My honeymoon period with my Virtus GT Edge ended thanks to rats

The car was parked in the basement for over a week. When I returned, it started with the EPS and Check Engine light on.

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Virtus GT Edge MT: Ownership review and tryst with service

After a long persistent itch to own a TSI, I finally booked a VW Virtus GT EDGE edition (MT - as I wanted that; Black - for the rest of the family).

The car was booked at KUN VW, OMR, Chennai in July 2023 and after a wait of ~3 months, was delivered in Oct 2023.

A bit of background (mine and search for a new car)

I love spending time with the vehicles - cars as well as motorcycles. Over the last one and a half decades, have worked with Auto OEs and consulting firms to learn more about the Industry. The work has taken me to almost all major cities (Pune, NCR, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai) and now for the last 2 years have found my peace in Chennai.

So far we sailed through one Baleno (2017), a Thunderbird (2015 - itching for an upgrade here as well) and custody of a 2002 Bullet 350.

Given the rising dust levels (ongoing construction in Chennai) and of course - the itch to add a new car to the Garage, I started exploring the options.

Search for a new car

It was simply head vs heart for us. The last time the head won was when we took Baleno over Polo GT TSI. I was not sure about the prospects of having a VW as a single car in the household and thus went for bulletproof reliability (in the budget of course).

The Baleno has served us well and taken us to multiple long trips across KA, KL, TN, AP, TS, GA, MH, GJ, MP clocking almost 60k kms since the end of 2017. Even now - notwithstanding the build quality, and rattles - it runs flawlessly.

But the heart was yearning for its comeback, and we started looking for a new car. Virtus managed to win the close contest with New Verna (very close), Seltos, and Grand Vitara. I didn't consider Slavia, Creta and Hyryder as we have them in the family. Taigun and Kushaq were ruled out based on the boot space on offer (we travel with kids - so the more the merrier).

Ownership experience for first 2k km

Must say the car stands out from the rest and in the Black color it looks quite differentiated. I got the ceramic coating done as wanted to preserve the looks and PPF was out of budget.

Since the day I got the car - the runs to Mahabalipuram & ECR have become more frequent and we enjoyed every bit of it.

I took the car to Bangalore and Chikaballapur with a full family load and was positively surprised by the road manners at highway speeds.

The factors which stood out are - High-speed stability, Good grunt from the engine from 1,500 rpm, Space, Road presence, Decent ride quality (Post breakfast backseat test - passed), good music system (subwoofer and amplifier), and ventilated seats noisy though.

There are rough edges which are already highlighted on this forum - Suspension makes noise over bumps, Interior plastic quality, sub-par Rear view camera and lack of a few features (front park sensors etc.)

One big miss which I feel is the lack of UV cut glasses. The Baleno has it, but a car which is twice as expensive and premium doesn't. Despite understanding the laws of the land, have installed 70% VLT films on the glasses (Moto Hunger Brand). Cops will catch one day, Mr. Sun will do it every day.

An abrupt end to Honeymoon

So the honeymoon period was going well, till the time I had to travel out for a week leaving the car in the Basement. Dec 7 2023, I parked the car after returning from the office in the evening. Dec 18 2023, I checked the car in the morning again.

One heartless Mr. Rat got into the bonnet - leaving all other cars in the vicinity - and decided to chew and chew more.

When I got back the car started with EPS and Check engine light on. I opened the bonnet to check and found the remnants of the feast that the son of a rat had. While major wires seemed intact, the cover across the battery was almost gone. I tried to take the car out of the parking to the podium (sensing a need for Tow) and reversed it. But the engine died and didn't start afterwards.

That's when the ghost of the infamous After Sales & Service showed up at first sight. Called RSA for a tow and explained that the battery and other systems are working. But who am I to judge, they sent a battery technician with jump-start cables!

Nevertheless, he tried and checked the battery and thus a check box was completed. Since then, for the last 4 days (Dec 18-22) I have been playing tiki-taka with RSA, Service center, Service center head, and CRM while the car is standing as is with no sight of the tow truck.

There is a Catch-22 situation though:

• The RSA (Europ Assistance) asks for 24 hours every day and then doesn't respond. Further, they also said - they don't have tow trucks and can't pick up the vehicle from the basement.
• The service center (KUN VW) is unable to send a technician to repair the vehicle so that it can be driven to the service center.
• Clearly, I am not a Baahubali who can pull the car from Basement 2 to the podium. Heck, I can't even push my Enfields up the basement.

So I am following up and keeping an eye out for growing wildlife in the car.

Still waiting to hear from RSA or the service center on the way forward.

But one thing amused me (negatively) that I have to coordinate between RSA, service center and VW CRM. Shouldn't VW have one to one interface with customers for all the queries?

Will keep the thread updated on how we get the Black Panther back on the road. Any suggestions or leads or help on taking this forward are most welcome.

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