Volkswagen Virtus: Owner complains about build after cabin lamp comes apart on potholed roads

Volkswagen (VW) Group’s mega investment in the Indian market has spawned cars like the all-new Skoda Kushaq, Slavia, Volkswagen Taigun and the latest – VW Virtus. Made on the India-spec MQB-A0-IN platform to bring down the overall cost of the vehicle has resulted in a massive interest in these new cars from the market. While VW Group cars are known for their build quality and “tank-like strength”, the new VW Virtus does not seem to carry forward the legacy.

An owner of Volkswagen Virtus has posted in an owner’s group on Facebook about the build quality of the new car. The owner, who posted anonymously showed a picture of the cabin lamp hanging from the car’s ceiling. The owner has also posted a picture of the road with massive crater-like potholes, which allegedly caused the cabin lamp to fall down.

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The owner replied to a comment saying that the suspension of the Virtus is fine. No damage is done to the mechanical parts of the car. But the owner believes that the other components used in the VW Virtus are not up to the mark of quality to work well with the stiff suspension set-up that VW offers. The owner fixed the hanging lamp on his own. He appreciated the ground clearance of the new Virtus. While driving carefully through such roads that lasted for 6 km, the owner claims that the vehicle’s floor did not scrape at any point. VW offers 180mm of ground clearance with the Virtus.

The owner says that he is a VW fanboy and also was the first owner of the Volkswagen Polo GT in blue colour.

2022 VW Virtus

VW has divided the variants of the Virtus into the Dynamic Line and Performance Line. It is similar to the VW Taigun. There are three variants under the Dynamic Line. Only the 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine is available with the Dynamic Line variants. The top-of-the-line Performance Line gets only the GT Plus variant. It gets the 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine and only an automatic DSG transmission.

Like the Skoda Kushaq and Taigun, the Slavia and the Virtus will share a lot of parts between them. However, the Virtus is longer than the Slavia by 20mm. There are significant changes in the front end to differentiate between both cars. The Volkswagen Virtus definitely looks sportier compared to the Slavia, especially because of the additional features like a boot-mounted spoiler.

Volkswagen offers two engine options with the Virtus. These are the exact same engines available with the Skoda Slavia, VW Taigun and the Skoda Kushaq. The 1.0-litre TSI engine generates a maximum power of 115 PS and a peak torque of 178 Nm. VW offers a six-speed manual and a six-speed automatic transmission with this engine option.

The more powerful 1.5-litre TSI engine will be available with the GT variants of the car. It generates a maximum power of 150 PS and a peak torque of 250 Nm. The more powerful 1.5-litre TSI will be available only with a seven-speed DCT. The 1.5-litre engine gets a cylinder deactivation feature. It deactivates two cylinders when there is minimal load on the engine. This increases the fuel efficiency of the car.

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