re: Driven: The 2011 Volkswagen Passat Hi Everyone,
One and half years back I bought the VW Passat highline after seeing reviews in this forum. I thought of sharing why I went for this car and my ownership experience here so far.
When I decided to go for the highline variant everyone around me raised their eye brows saying the badge is not that worth it. One of the odds that I fought with my relatives and friends is I need a laid back car which gives me more features and comfort than badge value. Having said that I clearly understands how good 3series is as a driver's car.
Since I made the decision, I quickly booked the car at EVM Trivandrum. The initial sales experience with EVM was not that great with sales guy over promising to make a sale. I even went to cancel the booking since they could never keep the delivery dates after 4-5 changes. Since I was switching from Innova to Passat, I was expecting a much better treatment but lately I could understand no dealers in Kerala can give as much customer service like Nippon Toyota. On that bright day, the manager himself came and apologised and gave me a sixth delivery date which they did adhere to. Even on the delivery date, there were some issues like vehicle was not clean and I had to literally bump my head at the wall and told the manager they need to have better processes and systems if they need to survive in this market where expectations are high when buying a 30L car. When it comes to the service ( which I was very worried about ) it was a totally different experience and trivandrum EVM is really good.
For the past one and half years, I have clocked more than 15000 kilometers. The car has never given up. Some issues which I faced were
1. Getting adjusted initially to the start/stop system in hilly traffic areas. The engine cuts off and if the signal comes green that exact split second if you try to accelerate, there is a delay from the engine to start, the car will roll backwards and very likely you hit the vehicles on the rear. The first day, I almost hit a jetta on the rear. Best way to tackle this is, depress the brake to half which starts the engine, only after the engine is on then take leg from brake and go for accelerator. If it is hard to do it, switch off the Start/Stop completely when in hilly traffic or when there is a slope on the road.
2. Headlights gave me some issues since we cannot adjust the beam. Since I am a tall person I had to adjust it as one of my long drives from Trivandrum to Bangalore I could understand I need more visibility and had the guys in cochin EVM adjust it for me.
3.When you start and stop the vehicle, the wiper blades have a quick impulsive movement which is clearly not vibration, even the VW guys have no idea why that happens.
4. When I took the car for my first service, the only complaint I had was some rattling from the doors which they clearly fixed it and showed me over some really bad roads [call it gravel road with no Tar]. Again since the highline crosses in to the territory where the 3 germans rule, rattling I have never heard of from a merc owner so far.
5. Suspension gets a little harder over the run and the guys fixed it. They also complained to keep the air pressure to 32 since I drive solo most of the days. They mentioned the air pressure gauges in most of the fuel outlets are wrong. When I was in US, I bought an amazon essentials "digital pressure gauge" which also shows the dealer readings are wrong.
6. Automatic self parking works but I have used it only 4 times so far to show it to my friends. I can park the car in 10seconds while it will take more than a minute to do so with automatic parking. This feature is more of a marketing feature and I doubt whether any one uses it in India.
7. Even at high speeds I have always found the car to be responsive and always easy to handle.
8. Fuel economy always surprises me, something my friends with petrol accords are jealous of.
9. I have experienced excessive smoke from exhaust couple of times during monsoon but there were no big issues.
10. Ipod never works only option is Aux in. [Sales guy promised me Ipod support is there while making the sale]
11. A big lesson I learned was never to get the car repaired by anyone not authorised. My front tyre got punctured, it basically got cut on the side, I am expecting while steering it got cut because of a sharp stone or even nail. I had the local mobile puncture repair guy to come fix at my house. He removed the tyre and while putting back damaged a speed sensor which created a major hurdle the next day. Dashboard showed lit up like christmas lights, major functions like ABS, stability control, park brakes, reverse parking cameras, tyre pressure gauge all turned faulty. This was fixed next day by changing the speed sensor. Pirelli tyres are very expensive and currently I have the spare tyre for front. Dealer insists to change both front tyres and I am thinking of just having one new tyre for the spare wheel. I am thinking even about michelin or bridgestone for spare wheel instead of pirelli - can anyone help me with this decision?
So far I am very happy with the vehicle. Parking in the city is a nightmare, so I have my driver take me to city on my fiesta. I have never let anyone else drive the car since I love it like anything.
Only damage to the vehicle so far, some random car hit it on the front while it was parked in the city. The front sensors went inside the bumper and number plate got bend. Labor charge of 2000INR was charged for disassembling and assembling back the bumper. First service cost was 10000INR which is not bad considering its 15000kms or one year.
The thing I dont like about VW is - They dont have an extended warranty program for Passat yet. The sales guys and managers promised to most of the owners (including me) to make a sale but still this hasn't come yet.
Service & Maintenance from EVM Kerala is very good. Sales guys most of them have no clue what they are selling. When ever I take a new car, I always take in my hand one cd full of devotional songs. The way the sales guy tried to load it in the 6cd changer, I had to stop and show him how to do that. Also you get really surprising answers like cruise control is only for climbing the hills by setting the speed to 20.
Vehicles I test drove before taking Passat :
1. Skoda Superb - Very good car, more space in the rear but scared of Marikar service in Kerala. After hearing from fellow owners, I never want to go any where near them.
2. Merc C220d - Very good car, I was worried about maintenance costs also another 5lakhs to shed from pocket.
3. BWM 3 Series - New model was not available in India yet. Didn't want to buy one and months later guys rolling out with the new 3 series. Also I am scared about run flat tyres in Indian conditions.
I have seen about people trying methods to bring in needle sweep and similar functions. Would look forward to hear more on those. As of now I havent done any alteration.
Thanks,
Anoop Menon
Last edited by FlyingSpur : 13th June 2013 at 09:16.
Reason: Removing mention of high speeds
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