Volkswagen Polo TDi: From Elegant German Beauty To a Hot German Chic

[Sandykudva]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

@bbmurthy301: Sorry for the late reply as I was out of town. The previous cars that I had been driving all of them had an centre armrest but when shifted to the polo felt an really important part missing hence it was on my list. Its very useful for me and gives my left hand some nice rest on the long runs. It acts as a great storage place and unlike the original ones that are available in the cars this one is movable hence no issues with that also. It is a cheap alternative to the original ones and serves the purpose perfectly. Yes you do have to punch hole for the fitting I think even if its an original u will have to punch holes as there is no armrest for the polo it just comes for the vento which also has the rear ac vents attached.

 

[Sandykudva]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

I will be planning headlamp upgrades in the future so would like some suggestions and help i have till now 3 options

1) Original Smoked headlamps that are available for the 2013 VW Vento and Polo.

Price:- Do Not Know.


2) New Customized Headlamps which includes a BMW Ring, Projector with Bi-Xenons and DRL

Price: 20k- 45k

3) Stock headlight customization.
I have found this one chap who is willing to customize my stock headlamps, but i fear that it might start leaking during rainy seasons if not done properly.

Price: 13k-20k ( Depending on what u want)

 

[GM88]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

1) Original Smoked headlamps that are available for the 2013 VW Vento and Polo.

Price:- Do Not Know.

Price of original smoked headlamps from Volkswagen is Rs. 8k for the pair. You can check from the nearest workshop about this as prices vary slightly from city to city.

 

[Sandykudva]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

@ GM88: Thanks for the Information.

What do you think about the stock headlight customization?

 

[VipinLJ]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

I think the stock headlight customization looks bad. I hate corona rings or angel eyes or whatever it is called on these cars. They look elegant on a Bimmer but not on most cars. I like option number 2 (if you can spare the cash) or option number 1 better.
Just my $0.02. No hard feelings I hope :)

Regards,
Vipin

 

[Sandykudva]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

@ VipinLJ : Even I am somehow against the customization of the stock one .
The second option is a similar copy of the headlamps which come with the new passat. My brother has gone to bangkok have told him to check the prices there.
Final option is the stock smoked headlamps.
Will do it after some time though as I have sent the car for a complete front suspension work.

 

[VipinLJ]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

@ VipinLJ : Even I am somehow against the customization of the stock one .
The second option is a similar copy of the headlamps which come with the new passat. My brother has gone to bangkok have told him to check the prices there.
Final option is the stock smoked headlamps.
Will do it after some time though as I have sent the car for a complete front suspension work.

If they have the Polo in Thailand, the prices should hopefully be less there compared to what they charge here. It looks like what comes with the Polo GTI abroad. Do let us know what the prices in Bangkok are, if your brother manages to find it there.
What happened to the front suspension? Isn't it a bit too early for suspension work?

Regards,
Vipin

 

[type-r]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

polo is not available in bangkok. so dont know if your brother will find anything.

 

[Sandykudva]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

@type-r : Thanks for the info. I have asked him to check lets see if luck favours.

@ VipinLJ: There was a bit of rattling from the steering hence had given for checkup will give you the complete report when the car returns. The car has done 42k kms and the mumbai potholes and roads are more than enough for the damage.

 

[GM88]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

To be honest, the regular smoked headlamps in the new Highline Polo's look stunning. No customization needed. For the ones with the rings, I agree with Vipin, they look tacky to say the least. And the ones with the DRL's look stunning, but for that the whole car should be modded with low profile tyres, 16 or 17inch alloy wheels, whole body skirting, rear spoiler to name a few to give the overall look. Alone these DRL headlamps with everything else stock, looks a little out of place. Just my opinion though.

For the time being, if you don't want to invest much on it, you can get a vinyl wrap eyelid on the stock headlamps like the ones in the pic below. They will surely give a little nice and different look to your Polo.

Check out the headlamps of both the white and black Polo.

Picture courtesy - VW Polo owners Facebook page

 

[Sandykudva]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

@ GM88: I agree the new smoked lamps look hot, and the ones with the DRL are too expensive. I do not mind the skirting but the car already has a low ground clearance and so the skirting will surely not last for long. About the alloys,upgrading to 16 and 17 means the profile of the tires need to be reduced and that means a stiff ride and loss of ride quality( have experienced in my previous 2 vehicles ). Here in Mumbai the roads are filled with potholes so driving on low profile tyres is a nightmare and not to mention the alloys bending specially during the rainy season.
The Vinyls on both the cars looks smoking hot.
Will try something like this only. In fact i am getting the 2013 smoke headlamps original out here for 5k but the issue is that i don't want to replace my present one as they in crystal clear mint condition. hence the vinyls are a good solutions for this.

 

[VipinLJ]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

I'm not too keen on skirting at the moment too because the entry to the parking lot in my college is steep. The bumper almost touches the road when I want to get out now itself. So with the skirts, I'm sure it will kiss the road.
I thought of getting white eyelids for the Polo too. Changes the looks a lot. I've seen a couple of cars here and it looks really good.

Regards,
Vipin

 

[Sandykudva]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

@ VipinLJ: Same here bro, my society entry and exit is steep, now in the stock condition it does not scrape as i bring it in slowly but with the skirts it will surely. But yes the headlamps with the vinyl look smoking hot.

Anyways the car has returned from the Garage after the work.

The car after 3-4 days of purchase had developed little rattling in the steering. The noise was not present on smooth roads but on bad patches it was audible. Now i never go to the A.S.S or the Company for any problems but i have a set of known technicians and workers for different type of problems. So i took the car to my mechanic and told him to take a trial. After the trial he did find the rattling in the steering but he told me that the exact problem can be diagnosed only after complete removal. So i continued with the driving for the time being and told him that i would do the work later on. But the noise and rattling increased a lot hence i finally decided on getting the work done.

Now the report after giving the car in the garage and on complete removal of the assumed areas of problems were as follows

- Thyroid & ball joint of the steering ( Needs Replacement)
- Lower Arm ( Needs Replacement )
- Front Shock Absorbers ( have about 25-30 % life left)
- Brake Disc Requires Polishing
- Steering,Gear & Lower Arm Bushes ( Needs Replacement)
- Bearing (i do not remember which bearing this is but it was required as it was making sound during running)

Now comes the big task. I usually get my work done from mechanics who i trust, i just pay them for the labour and all the spare are bought by me. Now according to my mechanic the same shock absorbers can be used for another 5k kms but the new setup of suspension and old shock ups would increase the load on the suspension and after 5k kms on change of the shock ups the suspension setup would have to be removed again so he said it would be nice if the shock absorbers were also replaced. So decision was taken to replace the shock absorbers also.

Now there are many duplicate parts available in the market hence i did not want to take the risk. Luckily i found a dealer who is the authorized spare parts shop for the Skoda and Volkswagen group. It is a bit expensive than other shops but at least you get genuine parts with part numbers. In short he is a dealer who has parts costlier than the locals but cheaper than the company.

List of Parts Purchased with Price.

1) Front Connection Linkage - Rs 3000/- ( 2 Pieces)

2) Lower Arm Ball Joint ( Left )- Rs 2000/-

3 Lower Arm Ball Joint ( Right )- Rs 2000/-

4) Lower Arm Bushes - Rs 2200 /- ( 2 Pieces)

5) Front Strut MTG- Rs 1200/- ( 2 Pieces)

6) Front Shock Absorber - Rs 9000 /- ( Left + Right)

7) Gear Bushes- Rs 1500/-

8) Bearing- Rs 2500/-

All these parts are genuine VW parts. The spares alone cost around Rs 23,500/-

There were other local parts available for all the above mentioned parts and the price would have been half of the original, but did not want to take the risk.

I have to pay for the labour and turner. Will inform about that later.

The ride quality of the car has improved tremendously. I know its a bit too much to spend at the start of the purchase but at least i wont have problem for say at least next 25-30 k kms with my driving.

 

[VipinLJ]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

@ VipinLJ: Same here bro, my society entry and exit is steep, now in the stock condition it does not scrape as i bring it in slowly but with the skirts it will surely. But yes the headlamps with the vinyl look smoking hot.

Skirts transform the look of the car but the GC would be affected *sigh* I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too. Regarding the vinyls. Can't find any online. I guess I need to visit some shops to see if I can source any. I'm itching to try it out.

- Thyroid & ball joint of the steering ( Needs Replacement)

He he. You mean tie rod right? My car has some noise when I turn the steering slowly at very slow speeds. It's not a rattle. It's more like a creaking noise. I just noticed it recently. I don't know if it was there earlier or not. I have to ask them when I give my car for it's second service 6000 kms from now.

Regards,
Vipin

 

[Sandykudva]

Re: A German Dream Pre-owned VW Polo TDi

@ VipinLJ : Sorry for the mistake actually in the market it mostly pronounced and written as thyroid joint here so went in the flow. Yes thanks to our governments and muncipal corporation we are unable to drive cars with low ground clearence and with skirtings.

I loved the vinyl on the white and so went to the market today to see if anything is available but as it was a sunday not much but was able to find this .

Let me know if it looks good. There is a difference in the shade.