New Car Test - VW Polo

8 October, 2002

One very good little car.

By Julian Edgar

You just know the engineers who designed the Volkswagen Polo loved driving it. Otherwise, how they could have made a package that gives such positive messages to a driver having fun? Sure, it might have only a measly 55kW under the bonnet, but the new design Polo rewards the enthusiastic driver in spades. And, even more importantly in this market segment, there are no downsides for the buyer who only wants conventional, reliable and practical transport - it's just as good in those areas.

Price and features? W-e-l-l, unfortunately then we start talking some negatives.

When we tested the previous model Polo we were anything but enthusiastic. "Expensive and slow," we said. Hmm sound like the above para? It does indeed. But of that earlier car we also said that the Polo best suited "old people who want to potter around the city, have the ease of parking that comes with a compact power-steered car, the convenience of a hatch, the proven safety - and the probable durability - of a Volkswagen."

And for everyone else? Forget it...

Well, this car might have just the same amount of power as that previous car - and use an even smaller 1.4-litre engine - but on the road it is nothing like the earlier model: simply, it is vastly better. It could be a completely different car - and that's because that's just what it is. The engine has gone up in complexity and sophistication - it's now 16-valve DOHC instead of a SOHC 8-valver - and the new body is 154mm longer, 47mm higher and 18mm wider. In fact, rather than besmirch the accolades about to be bestowed on the current model, let's simply forget that the 'Polo' name has been used previously!

While a small car - much smaller than the Golf for example - the Polo still provides plenty of interior room. Slide the front seats right back and there's a heap of legroom, while headroom is excellent. Unfortunately, setting up the seats in this way will penalise those sitting in the back - to really give rear occupants enough knee space, the front seats need to be forward a bit. VW has recognised this limitation by deeply sculpted out the rear face of the front seats - but knee-room remains tight. Rear foot-room is excellent - the passengers' feet fitting almost completely under the front seats - and rear headroom is as good as in the front, something rare in this class of car.

The load area is roomy, and with the rear seats folded, gets much bigger. There are two ways of folding the rears seats - just press the buttons and tilt them forward on a 60/40 split, or alternatively, lift the seat squabs so that they sit up against the back of the front seats and then lay the rear seatbacks down flat. You'll need to remove the rear head restraints to do this, so if you want to carry a big load, leaving the rear restraints at home - along with the removable parcel shelf - will yield a motza of room. The hatch lifts to a very high position - not too high for a short person to be able to pull it down (two built-in handles are provided) but high enough to clear the heads of all but very tall people. A full-size spare is positioned under the hatch floor.

The seats - both front and back - are very comfortable, with excellent side support. Surprisingly - and for on-road reasons we'll come to in a moment - the Polo is a very good long distance car; the seats are certainly part of that.

The good-looking airbag equipped steering wheel is height and reach adjustable, while the front seats are height adjustable. However, operating this ratchet handle just lifts the rear of the seat - it pivots around a front hinge point, rather than lifting the whole seat up. Front seatbelts have a B-pillar height adjustment facility.

Even on this SE version ($24,200 including ABS), the Polo's equipment level is only just satisfactory in this price range - with a second (passenger) airbag, excellent sounding single CD radio (but which comes with only front speakers), analog air con, and an outside temp display. Talking of the instruments, they're clear and well-positioned, with a door-ajar symbol provided. The front occupants get electric windows but those in the back make do with manual winders - and windows that will only drop about two-thirds down. Notably in absence are traction control and cruise control, and the requirement to pay extra for ABS - which comes with rear discs to replace the standard drums.

Storage spaces around the cabin are limited - only two door pockets are provided (ie there's none in the back) and even those are shallow. The glovebox is very small, but two under-seat storage trays are provided. The single cupholder that springs from the dash is effective but makes the most horrible clattery noise when being operated - in stark contrast to the quality feel of all the other controls, this bit of gear would be quite at home in Australia's cheapest car...

So without any feature of the interior being of standout excellence, in general it's comfortable, practical and - with some seat shuffling - roomy.

And the driving? Glad you asked... The fully galvanised body - there's a 12-year anti-corrosion warranty - is taught and rigid on the road. (However, we noticed that the door shutting feel varied around the car, with the back-left door on the test car having an unhappy double 'ca-boing' rather than a satisfying 'thunk'.) The engine is responsive and revvy - an unusual combination of good mid-range torque and free-spinning power - and seldom feels underpowered. That's in cool weather; as things warmed up we noticed that the power went away far faster than you'd expect. In fact, in temperatures near 30 degrees C and with the air on, the car needed noticeably more revs to get away from a standstill.

Any car with 55kW and weighing 1065kg is going to need to be driven with intelligent and frequent use of the gearbox, but this is a no-chore exercise in the Polo, with the gear change being light and precise. The clutch on the test vehicle engaged rather a long way from the floor, but that took only a short time to get used to.

But what made the car a standout for us was its ride/handling compromise. Almost more Peugeot than Peugeot, the Volkswagen Polo handles quite brilliantly, with a neutral handling bias pushing oh-so-gradually into understeer. But after that understeer starts to occur - and unlike any other Volkswagen that we have driven - the car can be steered on the throttle with ease. Is the front sliding? Well, back off a little and feel the tail come gently out... An enthusiastic driver will revel in this handling excellence, while for everyone else the car will simply be safe and predictable in a swerve-and-recover or after a cornering mistake has been made. The ride can only be described as 'big car' in characteristics; even very bad surfaces are despatched with amazing aplomb.

The Polo always feels immensely secure - even when being buffeted by large trucks passing you it doesn't move a millimetre - while the excellent steering feedback - and its precision - makes the car stress free to drive long distances. Of course passing manoeuvres need to be planned with care, and it's also a car that we think could start feeling dangerously underpowered with four occupants, the air on and the outside temp high. So really, if you want to carry four people frequently, it's not for you.

The Polo is a beautifully built and accomplished small car. It's a little more expensive than it should be, and with the low-powered engine, acceleration times are pedestrian. (However, the flipside of that performance is fuel consumption that is excellent - we recorded an average consumption in the low sevens!). Another downer of the engine spec is that it prefers premium fuel.

However, the Polo is an extraordinarily 'liveable' car - comfortable, with an excellent ride, responsive and tractable engine and wonderfully fun handling. In fact, it's one of our all-time favourite small cars...