The new VW Polo gets serious about being cheap!
Volkswagen's Polo was always a solid, pricey but ultimately dull car. Now VW is pushing the very impressive new Polo at the heart of the supermini sector dominated by Ford's Fiesta and Toyota's Yaris. Polo prices now start at €14,590, and that's a great price for such a well-built and spacious German machine. The new Polo will be a hit.
The Polo, as you'd expect, has grown and now has good road presence. You could quite easily downsize from a Golf to Polo without too much pain.
The classic hatchback exterior features some nice body creases and design elements that will please owners. On all but the entry TL model there are front fog lights that make the front end of the car handsome and smart. Three and five-door versions are available with the five-door (+€400) expected to make up about 90% of sales. The boot now features a handy split floor. Under the well-designed boot floor you'll find a full-size spare wheel.
Inside the cabin feels well built and spacious. The dash is nice and generally you feel content behind the wheel. The driving position is excellent too. There is seating for five and plenty of rear headroom. In order to bring the Polo in at such a competitive starting price, the entry level car makes do with slightly lower quality plastics in the dashboard and smaller 14-inch wheels but again, relative to the competition, Polo is still ahead of most rivals.
Two tax band 'A' diesels (both 1.6 litre) and three band 'B' petrol engines (all 1.2 litre) are available from launch. The Polo is green with all models falling into band 'A' or 'B'. A super green 'Blue Motion' Polo (pictured) is coming next year but will be pitched as a stand alone premium offering with special specification. Although it will sip fuel you will pay over the odds for 'green bragging rights'.
The 1.2 litre engine used is a three-cylinder engine with power outputs of 60/70 & 105bhp. Three cylinder engines always sound like demented hairdryers when pushed hard but the 70bhp version is ideal for town driving and is nippy and very economical. If you do any sort of mileage the diesel options (75/90bhp) that start at €16,795 make most sense for a less stressed drive at motorway speeds.
Fans of VW's DSG automated manual gearbox will be pleased to hear it is on the way too. Trendline (TL), Comfortline (CL) and Highline (HL) are the specification levels on offer. ESP for now is an optional extra (ESP is standard in the UK) but is expected to become standard here later in 2010. All Polos have a height adjustable driver's seat and electric front windows. VW expects a specification breakdown of 45-50% to be Trendline, 40% Comfortline and the remainder Highline.
Volkswagen has a greater market share in Ireland than all other European countries bar Germany. By the end of 2010 VW hopes to secure 15% of the supermini market and if people are buying in 2010 (that's still a big if) they won't go too far wrong with Polo. VW has its own bank and at the moment says 'yes' to 70% of finance applicants.
VW is making it pretty easy to get into the Polo.
Michael Sheridan
