[asmr]

Greetings to everyone!

This will be my first ownership report ever. I wouldn't call myself an enthusiast by any measure but I will try to make this as comprehensive as
possible.

Quick summary

Volkwagen Taigun 1.0L Topline AT

Engine: 999cc, 3 cylinders
Max. power - 114 bhp @ 5000 rpm
Max. torque - 178 Nm @ 1750 rpm
ARAI Mileage - 16.44 kmpl
Dimensions (lxbxh in mm) - 4221x1760x1612
Kerb Weight - 1275kg
Ground clearance (unladen) - 188mm
Brakes - Front discs, Rear drums
OTR Price - Rs.18,96,631 (including 2 year extended warranty to a total of 6 years, no discounts, standard accessory kit) + Rs.33,412 (own insurance) = Total of Rs.19,30,043/-

Likes:

1. Very spacious and comfortable for 4 people, with sufficient boot space
2. TC AT is very smooth, making it easy to drive in the city, especially in bumper to bumper traffic. On the highway, D mode is very nice and gives power on demand. S mode makes short work of steep inclines in ghat roads.
3. Excellent ride quality and handling in city, highways and in ghat sections, on all type of roads.
4. Cruise control, ACC, Auto wipers, cooled glove box - all work nicely, have used all of those in the initial 1999kms that the car has run till now
5. On a dark highway or road, the headlights seem to be excellent. Loved the static, intelligent cornering lights as well. The interior switch and ambient lights make it very lively and easy to use the controls at night.
6. Touchscreen infotainment is very good. Sound quality is very much acceptable for me. Android Auto worked seamlessly once connected via the USB-C cable.
7. The sunroof, even if not panoramic, instantly gives a more airy feeling to the cabin.
8. The ventilated seats. No explanation needed for this.

Dislikes:

1. Touch controls for AC are quite distracting, requiring one to take eyes away from the road to operate.
2. The sunroof mechanicals being visible is an eyesore when the sunshade open.
3. Stock MRF Wanderer tyres dampen turning confidence at speeds or on inclines.
4. Mileage - not exactly a dislike and certainly not unexpected, but running at steady speeds at 80kmph would extract maximum mileage. Push the vehicle to perform even a bit more and the numbers will drop significantly. I have provided more details on the numbers in following sections.
5. Android Auto doesn't work seamlessly via wireless connection.
6. The TPMS seems to be more of a pressure difference monitoring and not real time pressure indication. It was an irritant when I set the tyres to 33 (recommended for single occupancy) and after 1 hour of drive time, the tyre pressure reducing warning lit up. I checked the pressure again and it was 33 in all tyres. Then, on consultation with the SA, I topped up the pressure to 38 in all tyres and then the warning disappeared.
7. The wipers seem to do a good job in moderate rain, but in heavy rain especially with slushy water being thrown at the windshield from vehicles in front, the cleaning action was certainly not very satisfactory for me. In fact, while driving during the Thursday's downpour, the left wiper started leaving a trace on the windshield at the maximum wipe angle point.
8. There was just one instance where the car (fully loaded with 5 people and luggage) scraped a bit over a bad road + speed breaker combo on the outskirts of Salem near a railway crossing. There is a metal bar that runs the width beneath the car body approximately mid point of the B pillar. I believe that was the one that met the road for an instant.

How I ended up buying the Taigun

I owned a Santro Xing XL between 2006 and 2021. Maintained it in excellent condition, although I had driven it sparingly. But it was beginning to age. The family was also feeling that the car was no longer sufficient on space. Thus started the search for my next car.

My requirements were very simple. A larger car, preferably petrol, must be automatic transmission, decent mileage, OTR budget up to 20L.

Round 1:
I started looking at the Creta, Seltos & Venue in late 2019 but deferred the buying decision due to parking space constraints.

Round 2:
In July 2021, I finally decided to go ahead and change my car. Creta was still on top of my list. Called up the Hyundai dealership, took a test drive and booked the car on July 21st, with a delivery commit of 3 months which I was naive enough to trust. I also sold my Santro via the dealership, which I should not have done, in retrospect. In the following 2 months, I found that I had enough reason for losing my trust with the dealer and HMIL, based on the sales process experience. After a short interaction with the dealer + HMIL support folks, which elicited no meaningful response, I cancelled my Creta booking on Oct 12th and managed to get the full booking amount of Rs.25,000 refunded. Back to square one.

Round 3:
I started looking at other options, did couple more test drives (detailed here (Cancelled my Creta booking | Which SUV or Crossover with a budget of 15-23 lakhs?)) of S-Cross Alpha AT & MG Hector Sharp CVT. Based on the TDs and also extensive reading of reviews here on Team BHP, I booked the S-Cross Alpha AT on Oct 20, 2021 with a 1 month delivery commit from the Nexa dealer. Fast forward to Nov 22, 2021, I receive an email saying that the waiting period has been extended by one more month. At that point, my situation was that I needed 'a' car which met at least some of my expectations. Back to square one again.

Round 4:
Till this point, I hadn't even considered VW or Skoda vehicles. But on Nov 28, 2021, I called VW Mount Road, Chennai (part of Sundaram Motors) and asked them to bring a Taigun 1.0L Topline AT for TD. The team was very responsive and even in the rains, they got the TD vehicle to my home on Nov 29, 2021.

I was able to only a very short TD but liked the vehicle overall. They informed that a Curcuma yellow and a Red vehicle were readily available in the yard and also that a new booking will be delivered in 28 days or less. I decided to stick with the silver color and told the sales executive to go ahead with the booking. Shortly after that, I was contacted by the Team lead who said there was a Silver Topline AT in the yard which could not be delivered to another customer due to their loan process not going through (or something like that). I asked to do a PDI and they readily accepted.

I went to their yard the next day where the vehicle was kept ready for inspection. It was 2 weeks old from the line, received at the yard just a week back and had 7kms on the odometer. I checked the VIN, the dispatch logs, inspected the vehicle and didn't find any obvious issues during the PDI (not detailing the inspection itself here). Thus, the decision was made to take the vehicle.

The sales executive and Team lead came to my house to complete the booking process (being month end and all). It so happened that the Team leader recognized my father in a photo on the wall. He was saddened to hear about my father's passing away few years back and had good memories from their interaction several years back. At that point, I took it as a sign that this vehicle was destined for me. All the formalities were completed in 2 days and I took possession of the vehicle on Dec 04, 2021 with 44kms on the odometer. The booking and delivery experience was very much smooth, in my opinion, and supported well by the team at VW Mount Road.

The same day, the Nexa dealership manager visited my home and took the booking cancellation form from me. The booking amount of Rs.11,000 was refunded in full (after I objected to any deduction) to me in a few days time.

Here is my Taigun 1.0L Topline AT.

My family liked the car looks from the beginning, with its clean looks. May be the generous helping of chrome as well.

This photo was taken right after I parked the car at home.



These were the accessories that were 'mandatory'.



On a slightly cold morning in Yercaud.



All cleaned up, with doors and boot open! Just to give a perspective on size, since some of my folks thought it looked 'smallish' from the front.



The side view hints at the space that is available inside.



The front view, now with all doors and boot closed.



The view from the back. It looks very nice at night, according to my sons.



Front lights



Cladding texture and the gaps seems uniform (may have fixed it, as it was an issue before as I understand from 1.5L DSG report)



Some photos of interiors.

The rear doors can open real wide.



Center console looks neat. Notice the buttons for ventilated seats, but no-button, touch based controls for AC.



Cooled gloved box. Not too big, not tiny either.



The dead pedal is very comfortable for 6' person like me. Good spacing between brake and accelerator pedals.



The carbon fiber texture dashboard panel.



The plastic fit & finish on the inside of the front doors.



The exposed sunroof mechanism.




The driver side sunshade.



While seated in the back seat, a good inch of gap between my knee and the driver seat (which is adjusted for my height).



Usage patterns

Till date, the car has covered 1999km.

~120km - trip to Mahabalipuram
~690km - trip to Bengaluru
~740km - trip to Yercaud
Balance of ~449km - Shuttling between school, office and Home

The first 3 trips are not indicative of typical usage. I expect that much of the usage will be office runs. With looming lockdowns and hybrid model of working, I expect to do ~400kms or less in the next few months. But I do plan to take the car out on more road trips through the year.

[asmr]

Long Trip 1:

The first long trip was to Bengaluru from Chennai and back. Just me and 1 more passenger, with minimal baggage. We started at exactly 7:23 AM from my home and reached our destination at exactly 2:00 PM. This included a 30min stop for breakfast and a 20min deviation to get to a particular restaurant. I pushed my Taigun for performance on the onward journey. Mostly empty roads after Ranipet until almost near KRPuram.

Tank full to tank full mileage (don't have a picture for this leg) was approx. 13kmpl.

On the return leg, it was mostly on cruise between 80-100kmph on highways. I optimized for economy. Here's what I got on the MID as summary.



Long trip 2:

Just 2 days after Trip 1, we packed and left for Yercaud. Full house in the car. 3 adults + 2 children + baggage that filled the boot.



The onward drive was very smooth, with little bit of overtaking. The ghat sections were handled superbly, with the car facing no issues in D mode and bit more easier in S mode (longer time to upshift, quicker downshift). We got to our place of stay, did a full day tour of the town (which meant steep roads up and down), then the next day refilled the tank about 1hr in to the return journey.

Tank full to tank full mileage = 13.8kmpl. The MID showed 25+ kmpl average at one point in time when going down the ghat section, but that's just a vanity metric at this point.

I still drove very much in cruise mode where possible, hovering around 80kmph most of the time. Once we hit the rains, it was a different story. The car handled the rains well until it became really heavy. I had to slow down significantly due to poor visibility and then due to very heavy congestion on the roads in to Chennai. Still, the trip summary seemed good enough.



And the engine bay after the trip.




So, in summary, drive with a light foot, cruising as much as possible between 80-90kmph, not doing hard accelerations or braking (I switched to cruise only after I manually accelerated to the required speed) and the mileage will be good. Push the car to perform (and perform it will, fantastically!) and you will see that it gulps down petrol.

Ride observations:

I have noticed very little turbo lag and especially happens only when you decelerate down to slower speeds and the try to pick up pace quickly. Otherwise, this car can cruise at the speed you want without a hitch, with enough pulling power available on demand. It does get loud once the RPMs cross 3 or 4K. But I had to get there only a few times during the entire journey.

Just be careful - I didn't even notice the speed inching close to 115kmph in some sections when I was not on cruise mode. The cabin is silent enough and the visual impression will fool you on speed judgement. You may hold the RPM or the pedal but the speed ever so slowly kept going up. Not sure if this is an issue. But be careful on that part. Of course, once you touch 120kmph, the continuous warning beeps will be enough to make you slow down quickly.

There were more than few occasions where I had to brake hard. There were slow moving mini trucks that wanted to jump lanes, a two wheeler guy who thought he could make a U turn through the median hedge at night, a taxi driver who wanted me to slow down in the right lane so that he could overtake another vehicle with no change in his speed... the list goes on. But the car performed very well and was very nimble, responsive to steering, brake and accelerator inputs.

Air conditioning

If you leave it in auto mode, you might find that your back is getting slowly sweaty in hot climates. Switch on the seat ventilation and you should be fine. The blower fans are loud at their highest speed.

Visibility from inside the car

No issues with the front windshield, obviously. The IRVM is usable but could have been a bit bigger. Tall people in the back seat or filled trays will hamper rear visibility.



As for the side rear view mirrors, they could have been a bit bigger too. In my driving position, I found myself looking outside of the window to the sides and to the back few times since I couldn't get good views of vehicles coming up.





Niggles

Here's the wiper mark I mentioned early on.



This is not a niggle but makes me wonder "why?". Unusable, dummy sunglass holder.



There was a lot of squeaking from the doors when going on uneven roads, no matter the speed. This was however fixed during the first service.

After sales/ Service experience

The number plate was promptly delivered and fixed as promised. Still waiting for the physical RC smart card.

If anyone paid attention to the photos in the previous thread, you might have noticed the "I" missing from the "TSI" badge on the boot door. I noticed this the day after I took delivery. The dealer promised to get it fixed during my first free service, but someone screwed up the order and I am stuck with just "TS" till now. The free service experience was just so-so. I was not happy with the cleaning they did on the car, so they did a second wash and applied some waxing even though I said not to. And of course, they didn't get the TSI badge even after repeated reminders.

Let's see how the service experience is going forward.

That's all I had to share as of now. Please do share your comments, suggestions as well as criticisms.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[rideon74]

Congratulations on your new car! A concise, well articulated review there.

I read your review with a little extra interest since the Topline was the variant (in MT) that I'd opted for before swinging over to the Style variant in Kushaq. The very same colour too! The silver, in my opinion, is a classy colour for the Taigun.

Some of the points you've mentioned I found as well while doing TDs with the Taigun: looks kind of compact on the outside, but loads of space on the inside (ditto for the Kushaq) + very peppy engine characteristics + very refined AT + a wonderful dash console and interiors. All in all a good package.

The wipers being not upto the mark is same in my Kushaq as well - streaks appear when used in mild rains and a spray of the wiper fluid doesn't help much. I'm probably switching the blades by the next rains. Had mentioned this in my ownership review thread of my 1.0L MT.

And yes, both the VW-Skoda cars get thirsty if pushed hard...a wee bit noisy as well. I kind of like that roar heard from the 3 pot mill when revving up. It's the slightly noisy warm up thrum from the silencer that I found odd. I suppose the Taigun is the same? In fact, I'd asked the SVC guys when I'd went over yesterday if the slightly higher db levels of the silencer while initial idling was normal. They said it is. Not a real issue, anyhow.

So here's to fun filled, safe mile munching years ahead to you! Happy motoring!

[padmrajravi]

Congrats on the car. I am a big fan of Taigun's clean looks and rate it higher than Kushaq simply for the looks. Agree with your sons about the rear look at night. It looks unique. Taiguns have just started appearing on my part of the country, and just a week back, I followed one out of curiosity captivated by those rear lights, just to check which car it was.

Somehow VW seems to get their SUV looks right because of their clean lines compared to their Skoda counterparts. The same goes for Kodiaq vs Tiguan All Space too.

[asmr]

Originally Posted by rideon74

Congratulations on your new car! A concise, well articulated review there.

Thank you!

The wipers being not upto the mark is same in my Kushaq as well - streaks appear when used in mild rains and a spray of the wiper fluid doesn't help much. I'm probably switching the blades by the next rains. Had mentioned this in my ownership review thread of my 1.0L MT.

Agreed. The wiper fluid didn't help after a point. I will head over right now to your thread. But any idea on what options might be good for the wipers? Would switching to aeroblades work or would that bring issues with the service/warranty?

And yes, both the VW-Skoda cars get thirsty if pushed hard...a wee bit noisy as well. I kind of like that roar heard from the 3 pot mill when revving up. It's the slightly noisy warm up thrum from the silencer that I found odd. I suppose the Taigun is the same? In fact, I'd asked the SVC guys when I'd went over yesterday if the slightly higher db levels of the silencer while initial idling was normal. They said it is. Not a real issue, anyhow.

I have noticed the higher db levels when starting the car with an idle for about 15 to 30 seconds though for it me it came from just the engine itself. The radiator fan and the ACC (as per the SA) also adds to the noise level. But it becomes quite quiet after that.

So here's to fun filled, safe mile munching years ahead to you! Happy motoring!

Happy motoring to you too!

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

Congrats on the car. I am a big fan of Taigun's clean looks and rate it higher than Kushaq simply for the looks. Agree with your sons about the rear look at night. It looks unique. Taiguns have just started appearing on my part of the country, and just a week back, I followed one out of curiosity captivated by those rear lights, just to check which car it was.

Thanks! Yes, the rear is unique, almost like the Hector. It might have been better if it had slightly larger indicators at the rear but there is no dearth of visibility from the current LED ones. So, I guess this is just my Santro conditioning speaking.

In the month I have been having this car, I have seen just 3 other Taiguns on the road - 2 in Chennai and 1 on the highway. Interestingly, I believe there were 20+ Taiguns that were due for first service in the same time window as mine at the same dealership. So may be it is just a matter of time we will see lot more Taiguns on the road.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by asmr

[*]The ventilated seats. No explanation needed for this.[/list].

I thought the Taigun doesn't come with ventilated seats but Kushaq does.
Congratulations on your new ride!

[CEF_Beasts]

@Asmr, Congratulations on the Taigun, looks really nice in the silver and complements the 1L Topline alloys really well! Wishing you lakhs of happy kilometres.

Originally Posted by Guna

I thought the Taigun doesn't come with ventilated seats but Kushaq does.

IIRC, Taigun’s 1L Topline gets ventilated seats, it’s the GT Line 1.5L that doesn’t get them!

[yogesh.8984]

On road cost touching 2 million rupees for 999 cc 3 cylinder engine car! Am I missing something or prices have gone up so much in recent times. Kept hearing price hikes across various manufacturers due to commodity price rise and raise in various input costs. It seems buying a brand new car has become an expensive affair these days!

[arbardhan]

Originally Posted by asmr

I checked the pressure again and it was 33 in all tyres. Then, on consultation with the SA, I topped up the pressure to 38 in all tyres and then the warning disappeared.

Did they explain why ? My New VW polo was filled to almost 40psi. I went to a pump and got the pressure to 34 /36 Front / Rear. I am not sure If I should keep it higher than recommended 35/38

[rideon74]

Originally Posted by arbardhan

Did they explain why ? My New VW polo was filled to almost 40psi. I went to a pump and got the pressure to 34 /36 Front / Rear. I am not sure If I should keep it higher than recommended 35/38

Yes, it's very odd that the SVC would suggest that you must run on a higher psi to placate the TPMS warning system. Must admit I should've noted this point while going through your post earlier.

If you've followed the instructions to set the TPMS using the options menu - you know, fill the tyres up to the psi of your choice, head over to the option and press yes when asked if the tyre pressures are to be stored - then the TPMS warning must not light up. The TPMS system only acts up as per the stored value.

I use 33psi as I mostly drive solo in my Kushaq and till date, whenever I've set the TPMS after topping up the tyres, no warnings pop up unless the pressure has fallen below my stored value of 33.

Do investigate pronto please. The excess tyre pressure would not only lead to bumpier drives, it will cause strain on various bushes, etc. As it is, both our VW-Skoda twins come with slightly firm suspensions.

[asmr]

Originally Posted by arbardhan

Did they explain why ? My New VW polo was filled to almost 40psi. I went to a pump and got the pressure to 34 /36 Front / Rear. I am not sure If I should keep it higher than recommended 35/38

Originally Posted by rideon74

If you've followed the instructions to set the TPMS using the options menu - you know, fill the tyres up to the psi of your choice, head over to the option and press yes when asked if the tyre pressures are to be stored - then the TPMS warning must not light up. The TPMS system only acts up as per the stored value.

I would go with the recommended numbers. I didn't check the pressure for a few days after delivery, but mine was filled to 45 on all 4. Smooth roads formed the bulk of my journeys before the long trip. So, I guess it didn't even cross my mind that the pressure might have been off, initially.

The funny thing is, I don't remember setting the TPMS to 33 after correcting the tyre pressure but I vividly remember that the warning came up almost after 20+kms of running with 33psi on all tyres, and that too with a 6 hour break in the office parking lot.

But, you are right. I will see if I can get a better explanation from the service folks.

[Excommunicado]

Congrats asmr for buying this lovely car. We at our family are discussing whether to go for i20 N-Line N8 DCT or stretch the budget to Taigun 1.0 Topline AT.

I usually skim through TeamBHP reviews focusing on the highlighted points but this particular review, I read it properly till the end.

You should not claim that you are not a car enthusiast 'by any measure'. I hereby declare you to be a car enthusiast of some degree on behalf of fellow BHPians B-)

Taigun is a great car and anyone who is looking to buy a Creta in the upcoming 7 months should buy Taigun instead, reason being, first of all Creta is getting a facelift. So by the time customers get their car, there will already be a new Creta being unveiled simultaneously; not good. Secondly, Taigun > Creta in terms of safety. Safety and driving dynamics should be the primary focus of car purchasing process. I am glad that you had to somehow cancel Creta and ended up buying the Taigun. It is the right choice in my book. Double thumbs up to you!

[vasanthn21]

Originally Posted by yogesh.8984

On road cost touching 2 million rupees for 999 cc 3 cylinder engine car! Am I missing something or prices have gone up so much in recent times. Kept hearing price hikes across various manufacturers due to commodity price rise and raise in various input costs. It seems buying a brand new car has become an expensive affair these days!

I was also thinking on the same lines when I read this thread. 20 big one's for a 3 cylinder 999 cc engine seems a tad expensive. Pardon my ignorance, if I look at the dimensions, ground clearance, features available (sun-roof, ventilated seats etc), the price might be justified. Maybe I belong to the old school of thought which gives more importance to the engine than all other features!

Having said this, the car does look amazing, and a mileage of 16kmpl+ with a petrol engine is quite good. Congratulations on the purchase! Wishing you many miles of safe and hassle free ownership!

[TheHelix0202]

19L On Road! Not to go OT, but I can’t digest the fact that once upon a time, one could get a fully loaded Jetta for the same price as pseudo-SUVs nowadays; 3 cylinder ones at that. Unappealing.