The Volkswagen BS6 Vento, the car full of beans!

Earlier this year, like every other car manufacturer in the country, Volkswagen India too upgraded its engine to BS VI emission levels. In the process, their compact sedan Vento too came with a BS VI engine. The Vento is powered by a one litre petrol TSI engine and comes with an option of a six-speed manual transmission and a six-speed automatic transmission. Vento prices start at around Rs 9 lakh, ex showroom.

The company also launched a limited edition TSI edition. TSI stands for Turbocharged Stratified Injection (TSI) technology. This engine delivers up to 108.5hp and 175Nm of peak torque. This limited edition Vento (Highline Plus variant) comes with a new 6- speed manual transmission.

Basically, this new limited edition Vento scores on the design front with a stylish honeycomb grille, sleek air dam, sporty body side graphics, bold TSI badge across the passenger doors, black ORVMs, glossy black roof and a neat and slim black spoiler. The TSI engine gives a fuel efficiency of 17.69 kmpl and is priced at around Rs 11 lakh.

The Vento also comes with LED headlamps with DRLs, fog lamps and static cornering lights and has electronically foldable side mirrors with integrated turn indicators. The large tail lamps look bold and give the rear a chunky look. .The new sleek side skirts with R16 ‘Portago’ alloys enhance the side profile of the vehicle. Not to be missed are the body-coloured door handles with chrome strips. The car key fob lets you remote lock and unlock the car and one button for remote opening the boot lid.

INTERIORS

The dual tone interiors, the leatherette upholstery, an intuitive touchscreen infotainment system, auto dimming rear view mirror and a multi-function console ensure that you are comfortable and satisfied. The leather wrapped steering wheel has a flat-bottom and it comes with controls on either side that take care of your radio channels, volume, voice command, and MID functions.

Cruise control buttons are tucked away on the left lever that also has the indicator functions. This Vento model also comes with reverse parking camera and your touch screen doubles up as the screen display.

It has auto-dimming Interior Rear-view Mirror, and rain sensing wipers. Both in front and rear the seats are comfortable. The rear has more than adequate leg space for even tall people and the rear seats come with a foldable arm rest, AC vents, a glass holder next to it and a 12V charging socket.

There is plenty of storage space with a cup holder, bottle holder, a concealed front centre armrest for essentials like mobile phones, cooled glovebox and a 494-litre boot.  There are lights in the footwell area and inside the glovebox which is very practical.

In our app crazy world of ours, the Vento too can be connected through My Volkswagen Connect app on your mobile phone which opens up your world to several functions like finding out fuel pump locations, getting real time location of your car, getting notified every time your car goes out of an area or at a time that you haven’t permitted it to, an anti-theft alarm system that sends notification straight to your phone anytime someone tows it away, getting information like how efficiently your car was driven, kilometres travelled, halt locations and average travel speed and much more.

PERFORMANCE

Like all Volkswagen cars, this too scores big on performance. With city speeds in India restricted to a mere 50kmpl on almost all roads, the six speed gearbox is almost left underutilized. In just four gears, you can move at great speeds, the fifth and the sixth can be reserved for the highways. It’s kind of frustrating that you have so much power on the tap, but the lurking cameras tell you to be careful and not carried away by the engine power. In short, this car is out and out an enthusiast’s vehicle and there will never be a dull moment with this car. The ride and handling is perfect and its suspension is well tuned to absorb the nasty pot holes many of are so familiar with on India roads. The engine is extremely peppy and once you drive a car like this, your personality too may just change for the better. I am not kidding! 

As for safety, though the vehicle comes with Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), the company should ideally have given disc brakes at the rear too, considering the power of the TSI engine. The Vento has discs in front and drum brakes at the rear. The Vento comes equipped with dual front airbags as well as side airbags and rear parking sensors. It also comes with an electronic immobiliser anti-theft device as standard. Simply put, the BS6 Vento is a car full of beans!