125 Tsi owners / buyers

[vincent]

Readers - time for a thread specific for 125 TSI owners as our - vehicles - options - questions - experiences to share, etc - can be different from those of our fellow posters !

Enjoy

[vincent]

Guys Hi – just picked up my new Silver Leaf Tig this week. This is a 125 manual – absolutely base model good value one. The only options I paid the dealer for was the metallic paint and a shaped polystyrene boot tray to collect mud, spills, etc.

Why a 125 you might ask ? Well partly this is our third car in the family so we didn’t want to spend too much but more to the point my eldest son will be driving it a bit and he is on P plates so his licence here in NSW will not permit him to drive the 147 but he can get an exemption to drive the 125. We decided against a diesel as the ten per cent premium for the diesel vehicle made no sense to us given the high price of diesel fuel and the 125 has such a great low down torque it performs really well.

Maybe when my son is off his P plates in another year or so I will look at chipping the engine. We seriously considered the Subaru Forrester but once we found out we could get a Tig for not much more there was no question. Our drive-away price was tremendous value at $34k.

Anyway enough history.

First stop was to Roof Rack World for a pair of the sleek Rola roof racks and a Thule collapsible weatherproof luggage carrier to go on the roof, known as a Ranger 90. This is because we have a business in Thredbo and might need extra carrying capacity as we are downsizing from a ten year old Merc ML320. Mind you I just learnt my Tig back seat moves forward/back in seven click stop adjustments which will help a bit – varies the depth of the luggage space by about 230mm.

After researching this site for suggestions I decided to go with the AVC 9000-1 as a new in-dash audio/bluetooth/nav unit and had the audio job done by the small FHRX Studios in Sydney.

I have to say Marty and his team were keen, clearly knew a lot about VW including Tiguans, knew the VW Canbus system and cared ! Marty said the 9000-1 was pretty good (had the sorts of adjustments needed by them) before he heard the price and then said that was amazing at the price and he really likes the radio quality and this camera for a tidy job.

AVC 9000-1 from Auspack Electronics works just fine – audio responds to steering wheel buttons, iPod works well, does music and satnav at the same time, Bluetooth quality is fine, etc. Have not has much time to play with all the other functions but maybe as we drive to the snow next week.

Reversing camera (the VW Tiguan specific one which goes where a number plate light was) is great – comes on automatically when reverse gear selected, etc and the camera works really well in the night. The grid/guidelines for the vehicle are all there on the screen - much better than just having reversing sensors as on my wife’s Golf GTI.

The vision of the camera is 170 degrees wide and goes from 15 cm behind the car and then for several metres behind the car. The actual grid lines are fixed and seem to mark out an area the width of the car and an area starting 30 cm behind the car and then for the next 60 cm – if there is a way to change the calibration I have not found it yet.

I had FHRX install Dynamat sound deadening put in the front doors and boot area - a highly sensible recommendation - and as I was doing that got carried away a bit and decided to also have the front door speakers upgraded.

The 310 factory Blaupunkt head unit and Blaupunkt speakers were not bad – indeed quite good – but now the sound is seriously good (and I am one of hose folks who read Stereophile magazine – I mainly listen to vocals, detailed acoustic, etc so I am fussy about instrumental detail and sound staging) with the benefit of the 9000-1 in combination with Hertz MLK165 6.5 inch speakers / ML28 tweeters and a professional installation.

Give me 2 weeks or so and I will post detailed photos on the kit, the camera install, etc. Anyone know someone who wants a pre-loved ML 320 going cheap ?

Thank you to the many posters here for their useful information which over many hours helped me in the decision making - and lightening my wallet !

[vww]

Hi Vincent

Could you please let me know costings for the following:
1) 9000-1 and did you get it from Rob at Auspak?
2) Reverse camera
3) install by FHRX and who was the techo? If they have already installed yours it would be great to get the same person!

cheers

[smithy744]

Excellent post vincent and nice work on the tig.

cheers
smithy

[cubes]

Subscribing, good to see someone has got a reverse camera working with the AVC 9000-1, I was about to bite the bullet and shell out for a RNS510 (still at areduced net price) and alll the other expensive wiring and modules to suit.

[Pullstarter]

Nice write up Vincent, I went for Hertz speakers also, the ESK6.5's in the front and an ES300 boxed sub for the rear with a Hertz 4 way amp. Super clean sound

I don't know how the hell you got the car for 34k drive away!!! But well done! Mine was considerably more than that

Are the Rola roof racks you got the ones that sit almost flush with the stock roof rails? Pics required please

[vincent]

VWW - Hi - yes the 9000-1 came from Rob at Auspack - without digging out the invoice I think it was $950 incl delivery and incl the VW camera.

I kept pushing Rob for detailed info on installing the camera until he eventually came back and said he could not help and the existing VW wires could not be used but somewhere in that process he realised he had sent me the Golf camera not the Tiguan one so he sent up the correct one. The camera does fit brilliantly into existing screw holes. Rob was unable to help with any recommended installers. Beware that when you get the 9000-1 the instructions are deficient in that you have to remove the two transport screws on the top and the bluetooth code is not 1234 but 0000 both points which I picked up from other posters here.

FHRX - it is a small three man team and every job is personally overseen by Marty who is the boss - he is a hipper dude than me (!) but gives you great confidence and I would thoroughly recommend him. Mine was not their first 9000-1 as another posted here had theirs done by him and their post led me to him.

FYI the job is not quick - my job was at least one day's work and as they had to wait over 24 hours for the speakers to come up from the Melb distributor they actually had my car for a few days - but if I had pre-ordered and could have told him when I was getting the car (delivery is a lottery!) I think you could get it in and out in a day.

cheers Vincent

[vincent]

Pullstarter - Hi - yes the Rola are the low profile ones in the same shade as the rails - photos will follow in a few days.

cheers

[Pullstarter]

Nice, i'm really interested to see these as I'm seriously considering them myself.

[vincent]

Buying your Tig 125 at a good price :

1. avoid dealer fitted options - tinting, parking sensors, etc all are avail from the same sources for much less !

2. wait - better towbars, etc will be become available in time - see NZ's tow bar as an example

3. Fleet discount - even though I don't run a fleet Barlow's at 5 dock were tremendous in showing how to take advantage of the VW Corporate programmes - most professional associations - e.g. Chartered Accountants; Solictitors; doctors; etc have a corporate discount with VW - Barlows had a long list of qualifying organisations. I kid you not I never would have known to look - but as a chartered accountant I got a corporate discount of over $3k and the dealer delivery charge is capped at $995 - hey this is approaching $5k in discounts even on short supply cars. In the end I bought from Bill Buckle in Sydney - ask for David Crott - he knew I knew my stuff and wasn't going to waste his time - in fact I did the whole deal including signed order over the phone/fax without having even met him.

Excluding options my drive away price was $33,281 - inclusive of stamp duty, rego and CTP. Then add $978 for metallic paint and boot mat and a bit more for fancy Euro plates. This was then a hands down winner over the Forrester for value for money.

cheers Vincent