Volkswagen Vento TSI long term review first report

Time for a confession. VW’s turbo-petrol-powered Vento has been part of the Autocar India fleet for some time now — in fact, it has over 8,000km on its odometer — and we’re only now bringing you the first report of its time with us. There’s a good reason for this though. The car has just been so popular with the Autocar crew that everyone has had a go in it, but no single person has spent enough time with it. Until now, as I finally decided to be a bit greedy and hold on to the keys for a week-long spell.

This car came in to replace our long-term VW Polo GT TSI, a car that we absolutely loved throughout its time with us. And since the two share the same basic mechanicals and powertrain, I imagined things would be pretty much the same in the Vento TSI. And for the most part, they are.

There’s that same sense of solidity to the way everything works that other cars in this class just don’t have — although it should be said that it’s still a far cry from bigger VWs like the Jetta. It’s in the way the doors shut so reassuringly, the way the stalks click firmly into place, the stereo buttons that are so nicely damped and the tight fit and finish. And there are a few little touches that don’t mean much in isolation and aren’t necessarily unique to this car, but are just nice to have when you need them. Stuff like having one-touch operation for all four windows, for when a badly planned toll booth collects your money on the passenger side. Or even the boot release switch on the key fob for when you’ve accidentally shopped too much at the mall.

But then there are niggles from the Polo GT TSI that have also managed to manifest themselves in its sedan sibling, most notably the electronics, which have started acting up. Our Polo’s Bluetooth music playback used to be a problem, but the telephony worked fine; here, it’s the opposite. The music hasn’t skipped a beat yet, but try to answer a phone call and the microphone often just goes off without warning. Then there’s electronic AC controls — there’s a long delay between turning the fan speed knob and the fan’s speed increasing. And even though we’re having exceptionally hot days in Mumbai right now, the AC clearly doesn’t cool the cabin as well as it did when we’d just got the car. The windscreen is also prone to fogging up, irrespective of which setting you have the aircon in.