After my fill of SUVs, MPVs and hatches, I now find myself with the Volkswagen Virtus for the next few months. It’s in its proper fanboy spec too, the GT with its 1.5-litre turbo and DCT. So there’s immediately a positive sense to having this car around.
The looks add to this feeling. The gloss black bits and the typical sporty sedan styling really do make for a good expression of the enthusiastic bent of this car. It looks as expensive as its price suggests, even with the slightly skinny wheels. But a bit less ground clearance would have gone a long way.
I also immediately took a liking to the space that’s on offer. It really is quite big, and comfortable. The seats are really well sorted too, have never been fresher in any of my previous long-termers after my Mumbai-Pune runs. The ride could have been better damped at low speeds but I don’t mind that too much. I also would like to try out the ventilated seats soon in Mumbai’s heat, because the AC really could do better. The touchscreen is another big highlight with its crisp interactions, although the exact opposite holds true for the instrumentation and its convoluted sub-menus.
The two things I don’t like so far. First is visibility, you can just about see the bonnet and the Virtus is a large car like I mentioned. The rear-view mirrors are also a bit narrower than ideal, they create quite a blind spot so you need to be careful, and the rear camera should have been far better for a car of this price. The engine is stellar as always, especially the 2-cylinder mode which genuinely boosts efficiency. But if are fully into driving, the standard D mode for the DCT seems to be a bit too focused on efficiency. The S mode fully unshackles the Virtus’ significant speed.
Not to go see what it can do around a truly nice bit of road.
Inducted at 6,286 kmDriven 758 kmFuel Efficiency: 12 kmpl
Fuel used: 63 litres
Volkswagen Virtus 2022 Full Spec
| Price (Ex-Delhi) Starts Rs 11.22 Lakhs |
Displacement 999cc |
Transmission Manual |
Max Power(ps) 115 |
Max Torque(Nm) 178 |
Mileage 18.12 Kmpl |
Honda City 2021 Full Spec
| Price (Ex-Delhi) Starts Rs 10.9 Lakhs |
Displacement 1497cc |
Transmission Manual |
Max Power(ps) 100 |
Max Torque(Nm) 145 |
Mileage 17.8 Kmpl |
Honda City e:HEV 2022 Full Spec
| Price (Ex-Delhi) Starts Rs 19.5 Lakhs |
Displacement 1498cc |
Transmission e-CVT |
Max Power(ps) 126 |
Max Torque(Nm) 253 |
Mileage 26.5 Kmpl |
Skoda Slavia 2022 Full Spec
| Price (Ex-Delhi) Starts Rs 10.69 Lakhs |
Displacement 1498cc |
Transmission Automatic |
Max Power(ps) 115 |
Max Torque(Nm) 250 |
Mileage 18.41 Kmpl |