Volkswagen Taigun GT Plus 1.5 TSI DSG Review

After testing the Golf GTI and Tiguan R-Line recently, I was now a bit anxious about testing the Taigun 1.5. You see, the Taigun 1.5 is the performance benchmark in its segment, but I was still wondering if it would now be able to increase my serotonin level even marginally considering it has already been elevated unprecedentedly by the enthralling performance of both the Golf GTI and Tiguan R-Line.

- SYED SHIRAZ SHAH

But this is where the difference between a regular enthusiast and a reviewer comes into the picture. Unlike the former, the latter should be able to rewire his brain to isolate the testing process completely and recalibrate his expectations to prohibit any prejudice or baggage from affecting the outcome of his assessment.

You'll learn more about that in the performance section, but let me first tell you about the exterior design and interiors in the next two sections.

DESIGN

The Taigun is a handsome vehicle, ladies and gentlemen. The pictures and my photography skills (the lack of them, essentially) don't do proper justice to the clean and understated form of this vehicle. You have to check out the Taigun in person to appreciate its classy design.

And when you do that, you realise that unlike a few of its competitors, it doesn't come across as a vehicle whose designers tried too hard to make it stand out. Its inherent suaveness, despite quite a bit of chrome, lets it achieve that naturally. My only small complaint is that while there are four GT badges on it, I couldn't spot a single “1.5” badge anywhere on this Taigun. Guess what, the vehicle documents kept in the dashboard have “Volkswagen Taigun GT Plus 1.5 TSI 110 KW DSG” mentioned all over. I wonder what kept VW from adding a singular 1.5 badge on the body, then.

I don’t know whether the GT Plus Sport variant (the one you see here is listed as GT Plus Chrome variant on VW India’s website) has a 1.5 badge either, but since the Sport variant trades almost all the chrome for blacked-out elements, it does appear properly sporty in comparison. It’s also the variant that would appeal more to the young (or the young at heart) buyers. I think it's high time VW introduced it in the media fleet too.

INTERIORS