My VW Virtus GT: 5 pros & 5 cons observed over a year of ownership

The 1.5 TSI is a gem. I cannot find any petrol engine under 20L to be as explosive as the 1.5 TSI.

BHPian tsi_niks1989 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My Virtus GT completes 1 year:

It has been a wonderful year owning the Virtus GT which has now clocked 14277KMs. I got the annual service done today so thought I will share my experience about the car along with the service experience to our fellow enthusiasts.

When I picked up the GT last year, I was skeptical about the car in general based on the quality degradation talk of VAG 2.0 by many influencers on YouTube. After driving it for 1 year and close to 14.5k KMs I can say no other car available in the segment comes close to the VW sedans if you value performance, safety and comfort.

I would like to share some observations about the car in this 1 year.

Pros:

• Driving – This has to be the first advantage of buying any VAG product, the performance is brilliant, the 1.5 TSI is a gem. I cannot find any petrol engine under 20L to be as explosive as the 1.5TSI, the Hyundai group now has given a more powerful 1.5 but TBH the platform does not complement that engine. I never felt myself connecting to the Verna Turbo I test drove; it is not engaging like the VW twins.
• Safety – I never had second thought about safety before finalizing my decision on the Virtus. It is a VW so it is a given that it would score good on safety. Was very happy when the GNCAP ratings were out and the MQB-IN platform scored full 5 stars with the more stringent norms. Kudos to the group for not diluting fundamentals for the sake of gimmicks.
• Comfort – Moving from a Polo, rear seat comfort was one of the primary observations made by my family members during the test drives. It has the right balance of ride and handling; high speed manners are superb. The ground clearance may seem high for a sedan but it has not lowered down the handling of the car.
• Features – Yes, many might be surprised but VW has given enough usable features in the car. I never expected them to fill the car with features to the extent Hyundai/Kia do but then they don’t compromise on safety which is important. The best feature in the car is the seamless connection to the phones with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, you switch on the car and that’s it everything is ready. Infotainment is one of the best I have used, very responsive and easy to use.
• Fuel Efficiency – I have been getting a good 10-11 in heavy Pune traffic and a surprisingly 18-22 mileage on most of the highway drives. Fuel has always been XP95 till date. The 2-cyclinder mode gets on even for speeds more than 100 which is great in helping achieve more juice from the engine.

Cons:

• Camera – The quality of the reverse camera is below average; it does not seem to belong to a car costing more than 20L. The screen is not fully used when engaging the reverse gear which worsens the experience.
• Boot – The cover kept above the spare wheel in the boot is very flimsy similar to what I see in Japanese/Korean cars, this was better quality in earlier VWs including my Polo. Some area in the boot is not covered again unlike VW.
• Headlights – Low beams are good which serves most of the use-case but the high beam seems ineffective on expressways.
• Confused DSG – In traffic or low speed situations, the otherwise lighting quick DSG takes a hit and gets confused, sometimes revvs too high before changing gears upwards which leads to jerks. I have got into a habit now of switching to manual mode in traffic which has helped.
• Fit and Finish – The leather seats are very good and supportive but if you start seeing things a bit deeper which most of the BHPians do, you will find the finish similar to when you get a bucket seat cover fixed aftermarket. One more small thing, the vanity mirrors both driver and co-passenger side has the screws uncovered and visible, it was nicely covered in the Polo.

Apart from the above observations, I have not faced any issues with the AC from day 1. It takes a minute or two more than Korean or Japanese but does the job. The car has no rattles as of date.

Now coming to the annual service, I had the service pack for 4 years so no payment done for the service but paid 1308 INR as I got bonnet insulation done. Overall, the experience has been very good with the car and surely recommend to anyone looking for a mechanically connected car rather than remotely.

Some pictures of our favourite performance machine in the house:

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

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