Volkswagen Virtus

Volkswagen Virtus - First Look

The sedan segment is seeing some much-needed action these days with Skoda just recently launching the Slavia and now Volkswagen following suit with the global unveil of this; the new for India Virtus. 

New for India because the Virtus has been around in international markets for a while now and this facelift will be first introduced in India and then the other markets. So what is the Virtus all about? Let’s take a look.

What’s new on the outside?

On the design front, the Virtus looks absolutely smashing especially the GT variant in Cherry Red. Exclusive to the GT variant are the black alloys with red callipers, blacked out ORVMs and roof, as well as a subtle spoiler among others.

But GT variant aside, even the Dynamic Line variant looks great courtesy of the smart-looking LED headlights and the signature single slatted grille. What adds some muscle in the front is that massive air-dam with piano black inserts.

Volkswagen has clearly gone the sporty way with the Virtus and one can see that with the blacked-out treatment on the headlights and tail lights. The Virtus now looks like a scaled-down Passat and the Dynamic Line with an array of candy shades available will definitely turn heads. 

Dimensions are identical to the Skoda Slavia but the Virtus is about 20mm longer owing to the protruding front bumper.

What’s new on the inside?

Volkswagen has managed to match the insides to the stylish outsides. The first thing that hits you is the dashboard. It gives you a feeling that it is just one big horizontal slab with aluminum outlines or colour coded ones in the GT variant. No soft-touch materials is a tad disappointing but then the overall quality feels good.

On the feature front, the Virtus gets a vivid eight-inch digital cockpit, a 10-inch infotainment system with wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto, eight speakers, an electric sunroof, wireless charging, smart touch Climatronic AC, ventilated front seats, and more. 

On the safety front, the Virtus comes with up to six airbags, an electronic differential lock, ESC, hill hold control, tyre pressure deflation warning, ABS with EBD, rear parking sensors, and more.

What's under the hood?

No surprises here. Powering the Virtus is the very familiar TSI family of engines, so you get a 1.0 litre, three-cylinder TSI engine making 114bhp and 178 Nm of torque, and you get a six-speed manual or a six-speed torque converter. 

The Perfomance range gets the 1.5-litre, four-cylinder TSI Evo engine with active cylinder technology pushing out 148bhp and 250 Nm of torque. From what we know the 1.5 might only come with the seven-speed DSG gearbox, unlike the Slavia which also gets a six-speed manual. But then that could change at the time of the launch.

Competition and pricing

We expect the Volkswagen Virtus to be launched around May this year. The car could be priced around Rs 30,000 more than the Slavia so expect prices to start at around Rs 11 lakh which will still undercut the segment champion, the Honda City by around Rs 30,000. 

How good is the Virtus and is it the sedan to buy? We will answer that question with an in-depth review real soon.