VW Virtus GT ownership: Drive impressions after a few modifications

With the updates on the steering and vectoring, done during the coding, the car is so much more fun to drive.

BHPian vinodbollini recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

So our (Wild Cherry) Red Virtus GT Plus DSG came home a few months ago!

Before I talk about our story, a huge shoutout to all the folks on this thread, and otherwise on the forum: I have spent hours learning from your adventures.

Super thanks!

And also for some context, this was my last car:

Polo GT (Ritu - My 2014 VW Polo GT TSI Update: SOLD!)

Now back to the main attraction.

We booked the car from VW Downtown, Prabhadevi and super happy with them accommodating all the requests that I had, including the weird ones. They already had an August manufactured car, so it was all moving super quick. I did the entire process remotely, and almost everything was clear and smooth.

Did a PDI at their Sewri workshop a week before the handover. Had to send a friend for this, and he was very thorough. I have my own advanced checklist, so this process was painful for my friend, but thankfully straightforward. Grateful to him for doing this!

Purchase and Delivery

This is the first time I was taking delivery of a car in the monsoon, and I wanted to get the car to the detailer ASAP. So I was in a hurry and everything seemed to move so slow. The unveiling was with a wet cover, and ironically the silhouette looked quite good under that drenched cover.

As for the purchase, here are the things I included apart from the car, registration, etc.:

• Insurance - they matched my quote, and got me Tata AIG which I am happy with
• Extended Warranty up to year 6 (VW has an official discount on this) - will extend this to 7th year later
• Specifically these genuine VW accessories and nothing else (and not the standard pack)

1. Hood Insulation - 5JN-863-831
2. Sun Blinds for Rear Windscreen - 5JP-064-361
3. Sun Blinds for Windows - 5JP-064-364
4. Textile Boot Mat - 5JP-061-210
5. 3D Rubber Floor Mats - 5JP-061-500-A
6. Mud Flaps - 5JP-075-110
7. Bag Hooks - 000-061-126-B (Eventually did not get this, since it never arrived from the factory)

I did not take the service value packs, for these reasons:

• Totalled up the costs on the VW site, and there was not much of a difference - ~2-3K more when paying directly, without accounting for future inflation
• I am very particular about what is done in the service, and I don't like the dealership changing the wheel alignment, or other seemingly easy but high skill jobs; so I feel more in control paying at the time of service
• I will probably upgrade brake disks, calipers and wipers anyway to better ones, and a better replacement battery
• I also would like to change to better oils/filters so might not always use the VW parts
• I end up driving a lot, so might anyway need to do services more frequently than normal

The folks at Downtown also accommodated my requests to have absolutely nothing fitted, stuck or applied on the car, so that my detailer could get everything virgin to work on.

After taking possession of the car, drove around to the IOC petrol pump and filled up with XP95. Mostly crawled to Opera House to pick up a pair of Osram H8s (50w x2, 6000K) to replace the stock 35w halogen fog lights. Got these from Harsh Auto, who I located by coming down the chain from Osram Germany.

Unfortunately an extremely rowdy two wheeler dinged the back of the car and the rear bumper has a little scratch. Other folks say that you have to pay close attention to notice it, but it's big enough to be grating inside my head. Will be a few months before I get this out of my head, or maybe never.

Next took the car to Saifee in Santa Cruz for an upgrade to the shoes.

I had pre-ordered a set of Momo Revenge Matt Black 16in alloys, and got it delivered to them a few days earlier - since they could not find it within their own network. Shod those with Continental UC6, 205/55/R16. The Momo package was missing the spacers, but the Saifee folks had them. The only thing I was a bit scared of was that the car was not on a hydraulic lift - the old school stands made me very uncomfortable. But overall super-fun with the crew there, and a few laughs also.

The stock tyres were noisy, and uncomfortable, and possibly over inflated. So the change up was even more evident. Got the new wheels balanced but due the festivities on the roads, could not get alignment done. Shelved that for after the detailing.

Then took the car to Redline Autohaus and got some features coded/unlocked. I had sent the list in advance, and while there's not much new to say, I did a lot of functional things and decided not to do some of the vanity ones. Had compiled the list from this thread and a bunch of YouTube videos.

And then took the car to Optimum Detailerz and dropped it off. It was a bit late, but they rightly wanted a cold engine in the morning so they could start their work immediately. I had already got instructions from them on what to avoid during delivery of the car - and except for the front number plate, there was nothing else on the car, not even the stickers on the windshield.

I wanted to do a de-chrome, but dropped the idea eventually. Scared of taking out the bumper(s) and generally averse to the idea of an irreversible change.
Will live with the bling-bling!

Set the car up for STEK Dynoshield PPF for the whole car, including my dinged bumper, and STEK NEX70 window film.

Also set-up a car accessories fitter to come and install the fog-lights I had bought and do the cabling for my Viofo A139 PRO 4K single channel dash cam. For the dash cam, I had pre-ordered and tested the camera, to make sure what cable types work, and wanted it set up with a USB-C to USB-C cable that is powered the USB-C port in the centre console. I also intend to use this cable end to "transfer data" to my laptop. This does not work, so used the cigarette lighter adapter initially. Eventually, I just hardwired and added the rear camera.

I have spent more than my share of time researching the choices I made. So AMA about:

• Osram H8s
• Continental UC6s and touring tyres
• Momo's in India
• Coding VWs, particularly the XDS+ and steering response settings
• PPF, Ceramic, Window Film - particularly STEK
• 4K Dashcams, Viofo in particular
• BH series registration

Also later I have added a few things

• Osram LEDguardian Saver Light Plus: Emergency light, seatbelt cutter, hammer with magnetic attachment
• Rear Camera and Hardwire Kit for the Dashcam
• 3M Noodle mats for the 4 footwells
• VW Original Scuff Plates
• A small dustbin
• Hamaan wipers
• Eureka Forbes Firegaurd Fire-extinguisher
• Bosch Easy Pump Inflator

I have also added a set of jump start leads, and list of cleaning stuff that I put together from Amol at Optimum Detailerz. Apart from the Fastag and the registration sticker, the other society stickers are on a transparent film so that I don't have to scrape of the stickers from the film.

Driving it around

We started with a drive down from Mumbai to Bangalore on October 1. Drove sedately, in keeping with what the manual stated - all the way till the ODO hit 1,500 a few days later. Then opened up a bit on the way back from a trip to Chennai.

We have now done about 11,500 km in less than 3 months. So living up to the GT in the badge! Done Bangalore-Mumbai a couple of times, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, multiple trips from Bangalore to Chennai and Hyderabad. Some of these with 5 people on board also. The car is comfortable spacious tourer. Among family and friends, those who thought we should buy an “SUV”, have all come around to the comfort and fun of a sedan that doesn’t bounce around and drives well.

Driving sedately I have peaked at between 22-23 kmpl. But it is really hard to resist the temptation to have fun. Most of your trips are around the 18 kmpl mark. When I really decide to give it the beans, I have done about 16-17kpml as well.

The 2 cylinder mode is a huge plus for me, and I now have a sense of what it takes to put the car in sipper mode when cruising.

In the city, on cold start short runs (<5-6 km) I tend to get 9-10 kmpl. But for longer runs, it gets up to ~13kmpl.

I think I have a predictable formula for how the fuel efficiency varies with average speed over a journey, but will validate this with a bit more city running this month.

With the updates on the steering and vectoring, done during the coding, the car is so much more fund to drive. Have never really worried about an overtake. I also switch in to S a few times to just keep the engine on boil when in a ghat.

Some things I have discovered and loved over the many miles driven:

• The spare tyre well has enough storage so that I can keep all my cleaning, emergency stuff
• Have used and loved the tyre angle and fuel-to-fill indicator
• The seat ventilation is such a massive difference in comfort
• The slight driver orientation on the head-unit and controls is small tweak but awesome
• The cruise control with its 10km increments is perfect, when you can find the roads for cruising, the cruise control is also not aggressive on the throttle and braking
• The film on the car has been a life saver already against rock chips and foliage, and minor skirmishes
• The film on the glass is just a huge plus for comfort when driving in the sun

Of course there is so much more I love about the car, but there’s enough that people have said about it, so not going into the details here.

A few things I don’t like:

• The auto-start stop is a bit aggressive to cutout sometimes, and in start-stop crawl, I actually disable it. The big problem is that the button is right next to the actually start stop button, so have accidentally turned off the engine a couple of times in the early days.
• The gear box does get a bit jerky occasionally in crawling traffic initially, but the foot has learned the ways of the car, and this is not longer an issue.
• The boot lid does not open fully with the springs and needs a further push, it actually drops down a bit and hit my head a couple of times
• The harder plastics in the bottle storage are mean that there is a little bit of noise from rattling some times, and I am planning to damp this with some 3M furniture damping tape
• The rain sensing wipers are not perfect and about 10% of the time, I have to toggle up the wipers to make them react appropriately

I got the first inspection done at 1,200 km, because of the long distance travelling happening, and was a really neat experience at VW Whitefield. I could not get the 7,500 km inspection done yet, again because of the touring around, but will get it done now. Also tried to get a wheel alignment done, but the shop did not have the Virtus in the list of cars in the software - will get this done after the inspection. Have pre-emptively done an oil change at 7500km, which is my benchmark interval for oil changes to protect from the grubby fuel quality in India. Also needs a decontamination run for the film from all the travelling dust.

Overall, this car has brought many smiles over 3 months. It has arguably been one of the most joyful things in our lives this year. It’s a stunner that keeps turning heads wherever we go, and I love how much bang for the buck this is

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