels (the car even had a digital speedometer and tachometer, cruise control etc). The Supra that I owned being a regular 4 speed automatic (no tiptronic mode) was capable of reaching triple digits in around 10 seconds. It may have been faster in its prime but this car already had 175,000 kilometers on its clock.


I know that it’s not fair to compare a car from the 80’s with a new car however considering the fact that the Supra was the fastest car that I had owned prior to the GT the comparisons become inevitable. Especially considering the amazing DSG that the GT comes equipped with, I feel that the GT outpaces my 1984 Supra in the 0-100 run. However the comparisons end there because the Supra had the ability to reach higher top speeds than what a GT is ever capable of reaching and the handling of the Supra is true to its moniker of being a “poor mans Ferrari”. That’s exactly what my Aussie friends said once they saw my Supra (the Aussies have a wry sense of humor but what they said was true). I had even vowed to never purchase another automatic in my life after I came back from Australia but the GT has simply toppled that perception.


I never really dabbled with the tiptronic mode in my GT until today and I decided to try it in the city and see what it could do. The one word that I can use to describe it is STUPENDOUS. I don’t think that I would want to drive this car in the D or S modes ever again. I think that VW have done a grave injustice by not equipping this car with paddle shifts. In a country where simple sports cars such as a Nissan 370Z cost close to 65 lakh rupees which is almost quadruple what they would cost in a country such as USA thanks to the exorbitant excise and customs duties, I would say that enthusiasts such as me have a reason to smile a bit thanks to a car such as the GT TSI. I can also safely say that in terms of outright performance the GT TSI is the best car that I have ever driven or owned.



My 1984 Toyota Supra












The GT with a Submarine in the foreground

[prithwi-81]

Nice pics bro.. very sweet ride indeed. Cheers!

[chase_nt]

A link to the video review of my GT TSI that i uploaded to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbDQJU8Aq5w

[kutlee]

Hi nice YouTube video there. I am huge fan of turbo petrols and I have one for years and I am spoiled I must say. Any plan to upgrade tires? Looks a little under tired.

[chase_nt]

Originally Posted by kutlee

Hi nice YouTube video there. I am huge fan of turbo petrols and I have one for years and I am spoiled I must say. Any plan to upgrade tires? Looks a little under tired.

Thanks buddy. This is actually my first turbocharged vehicle and i love it. I will be upgrading the tires however i want to wait until the 2 year warranty is completed because it might affect the coverage for the ABS/EBD/ESP etc.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by chase_nt

I never really dabbled with the tiptronic mode in my GT until today and I decided to try it in the city and see what it could do. The one word that I can use to describe it is STUPENDOUS. I don’t think that I would want to drive this car in the D or S modes ever again. I think that VW have done a grave injustice by not equipping this car with paddle shifts.

Yes, yes, yes. I love tiptronic - lightning fast clutch-less "manual" . I love this car (I have done ~700km in 2 weeks, and will post an ownership review soon). Good to read about the Supra - must have been a joy to own and drive.

Cheers!

[chase_nt]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Yes, yes, yes. I love tiptronic - lightning fast clutch-less "manual" . I love this car (I have done ~700km in 2 weeks, and will post an ownership review soon). Good to read about the Supra - must have been a joy to own and drive.

Cheers!

Congratulations on joining the GT TSI club. Looking forward to reading your ownership review. What can i say about the Supra....it was a childhood dream come true owning a real sports car. I wish we had affordable Japanese sports cars here but I'm afraid that will just remain a pipe dream.

[chase_nt]

It was exactly a year and one week ago that i purchased the GT TSI. The car finally touched 4 digits this morning (1000kms). I got the car serviced last week with 966kms on the clock. The entire service cost me 7 grand with the engine oil, oil filter, air filter, fuel filter and finally the pollen filter being replaced. I don't really understand the point of changing any of the above mentioned FILTERS especially since my car is a very sparingly driven vehicle. But i had to do it as i have a whole years warranty left on the vehicle and i don't want it to be voided.

As far as my knowledge of other cars goes, parts such as Air Filter need to be changed once in 2 years or with 20,000kms on the odometer whichever is earlier. Similarly the Fuel Filter is something that needs to be changed once in 4 years or 40,000kms whichever is earlier. Its strange that VW do not provide such a guide as to when parts are to be replaced in their user manual.

With minimal kilometers on the clock but with pedal to the metal driving whenever i get into the cockpit of this RED ROCKET...i have to say the TSI is still evergreen to me. The surge of power that exudes from this car whenever you put it in tiptronic or sports mode is enough to send you into raptures. Ironically even though i see a few GT TDI's around in my city, i am still the sole GT TSI owner in my town.

My ownership over the last year has been relatively hassle free apart from one issue that crept up in January this year. In a nutshell the cars battery got completely discharged and it didn't even crank. This was when the car was idle for almost 13 days as i had to leave town. I usually drive my car at least once a week however there were times such as this where in i had left my previously owned cars idle for such a length of time and none of their batteries got discharged. I am talking about similar sparingly used cars such as Chevy Beat, Honda Brio, Suzuki Alto and Hyundai I10 that i had owned. Long story short i had to call the VW roadside assistance guys who jump started the car and asked me to take it to the workshop so that they could figure out why this happened. I had to leave the car at the workshop for 2 days while they conducted tests to check the battery and the electrical system of the car however they could not find any reason why the battery got discharged.

It was really disconcerting that a car with such low kilometers and so sparingly used didn't start however the good news is that this problem did not recur since January. The advisers at the workshop suggested that i drive the car more often as they felt that the battery may have got discharged due to the car being very sparingly used (my car had 600kms on it when this problem occurred in January). However this theory does not cut ice with me as i had owned several cars and they were all sparingly used without a hint of such a problem. Besides its not as though i am leaving my car idle for a month or more.

I had also asked the service advisers at the workshop about the DSG gearbox oil change and they informed me that they had not received any communication about that from their head office yet. I specifically told the workshop guys not to tinker with the tuning of my car or do any software updates either since i had read that some of the other TSI owners on this forum complained about the pick up of the car getting affected after they had gotten their first service done.

Its been more than a year since i drove that gleaming red TSI out of the showroom yet my love for this car and its ability to run like the wind is still unabated. I would say that buying this car without batting an eyelid about its price was the best thing that i ever did as it is worth every single penny.

[chase_nt]

Its been 14 months since i purchased the GT TSI and its time to transform my stock GT into something a little bit faster with a Petes remap. I have an appointment next Friday with the Petes guys who will be arriving in my city to remap my car. Im really excited and cant wait as this is the first time that im having one of my cars remapped

[shetty_rohan]

Originally Posted by chase_nt

Its been 14 months since i purchased the GT TSI and its time to transform my stock GT into something a little bit faster with a Petes remap. I have an appointment next Friday with the Petes guys who will be arriving in my city to remap my car. Im really excited and cant wait as this is the first time that im having one of my cars remapped

Hey chase_nt,
Congrats, let us know the update after the remap. I have also heard people saying Bilstein(B6 is the cheapest) suspension transforms the car to a different level, Pete's is the authorized dealer for the same.

[prithwi-81]

Remap will be over before you can say pologttsi

[chase_nt]

Originally Posted by shetty_rohan

Hey chase_nt,
Congrats, let us know the update after the remap. I have also heard people saying Bilstein(B6 is the cheapest) suspension transforms the car to a different level, Pete's is the authorized dealer for the same.

Thanks Rohan. I will do a small write up of my experience after the remap.

Originally Posted by prithwi-81

Remap will be over before you can say pologttsi

Thanks for clarifying all my questions regarding the remap Prithwi. The remap im sure would be over in no time but i have to wait until next Friday for them to come here

[chase_nt]

After 16 months of usage that resulted in 1200 km being added to the odometer I finally got a stage 1 Pete’s remap for my GT yesterday. Akshay from Pete’s flew into Visakhapatnam to remap my car which is totally stock apart from the JVC audio system and the speakers that I had installed in my car over a year ago. I still run my TSI on the stock tires that came with the vehicle. I was informed that the stage 1 remap from Pete’s bumps up the power of the car from 105 bhp to somewhere between 125-130 bhp after the remap along with a bump in torque from 175 nm to 210 nm. I run the TSI on HPCL’s Power petrol because that is the only premium fuel that I can get in my town. There are no outlets that provide 95 or 97 RON fuel and I can’t even get IOC’s extra premium petrol in town.


The GT TSI is a bat out of hell and I expected it to be a bat out of hell with an extra pair of wings or at least an extra wing after the remap however all my excitement fizzled out after driving the remapped TSI . Sure it was fast but the stock TSI is also fast and I expected that the 20-25 bhp bump in power would make it even faster and put an even wider grin on my face after driving it. Alas that was not the case. For a Pete’s remap the cost me Rs 24,000 the end result where in I can say that I got a bang for my buck was definitely missing. I was told by the Pete’s guy who did the remap that it takes around 150 km of driving before I can see the complete effect of the remap in terms of power and torque. I hope he is right because I’m just asking myself if it was really worth it spending 24 grand on this remap. Based on some of the threads that I have read here with bhpians remapping their cars and saying that its absolutely necessary to upgrade the tires of your TSI if you are planning on a remap as the cars stock tires and brakes are not equipped to handle the sort of power after a remap, I expected that my TSI with its stock rubber/brakes will be uncontrollable after the remap but there was nothing of that sort. It was just a tad bit faster that’s all. I was still able to control the car pretty well and personally I don’t find any reason to upgrade the tires either. In fact I turned off the TCS switch to see if I can get wheel spin and none of that happened. The stock cars wheels used to spin while taking turns from stand still and that still happens. So I was expecting something a lot more after the remap however it all turned out to be a damp squib. Maybe my expectations were too high or maybe it’s too early in the remap to be commenting on the worthiness of the remap but at the moment I am not impressed.


I didn’t drive the car too much after the remap because it was twilight already and I become a very careful driver at nights (in fact I don’t drive at night) considering the high beam menace that plagues all our cities in India. I drove the car around for about 15 km after the remap and about 10 km were with a lead foot. I am the kind of driver who revels in the 0-100 acceleration of the TSI even on city streets. When I bought this car last year I had done some timed 0-100 sprints on a secluded road with my friend who was the co-passenger using a stop watch app (I do not have a vbox for accurate readings). The car had less than 100 km on the odometer at that time, was just 2 days old and it was also running on regular pump petrol as I had not started to use premium petrol. I did around 4 runs with the car in D/S/M modes with TCS on and off and it returned times ranging from 10.2-10.8 seconds for the runs. I haven’t timed the car since and I think I will do a few runs on the car now that it is remapped however I have a feeling that there is only going to be a marginal improvement in the sprint timings. I was thinking of other mods for the car such as k&n air filter, automech cat back exhaust and a Forge BOV however after seeing the less than exhilarating results of the remap I think I am just going to keep the car as is without any further mods.


One thing that I observed was that the average fuel efficiency on the MID had dropped from around 8-8.5 km/lit that It usually showed me before the remap (yes I rev my car really hard, indulge in hard acceleration all the time and I have been doing this since day one) to 6.5 km/lit after the remap. I am either in S mode or Tiptronic mode most of the time except when there’s bumper to bumper traffic which is when I’m back in D mode. I use the car in the city 99.9% of the time and the number of highway runs I had with this car after purchasing it can be counted on my finger tips. Fuel consumption figures are the least of my worries as I bought this vehicle to have fun with and not for fuel efficiency. So in a nutshell I would like to summarize that I am not impressed with what I got after the remap. For a car that weighs a little more than 1000 kilos to be tweaked to an alleged 125 bhp I was expecting a whole lot more and not just a marginal improvement. Lets see if my impressions of the remap and its worthiness change after putting on a couple of hundred kilometers on the cars odometer however that will take some time as I don’t drive too often.

[Insane Devil]

Hi chase, thanks for posting your review and sad to see the remap wasn't worth the effort and money.

Do you know if Petes has a money back guarantee that they refund you your amount if you are not happy and put the stock map back into your car?