Volkswagen Polo: With 25 years behind it, the Polo knows how to deliver. VW's new version of its familiar supermini keeps all the old virtues and adds some new ones. Andrew Hamilton revs up
There's something reassuringly familiar about the Volkswagen Polo. It has been around for ages - well, 25 years in fact - and with every new model change it gets better. Take the latest generation that hit the showrooms five weeks ago. It's larger than the original Golf as well as being significantly wider, higher and heavier.
We are, by the way, applying the perverse logic that when small, getting bigger is more beautiful! Actually the 1.2 litre three-cylinder Polo that we were driving recently isn't totally new. It has been around before, as the Skoda Fabia.
The Polo uses the same floorpanel as the Fabia and other componentry as well. Soon there will be a new Seat Ibiza. All three products of the Volkwagen empire are the same basic car, differently styled, furnished and priced.
The Fabia was much praised when it appeared two years ago and has gone on to reinforce Skoda's recent reputation as a maker of good value, high quality cars. In the Volkswagen scheme of things, the models from the parent brand are presented as a cut above Skoda and Seat. That's why our five-door test Polo, at €15,185, is €1,975 above the 1.4 five-door Fabia.
Although the Fabia has been around for a couple of years - long enough to influence the design of the new Ford Fiesta - the Polo is the first of a crop of 2002 superminis that will, later this year, include the Fiesta and the Citroen C3.
There are again three and five-door models with styling that is clearly more distinguishable than in the past, though VW has been less bold than, say, Fiat in doing so.
The 1.2 litre three-cylinder engine actually comes in two forms, 55 bhp with six valves and 65 bhp with 12 valves. Both will account for the vast majority of Irish sales.
In the 65 bhp car we drove, the engine felt flat at first, as it attempted to haul the Polo's 1.07 ton bulk. A bit more familiarity and it soon proved itself to be rev happy and extremely smooth for a three-cylinder. Contra-rotating balancer shafts clearly help in this respect. The Polo was responsive, pulling strongly and smoothly from 3,000 rpm. Top speed is given as 101mph with 0-62 mph in 14.9 seconds.
Inside, the new Polo is typical Volkswagen: conservative design but well-finished, with clear and beautifully lit instruments. The chunky feeling of items such as switchgear, door pulls and handbrake, give the impression that the car is built to last. There's compactness and at the same time, the solid feeling of a bigger saloon.
Volkswagen, like all manufacturers of small cars, knows that customers worry about accidents. Thus the bodyshell is claimed to be 33 per cent stiffer than the previous model's. VW also asserts protection improvements of 45 per cent for side impacts and 50 per cent for front-end collisions over the old Polo. Front seat occupants get front and side airbags. Active safety includes EBD or electronic brakeforce distribution, but surprisingly ABS is an option costing over €900.
THE best things about the new Polo are its ride and handling. Initially, the new car feels very soft and biased towards comfort, yet its ride on broken roads is uncanny - if anything, the worse the road the more impressive its behaviour. The general refinement is such that it's easy to be travelling much faster than you think.
Plausibly one of the prime reasons people buy small cars is frugal fuel consumption. Our Polo test car excelled on long journeys, giving around 42mpg. The urban experience wasn't quite so impressive: a diet of town driving reduced the mpg figure to just 27.
The Polo is mostly highly satisfactory to impressive but if this, the newest volume supermini is best in its class it is not by much and may not be for long. Among existing contenders, we think the Peugeot 206 has more style, the Toyota Yaris is smaller but just as accommodating, and its cousin, the acclaimed Fabia, is cheaper.
The Honda Jazz that we wrote about recently, makes better use of its interior space. The Citroen C3 is more family-oriented and full of clever features. The biggest Polo rival is undoubtedly the Fiesta, now much more spacious with a smart Focus-type profile.
This plethora of rivals could be worrying to VW people: the probability is that they won't lose sleep. The Polo is, after all, a long established supermini player and it will sell by the thousands.
Most Polo customers are buying with their own money, and it helps to know there's likely to be a decent price when it's time to trade in. That's reassuring familiarity!