Marco-Polo (Long Termer Report 3)

Last Report Date: 11th August 2010
Current Odo reading: 13886
Kms driven since last report: 3800

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

Problems so far: Driver's side power window auto-up has stopped working.

Our beloved MarcoPolo didn’t look its best with the black spare wheel on it, and Volkswagen obliged us by organizing an alloy to replace the spare. It did take a little time though, and we were without our beloved Polo TDI for over two weeks. These were two weeks of missing its impeccable build, its brilliant diesel economy and its outstanding highway munching ability. The car just looked its smashing self after the alloy was back on and was all set to face another round of adventure on our cratered Indian roads and discover new lands – or puddles, since it was the end of monsoon. We stuck to city driving for a while but we could sense that the TDi was begging to be set free on the open road.

And there’s nothing more we love to do than wake up early and drive on empty tarmac. So we pulled her out for some thoroughly enjoyable highway cruising, finally happy to be back behind the wheel of this car we’ve really grown quite attached to. Each time we’ve taken the Polo out, we’ve always come back from our journey quite in awe of its high speed prowess and now with the alloy back on the front right axle, MarcoPolo was able to confidently and safely, touch speeds which we really wouldn’t want to mention – except in hushed whispers.

The Polo is as agile and as sure footed as we had discovered it to be when we first drove it before its launch but we’ve noticed that the front end of our car has gotten a little soft, so it does tend to bob a little more over large crests than it did when it came to us. Even after 10375 kms of us driving it, every time we set foot in the Polo we can’t help but fall in love with its tough build and the ‘thunk’ of the doors when they close. However, the monsoons seem to have played havoc with the rear door handles and they’ve become hard and tend to require a rather hefty tug to yank the doors open. Of course the use of WD40 or a quick spray of Zorrick solved the problem.

The current reading on the Odo is 13886 and after having covered approximately 4000 kms after the last post and we must say that the drive is as comfortable as it was earlier (not for the passengers seated at the rear though!) and the car hasn’t thrown up any major warning lights. Everything still works well, but there are two small glitches which we hope will be fixed when the car goes in for its routine inspection later this week. The first is the gear-shift indicator that tends to have a mind of its own. It works most of the time, but sometimes does the disappearing act altogether. We do miss it during these times and we hope that it’s just something incredibly small and easy to fix. Another thing that we realised recently when we pulled up to a toll plaza was that the express-up function on the driver’s side window does not work. Otherwise the car’s performance hasn’t dwindled an ounce and the engine has actually smoothened out a fair bit.

We still feel that the rear seat space in the car is slightly cramped for large adults and though the car packs in a powerful and comfortable driving experience, it does not score in the rear seat comfort department simply because it lacks adequate legroom with tall front passengers.

Interestingly enough, it is quite surprising that kids simply love the Polo. Six year olds turn around and point to the Polo and know the car by name – which is great for Volkswagen! The rear seat is more than comfortable for toddlers as we found out and this might possibly be VW’s youngest fan in India. Talk of catching them young! We made her sit in the car, and she was not only intrigued by the amount of space she got to herself but also made sure that she took her time to discover the car inside out.

It was a great opportunity for this toddler to get acquainted with MarcoPolo and she was more than happy to spend the rest of the day cocooned inside. She wouldn’t let go of the VW keychain and got so comfy that we had to struggle at coaxing her out. And we spotted a giant tear as we drove MarcoPolo. And talking of tears, we’re going to be shedding a few when the car leaves us to go back to that giant factory in Chakan after its stint with us. And we know each one of us will really miss our beloved MarcoPolo. Right now we’re all trying to get as much quality time with the car as we can, so if you see some really happy people zipping about the interstate in a silver polo diesel – its probably us. Do wave.