Traffic in Mumbai has become so bad that when Volkswagen gave us the Taigun DSG for a long term test, I pounced on the keys before anyone else could because the convenience and comfort of a good automatic in our traffic is unparalleled. So, the Volkswagen Taigun entered the MotorBeam long term fleet in mid-September on a rather rainy day and it went through a treacherous 150 km drive on day 1 itself.
I had some errands to run at completely opposite corners of the city and the traffic just made it worse. When I spent 45 minutes to cover a measly distance of 3 kms is when I realised how much of a convenience an automatic car provides. The Taigun that I’m driving is the top-of-the-line GT Plus variant meaning it gets the more powerful 1.5-litre TSI Evo engine with a 7-speed DSG.
It didn’t take me a lot of time to get used to the car because I’ve driven it a lot of times in the past. I particularly like the driving position which is quite sorted and comfortable. Cars like the Taigun are amazing for urban scenarios because they are neither too big nor too small. However, at a price tag upwards of Rs. 22 lakh (OTR, Mumbai), I’d have fancied having some premium upholstery in the car.
My daily commute is around 80 kms and the Taigun has been keeping me happy mostly. There is more than enough power on tap for the times when I want to gun it, and for times when I’m just cruising, the cylinder deactivation tech works just fine, helping me save some fuel too. In fact, I’ve noticed that the 1.5 TSI is actually a bit more fuel efficient than the 1.0 TSI. Tankful-to-tankful, our test car has delivered 12.4 km/l which is pretty decent because this includes around 60% driving in traffic and the rest on open roads with a few bursts of heavy acceleration too.
What also keeps me entertained on my drives is the Taigun’s infotainment system. The screen has excellent responsiveness and it connects to my iPhone through wireless Apple CarPlay in a jiffy. I like the sound quality too. The speakers throw out good sound at medium volumes though at high volumes, true audiophiles might feel a need to upgrade the front speakers. The vehicle gets only USB-C ports all around so I’ve plugged in a 12V to USB adapter in the car for my other charging needs.
The Taigun gets 17-inch tyres and one of them had a slow puncture thanks to a nasty nail which got into the tread. The tyre pressure warning came up on the instrument cluster and the next day while the car was parked, the tyre was completely flat. Thankfully I always keep a portable inflator in the boot and thus I filled up air in my building itself and then got the puncture sorted out at a nearby shop. I was maintaining 32 PSI in the initial days with the car but now I have been experimenting with the ride quality at 35 PSI and I shall post my observations in next month’s report.
While the Taigun’s AC works well on most occasions, sometimes it does give you that feeling that the cooling has gone down a bit especially when the car is idling for long durations. Apart from this, the door panels also have a tendency to squeak and for this I believe the culprit is the door beading. This issue is found not just on these new MQB-A0-IN cars but a lot of other German cars as well. The squeaks are audible only when the music is completely shut, otherwise it’s not much of an issue.
So that’s it for now. I shall be driving the vehicle a lot more in the coming months. Now that the rains are on their way out, Mumbai is all set to witness major humidity and that’s when I’ll miss the ventilated seats because surprisingly the 1.0 TSI Topline gets this feature while the 1.5 TSI GT Plus misses out on this. What the Taigun doesn’t miss out on is the fun + practicality factor, something that I really like about the car.
