I was initially planning to change my 16-year-old car(Chevy Spark 1.0 lt petrol) and thinking of replacing it with a more powerful vehicle. Although I have the Honda City 4th generation Petrol 1.5 MT and it is a great car, I wanted to buy a car, which I can take on rough roads and is also comfortable to drive in city conditions. Honda City is excellent for city and highway driving though I don't feel comfortable when driving through potholes.
I have a fascination for German-manufactured cars and was keen to buy a Polo GT earlier. I took a test drive of Taigun 1.5 DSG(I never considered Virtus since I already have a sedan). The moment I started driving Taigun on an empty road I felt the difference. I did not feel any lag of turbo at all, which I felt in Korean or Japanese cars; the power comes to the engine once you touch the accelerator. I always preferred a naturally aspirated engine with manual gear since I can control the speed and acceleration when I want to overtake other vehicles. This is the only turbo with DSG that feels like a semi-manual drive.
Due to strict pollution control norms, I did not consider any diesel car; my highway drive will be less frequent and I don't have mileage tension since I feel good mileage car is less safe; we can't get both together unless it is electric or hybrid. I have a small family, so I did not care about rear seat space which could be more spacious.
I booked a Taigun 1.5 GT Plus Manual after I compared a few other Korean cars with similar engine power but never felt the same level of comfort, zero body roll, and driving pleasure with those cars.
The buying experience is excellent for me and I got support from an extremely helpful salesperson.
The Taigun MT GT Plus 1.5 is an excellent car, after I got the car, I drove it almost every day, and also late at night; it is like an addiction (even for the passengers). I circled through the empty roads multiple times, revving it to 3000 to 3500 rpm, other car drivers got scared when I did that :-)
You can beat almost any car if you get empty roads, the acceleration is amazing and it doesn't feel jitters in your stomach if you increase the acceleration by more than 120 KMPH; I got some traffic challans for overspeeding though. I did not get a chance to drive it on the highways yet, but I can imagine how good it would be if no speed cameras existed.
I am getting around 9 liters per KM on congested city roads with AC, it can be increased if you drive optimally. The AC is good but sometimes it gets reset automatically if you are in auto mode. I completed 1st servicing and I felt the service center was okay.