Marco-Polo (Long Termer Report 2)

Last Report Date: 05 August 2010
Current Odo reading: 9900
Kms driven since last report: 901

Overall economy: 17.1kpl
Best: 19.3kpl
Worst: 14.4kpl

Problems so far: Car needs a new alloy (see last post), Driver's side power window auto-down has stopped working.

After 6,389kms of driving the Polo still feels solid. However we can't say the same for that poor alloy!

Our beloved MarcoPolo is certainly getting its fair share of driving and we took the car out on a jaunt amidst the clouds. Besides braving the potholes that already exist in the city (299 according to the BMC in Mumbai and probably thrice that number in the nearby suburb of Thane) we found out just how the car handles in these non-changing, moon crater-like Indian road conditions. The car has only clocked 700 more kilometres since the last major post since we’ve been bust driving other Volkswagens – the Vento. (Quite a nice car really. We loved the diesel!)

The Polo saw some action with the clouds over a weekend getaway.

So with largely city use and a weekend getaway only the car hasn’t clocked too much. It’s been idling in the horrendous monsoon traffic jams and it’s free spirit was only let loose when it saw the expressway. Once out of the city though the ride on the Polo is as good as it gets. There is absolutely no doubt that the ride quality that the Polo offers is amazing, but the car is certainly not meant for five fully grown adults. We have already mentioned as to how the rear seat of the car lacks space, especially if you have tall front occupants. For journeys that last many hours, the person sitting behind, has a tough time because; a) there is not much leg room b) three people cannot squeeze in the car with ease and c) With three people at the back, the ground clearance is further reduced.

Mudflaps a welcome addition but tend to scrape almost all speed breakers. A nightmare when fully laden.

We noticed that the mudflaps, recently added by Volkswagen before the onset of the monsoon, touched every speed-breaker we took, however slowly. Also with the car at full capacity, Marco Polo had no respite from gargantuan speed breakers which do tend to scrape the underbelly in spite of trying everything – from going diagonally across a speed breaker to making two passengers climb out. The Polo, is really a great highway cruiser but this last couple of weeks, we’ve been hesitating to cross the 100 kph mark because of the spare tyre – which is now sitting on the front right axle after our encounter with the rim-bending pothole. The spare in the car was a 175/70 R14 compared to the other tyres (on the Highline) which are 185/60 R15 shod on those pretty alloy wheels.

Marco-Polo looks miserable without the alloy up-front :-(

We’ll be visiting the neighbourhood Volkswagen dealership again this week to pick up an alloy wheel for the car. Interestingly enough we were a little taken aback with the price of the alloy when we checked with the dealership spares department – a whopping 16,890/- without taxes! While we do understand that this is an imported wheel, we feel that it is expensive and we hope costs of such things come down over time. Another small problem that’s now cropped up on MarcoPolo is driver’s side power window. The window has stopped going auto-down which is a pain when you’re at a toll plaza. We’ve got used to the auto up/down so much that we now quite miss it.

Polo tail lamps light up quite nicely and have plenty of design flair.