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| Polo - little VW has a winning way with figures | |||||||||||||||||||
| Long
before VW brought its Polo hatch into Australia, one had
already been imported by a competitor - and promptly
stripped for comparison purposes. At least, that is according to Volkswagen Australia, which claims that the nameless competitor wanted to "benchmark its own small car against the best in the world". Okay, so the Polo has a good pedigree, being made in Spain in a plant designated for VW only, but "best in the world"? Well, at the very least a good bit of packaging. Muscling into a hot market segment here in Australia, Polo was going to need more than just its VW nameplate to make headway, so it carries a list of standard equipment that includes power steering, central locking, power front windows, dual airbags, power adjusted and heated mirrors, and the Big Attraction - a CD player. Yet the little VW still manages to make it under the $20,000 line. (Just, at $19,990.) Interior trim and finish is to a high standard for this price segment, with good quality cabin lining that extends throughout the luggage area, and the seats were praised by all who travelled in it during our test. They initially seem almost too firm but proved very comfortable on longer runs, though the same could not be said of legroom for any rear occupants approaching adult size if the front seats are moved right back. Still easy enough to get into, but short on space. Interior storage is compromised by the second airbag occupying what would have been the glovebox, though there is a small one just to the right of the steering column (at least, I think it's a glovebox), but the front doors do have generously proportioned storage bins. And while the rear hatch looks a little short, it is deceptively large in terms of depth. Its lip is quite low, yet it is still a stoop to place items in there. Up front again, the steering wheel is comfortably grippable, controls easy to reach and operate, instrument lighting is a soft green instead of the tiring red favoured by some European marques, and there is a matching pair of vanity mirrors with hinged covers. Along with the power goodies and CD player, all fairly civilised apart from reasonably high noise levels at highway speeds, with a constant rustling at the B pillars accompanied by road rumble on coarse chip surfaces. |
 Anyone for Polo? The well-equipped VW at under $20,000.
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| Now, it's
widely acknowledged that VW spawned the whole `hot hatch'
thing with the Golf, but the Polo makes no attempt at
following that path. With just 55kW of power on tap from its 1.6 litre engine it is more your `commuter hatch'. And it does a good job of being just that since the engine's torque is spread over a wide rev range, making it an agile performer in city traffic, though the gear shift was often balking in its action despite a very smooth clutch pedal. Polo runs out of urge at higher speeds, yet its tall top gear allows it to cruise comfortably at 110 kmh on 2750rpm. Which no doubt contributed to the pleasure at the fuel bowsers, when it averaged a healthy 6.9 L/100km (41mpg). Figures like those are difficult to argue with in commuter country.
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Nuts-N-Bolts
