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Originally Posted by ajmat 1.6 Highline 103BHP engine, makes the Vento wheeze but makes the Polo go whee! |
It is a nice little car, and looks like you found a less used and good piece too. Congratulations on this aquisition, and many happy & zippy miles with it!
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Originally Posted by ajmat The gearbox is like the Jetta, slots well and precise. |
Definitely. I too like the short throw and nice slotting gearbox. I have the same car in Pepper grey. My 3rd gear lately gave a bit of slotting trouble (once or twice in the last year). A dumb acquaintance once wanted to drive my car and didnt slot the gear completely and released the clutch, grinded the gears for ~10-15 secs. That may have done some damage, but it was more than 5 years ago.
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Originally Posted by ajmat Cannot control rear windows from the drivers seat. A weird omission. |
Yea. I've also been tolerating this problem for many years now. Esp. after dropping a few passengers, if I notice they left the rear windows open.
Due to my back issues, I am not able to turn around sufficiently from the driver seat to reach the power window switches on the rear doors to close them. I've to get down from the car and open the rear doors to close the windows. Very annoying when it happens.
VW made a few awkward decisions around early 2011 on these Polos. If I recall correctly, the first batch of Polos from 2010 didn't have electric adjustments for mirrors, but they did have all four power window switches in the driver's door. Electric adjustments for ORVM was a feature I desperately wanted (my back issues made it difficult for me to adjust ORVMs by stretching out).
In early 2011, VW added electric ORVM adjustments to Polos, but (to perhaps compensate for cost?), they dropped these rear power window switches from the driver's door. I'm not sure when exactly they added the rear window switches back - perhaps early 2012? I had asked the VW SA (Vidyut Motors Pune) to fit those the new, bigger? panel and 2 additional switches to my car but he said they can't do the required wiring. I haven't bothered too much on it later on.
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Originally Posted by ajmat Drinks like a General after sundown - In stop/start traffic, it guzzles (7km/l). On holidays and Sundays, it will return 9 km/l. On a highway , it sips 13-14km/l. |
Same here, but not as worse though. My MID shows ~11 in bit heavy traffic (evening 6-7pm drive of 20kms), I drive sedately though most of the time.
During afternoon, in light traffic, I sometimes get ~15-16 on the MID if I drive gently.
Highest I've reached is ~17-18km/l on the MID for a 20km drive with a very light foot in zero traffic.
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Originally Posted by ajmat Mainly short runs ranging from barely 1 km to around 10-15 km in town. |
Do watch out for the battery life when commute is regularly very short.
My wife had once taken over my car for ~4months when the car was ~4 yrs old, her commutes were 3km one way. The battery life of the factory installed battery (36Ah IIRC) then plummeted and I had to replace the battery within 3 months. Same low battery charge issues in her next car too.
I had changed over to Exide 60Ah battery in the Polo in Sept 2015, which is going good for 4+ years now and not showing significant signs of wear. It does show a bit of longer, slower crank if I leave the fan and music system ON for 15 mins with engine off.
Your battery also looks much bigger (60+Ah) than the stock 36Ah battery. The stock battery had a black cover around it which couldn't fit on the newer, bigger size battery.
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Originally Posted by ajmat Main spoiler is that the rear parcel shelf is collapsing under the weight of the aftermarket speakers which were crudely installed. |
Hmm, my parcel shelf also cracked from the exact same location. I do not have speakers on the parcel shelf though. I had some 2-3kg sweet boxes kept in the middle of the tray one day and it just gave up.
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Originally Posted by ajmat Air conditioner cooling & effectiveness |
AC has been the most troublesome area for me. The cooling effect reduces quite a lot in 2-3 years. My AC also develops the AC smell which is very hard to get rid of. I've tried Abro AC cleaner foam multiple times but didnt help, got it cleaned from a AC guy once who ended up breaking the gate that opens/closes with the re-circulation button. Outside odor sneaks in now to some extent even though the mode is in re-circulation. VW SA didn't even open it but they said they opened and checked and everything is ok! They keep citing a feature in AC that it switches to fresh air automatically. Well I know I keep that disabled (by moving the temp. knob one notch higher than the min. setting). If you keep the temp. knob at the min. setting, the AC will start automatically when you switch on the fan. That temp. knob at min. also controls the AC-re circulation switching to fresh air in some intervals.
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Originally Posted by ajmat Accurate but the EPS does numb feedback. Slight friction sound when turning, sounds like a plastic housing part fouling. Need to investigate. |
I recall the specs at that time for 1.6 mentioned steering being EHPS. If you happen to open the steering assembly do give us an update with some pics on the EHPS setup.
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Originally Posted by ajmat Brakes have improved but they are not as reassuring as the Jetta. |
Very true! Against the Jetta, the brakes on the Polo will seem downright scary.
I recall I had a Passat for a few weeks in the US (presumably all disc brakes on it) and when I got back to my Polo in India, the braking felt really scarily under specced. It took a couple of weeks for my mind to re-calibrate to the Polo's braking. I have a mental note now to make sure all disc brakes on the next car.
The 1.6 engines should have had all disc brakes. But then, even the Ventos of those era didn't have them. This is the area where there should not be any compromises. Especially the Vento TDI, which was the torque king at its launch time and ought to have all disc brakes.
The AC vents are a regular replacement affair for some, I have not bothered to replace them for the last 2 years now. My car is mostly just me 95% of the time so I do not bother much in the AC airflow direction.
My car also seems to be giving coolant trouble lately. I'm trying to diagnose it, initial impression is that the coolant consumption has increased.
There have been some niggles for me - the AC, the vents, poor headlights, missing power window switches, the coolant issues lately, but overall I'm happy and not bothered about these issues much. The car feels very safe so I'm ok to look over some trouble areas. My car has done 85K and no rattles yet! It hasn't let me down ever, so I'm not too worried about some of the cosmetic niggles.
The closest replacement I see I could've gone for, would be Vento/Punto/Linea. I'm sort of glad I didn't go with Fiat as the brand has been hammered after the Punto charm mostly died after 2011.
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Originally Posted by ajmat It is built to last, if I downsize to one car when the Jetta gets old, might buy something nice and pass this onto my daughter. |
Likewise here too! I also do plan to keep my 1.6 for a long time, and just keep doing decent level of maintenance to keep it running, later on passing it to other members in the family.
For some reason, I'm glad this is a Petrol car and not diesel, so there won't be huge surprises in the engine bay maintenance as the car gets old, and this can be kept for 15-20 years easily. I might be wrong though, about Petrol vs Diesel 1.6 VW engines, just a feeling.