An Automatic Fun to Drive Car

[NiXTriX]

Hello
I am in a quandary and would like some help in decided the next car for our family.
The requirements are as follows.

> Budget: 9-10 Lakhs

> New or Used: New Car

> Your Location: Bangalore

> Top Five Priorities: Automatic (No compromise), Fun to Drive and low running/operational costs

> Monthly Running: Around 1000 kms

> Type of Fuel: Doesn't matter

> For What Purpose: Commuter for mother and weekend fun for me.

> Seating Capacity: 4 (We are a family of 3)

> Type of Segment: No preference

Based on the requirements I have short-listed Tata Zest XTA and the Volkswagen Polo GT Tsi.

The conundrum is thus.
The Zest is the practical car and suits most of my requirements to perfection. However, the small niggles reported by owners has put me off. This is more of a problem since the Tata service stations aren't considered the best.

The VW GT Tsi is a fun to drive car and would also meet most of my requirements. However, the reports of expensive parts, DSG failures, and unreliable service stations has me worried.

I would be grateful if the owners of these two vehicles could add their feedback.

I have considered and dropped Maruti cars for the safety aspect (everyday use will be by my mother) and Honda cars for less than pleasing interiors.

 

[Prads]

Well your needs scream out for the Polo. There are two in my friends group & it feels premium. Makes me feel like i am driving a 20 lakh segment car because of the DSG alone. Palace cross Vw seems decent in handling issue but service centre is peenya side.
Felt the sports mode is over cooked & no one will want it too much.
The TSI engine is sensitive to bad quality petrol which is expected. So as long as you fill at a good pump you can avoid it. As for DSG on the polo not heard anything of yet. And surprisingly none available on used car websites when i last checked. So maybe anyone who owns it doesnt want to sell it.

 

[NiXTriX]

Well your needs scream out for the Polo. There are two in my friends group & it feels premium. Makes me feel like i am driving a 20 lakh segment car because of the DSG alone. Palace cross Vw seems decent in handling issue but service centre is peenya side.
Felt the sports mode is over cooked & no one will want it too much.
The TSI engine is sensitive to bad quality petrol which is expected. So as long as you fill at a good pump you can avoid it. As for DSG on the polo not heard anything of yet. And surprisingly none available on used car websites when i last checked. So maybe anyone who owns it doesnt want to sell it.

Thanks for your reply Prads.
Do you know how good Elite motors is to deal with? I stay in the south side of Bangalore so this would be the closest service station.
You are right. Although there seem to a few GT TDI's available preowned, I couldn't find one GT Tsi. However, there are a few reliability concerns about the DSG shared on another forum.

 

[Storme_on_d_way]

Have you considered Ford Ecosport automatic? I guess that should suit your requirements as its part availability/ pricing is not a problem either.

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

POLO GT TSI is best in segement,its tuned to enthusiast taste.

 

[Music_Swift]

Nikhil,go for Polo GT TSI as the engine is hoot to drive due to DSG box.However VW service is poor but my service experience with VW in Hyderabad is great.And we are also in same situation whether we should buy Automatic or Manual because traffic in city is increasing.

 

[NiXTriX]

Have you considered Ford Ecosport automatic? I guess that should suit your requirements as its part availability/ pricing is not a problem either.

I have not considered the Ecosport. The Automatic version is over my budget in Bangalore.

POLO GT TSI is best in segement,its tuned to enthusiast taste.

No doubt. But I worry if it practical and reliable. I do not want to spend lots of time and money on its upkeep.

Nikhil,go for Polo GT TSI as the engine is hoot to drive due to DSG box.However VW service is poor but my service experience with VW in Hyderabad is great.And we are also in same situation whether we should buy Automatic or Manual because traffic in city is increasing.

Good to know your experience with VW is good.
On these forums it is usually the complaints that are more visible than good feedback. Hence, we tend to get a distorted view.


I am planning to take a test drive of both the vehicles tomorrow.

 

[CARleone]

VW Polo GT TSI Period. The latest DSG are prone free. New DSG seems to be good. Its not one of the , But the only one best Fun to drive Automatic in the price range.

-CARleone

 

[Surfer]

The Zest is the practical car and suits most of my requirements to perfection. However, the small niggles reported by owners has put me off. This is more of a problem since the Tata service stations aren't considered the best.

Do you think WV service is good ?

My suggestion is Zest . 2 of my friends enjoying zest from last 6 months without any issues.

PS : Its not fun to drive though.

 

[nishant5858]

No doubt. But I worry if it practical and reliable. I do not want to spend lots of time and money on its upkeep.

Practical & Reliable, these can only be satisfied by Honda Jazz, I am surprised you have neglected it without even seeing & driving it. Light build aside, it is well put together and will hold well over the years. I have Brio & plastics inside don't rattle at all while my i20 rattles on less then perfect roads. Interiors of i20 are well finished but build quality isn't great. If its great, plastics shouldn't rattle, which isn't the case with i20 here. Polo TSi is very good but you'll loose Practicality & Reliability.

 

[NiXTriX]

Do you think WV service is good ?

My suggestion is Zest . 2 of my friends enjoying zest from last 6 months without any issues.

PS : Its not fun to drive though.

Thank you for the feedback. That's a let down. My previous car clocked 17000 kms in 6 years precisely for this reason. My bike on the other hand covered twice as much in half the time on highways.

Practical & Reliable, these can only be satisfied by Honda Jazz, I am surprised you have neglected it without even seeing & driving it. Light build aside, it is well put together and will hold well over the years. I have Brio & plastics inside don't rattle at all while my i20 rattles on less then perfect roads. Interiors of i20 are well finished but build quality isn't great. If its great, plastics shouldn't rattle, which isn't the case with i20 here. Polo TSi is very good but you'll loose Practicality & Reliability.

Somehow the interiors of the Honda cars just didn't appeal to me. No offence. Just my preference.
I will have to consider the Ford Aspire too as they seem to be launching the AT version as well.

 

[vikyjoshi]

Check the Zest. I have TD it and found is really good for a city/highway cruiser. I have not checked the polo so cannot comment on it however, by the word goes, it is a very good car.
you may also want to take a look at Punto. (you dont yet have an AT version but still its a worthy car to look at) and then may be bolt revotron.

 

[nmm mithra]

Zest AT will be much comfortable than the polo in terms of seating, polo is a much fun to drive car but it lacks interior space when it is compared with the Zest. And Zest will be a VFM package than the polo with its features like changing from city mode to sport mode, etc. And you could save your money with the AMC Gold plans when you have considered to buy the Zest.

And what is the other car you have?

 

[Prads]

Thanks for your reply Prads.
Do you know how good Elite motors is to deal with? I stay in the south side of Bangalore so this would be the closest service station.
You are right. Although there seem to a few GT TDI's available preowned, I couldn't find one GT Tsi. However, there are a few reliability concerns about the DSG shared on another forum.

Looks like alot of members have pitched in to suggest & am glad to see that!
Gt TDI is same previous Vento 1.6 nothing special there in comparison to current 1.5 diesel & manual gearbox(if i remember right) .

DSG has always had a question mark over it thanks to its expensive service bills.But wrong to assume all give up soon,guess north of 60000 kms you should see possibility of service required. Some Bmw cars in used market have estimation gearbox bills running to 7 lakhs. So its an unavoidable fact about automatics especially in high stress environment like India.
Any automatic will also need constant brake pad replacements,so low maintenance & automatics especially fun ones dont sit in the same sentence.
As for Elite motors is Downtown VW i guess,had to block the showroom entrance with my aunts Vento(which had a weird shift pattern initially until gearbox was replaced) cos it would fail to engage reverse as it was a repeat problem & finally they refused to change gearbox under warranty.They finally did replace after this stunt & yelling cos they had to do circus to move it out of the way.It was a few years back so dont know about the way they go about now days.
My friend would get on to nice road & have a straight drive to Peenya area for the palace cross service center & usually take a pick & drop facility,i would go with him.It was a Passat & although service is slow they did the work well & replaced things under warranty without any fuss.

One thing with VW or Skoda showrooms dont expect them to kiss your feet like other showrooms.
The Ecosport DSG seems to be a decent choice but its DSG is not on level with the Polo as i had read in a magazine once. I know you said new one only & its out of your budget. But if your willing you could find under 10k run cars for under 9 lakhs easily.

I dont know much about the Zest Amt variants yet but the car certainly suffers from image factor,but if your fine with that then take a test drive. Let me tell you there are rumours that it will take the future taxi by storm & some consider that a turn off.

 

[Storme_on_d_way]

I was blown away by the polo DSG's performance too but its the long term reliability that we need to look at. It has not seen even one year on polo/vento yet. Earlier the DSGs usually failed after the warranty got over, burning a substantially big hole in the buyers pocket. They claim to have tweaked it but at the end of the day, its the same DSG and the reliability is yet to be proven.