It made sense to go for 1.5L TSI engine & DSG automatic because I was fed up of driving a manual in Bangalore traffic.
BHPian adith97 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Choice of car
I was looking to buy my first new car as my old car, which was my father’s Duster, had become too old. I wanted to buy a sedan because growing up, we had City & Verna in our family which I absolutely loved driving. Comfort & performance wise, I feel sedans are the best. Plus I just got married & it is a small family, just me & my wife. This is the best time to have a sedan. I can always upgrade to an SUV once my family grows.
Unfortunately today there aren’t many options in the C segment. We only have Virtus, Slavia, Verna and City. I shortlisted Verna & Virtus after the first round of test driving. I am 6ft 3in height & I was worried sedans won’t fit me.
But except City, both Virtus & Verna were quite comfortable. I had to keep the seat at its lowest position.
Verna feels a lot more spacious inside & has a ton of features like ADAS, lane keep assist, collision warning etc etc, which honestly I don’t care for. Virtus, on the other hand, is a lot less spacious. Two people can sit comfortably in the second row, not more than that. Three for short distances only. I selected the 1.5L turbo petrol engine in both the cars.
I did two more test drives on both the cars. I requested for a long test drive the third time on a highway & that sealed my decision.
Virtus on highways is an absolute beast! Once you hit that sport mode, the car just pulls you like anything. Pair that with the DSG gearbox with almost instantaneous shifts, it makes you want to reach illegal speeds. The car asks you to press more. The handling, cornering, brakes are top class. Verna is almost equally good but Virtus was a level above. My only concern was the DSG DQ200 gearbox which has had a lot of issues in the past but it seems they have refined it to make it more reliable.
My driving use was 60% highways, mostly trips to Chennai from Bangalore & 40% city, office commute 2-3 days a week. So it made sense to go for 1.5L TSI engine & DSG automatic because I was fed up of driving a manual in Bangalore traffic.
Variant
Virtus has two lines- one for the 1L TSI engine called Comfort line & one for the 1.5L TSI engine called Dynamic Line. Within these two lines, they have variants.
In Dynamic Line, there are primarily two variants – GT & GT Plus.
The only important difference is that GT comes with 2 airbags while GT Plus has 6 airbags. Apart from that, GT Plus also has sunroof (I don’t like them), ventilated seats, electric adjustable seats, rain sensing vipers, automatic headlamps, cruise control etc.
Virtus has 5 star safety rating with 2 airbags itself. So I went ahead with GT variant itself as I don’t care for any of the other features.
Dealership Experience
I bought the car at KUN Volkswagen dealer, JP Nagar. The experience was decent. They were not very proactive in following up. I always had to call them up & follow up for everything.
- I bargained a lot with them to get discounts. I told them that I would take insurance outside, after which they reduced it significantly all the way from around 80k to 40k. This included bumper to bumper zero depreciation, Engine protect, Cost of consumables, Return to invoice, NCB etc.I also sold my Duster to KUN motors, for which I bargained too & got a 20K exchange bonus. I thought the price was a little low compared to if I had sold outside in Cars24 or Spinny. But the process was smooth & hassle free, the amount directly went as downpayment. So I just did it.
- I also got extended warranty & standard accessories free as well.
- Another thing I checked was the road tax between KA & TN. I thought if it was significantly less, I would get it registered in TN. But turns out, it is pretty close to KA & the difference was a mere 10K. It wasn’t worth it, so I did it in KA itself.
- The car was in stock already & was handed over to me in two weeks. I had told them that I would buy only if the car was in stock & that I would go to another dealer if I had to wait. I didn’t like waiting for the car.
- I requested for a PDI before the car was sent to registration, which they allowed. The sales person rushed me during the PDI as he had other work but I took my sweet little time to do it.
- The delivery was done smoothly with no issues, with a cake & the car reveal.
Driving/Ownership Experience – 2000kms
It has been one month since the delivery & I have driven almost 2000Kms.
Pros
- Vehicle performance is amazing. It is a joy to push this 1.5L beast of an engine. As mentioned above, it clocks high speeds without breaking a sweat. Handling, cornering is amazing. I keep wanting to take it out for a drive.
- Gear shifts are instantaneous with DSG gearbox.
- Amazing brakes. Gives you confidence to go at high speeds.
- Silent cabin.
- Good steering control.
- Amazing ground clearance for a sedan. Never had to worry about the bottom hitting the road.
- 5 star safety rating. You can feel the build quality with the door thud.
- Decent mileage. Better than expected really. As an experiment, I drove light footed & maintained 100Km/hr through one long drive. I got 17kms/l. Generally I get around 10 in highways, which is mainly due to the speeds I go at.
- Huge boot space is very practical.
- Looks gorgeous. I think this is the best looking car in this segment
- AC is very effective. Looks like they have fixed the AC issues now. It is effective even in Chennai.
- Fabric seats are really comfortable.
- Red themed interior looks classy. Ambient red lighting looks cool as well. Lot of space is nice.
- Warning sound after 120 is not that intrusive. With music, you won’t even hear it.
- Infotainment system with Android auto is good & useful.
- Volkswagen app is nice. Tells the location of the car as well as if the engine is switched on or off. Has a theft informing system too.
- Music system is good.
- Vehicle has built a reputation as an enthusiast car. Whenever I tell anyone that I have bought Virtus, they are always surprised & say what a good car it is.
Cons
- DSG gearbox in bumper to bumper traffic is a pain. There is the known DSG lag at low speeds plus it gets real confused between 1st & 2nd gear. It is also known to heat up a lot in such traffic. I think people who primarily drive inside cities should think a lot before getting DSG.
- Transitioning to automatic has been frustrating at times. This is a personal issue. After being a manual driver for the past 10 years, with the DSG issues mentioned above, I feel like I have no control over the car. It is just driving itself. I guess, with time, I will get used to it.
- Automatic start stop system is absolute rubbish. I always switch if off as soon as I start. It is tuned so aggressively that the engine switches off even for speed breakers.
- I feel the suspension is a little stiff. Not sure if it is just me.
- There is a small noise that comes from the brake pedal when I disengage it. I asked the service person at VW & they said that it is expected. But I am pretty sure it wasn’t there initially.
- My wife calls this car “the kidnap car”. It is because the lock/unlock functionality for all the doors is with the driver. The passengers can’t unlock their doors themselves.
- Boot door doesn’t stay put. You have to open it all the way up for it stay put. Have gotten hit a couple of times already.
- Occasionally android auto gets disconnected. But this has been very very rare.
Overall, I am very satisfied with the car so far & I can’t wait to keep driving it.
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