Volkswagen Polo 1.2

As my Seat Ibiza was due for an MOT and needed a substantial amount of money spending on it, it seemed to make sense that if I could get the right deal perhaps it would be better to part exchange it for a new car. The only problem was what car should I part exchange it for? The principal criteria I had for the replacement were that it had to be cheap to insure, similar in size to my Ibiza and reliable. I started at the local SEAT dealership looking ...
...price range and progressed on to the local VW dealership. I’d always liked the Polo’s but they’ve usually been out of my price bracket so I was surprised to find that my local dealership were offering me a better deal than Seat. They were offering a basic specification brand new Polo 1.2 E (5 door) in “Summer blue” for £7400 on the road a massive saving of £1100 off the list price, needless to say the offer seemed too good to pass up!

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As my Seat Ibiza was due for an MOT and needed a substantial amount of money spending on it, it seemed to make sense that if I could get the right deal perhaps it would be better to part exchange it for a new car. The only problem was what car should I part exchange it for? The principal criteria I had for the replacement were that it had to be cheap to insure, similar in size to my Ibiza and reliable. I started at the local SEAT dealership looking at the new Ibiza’s but these were out of my price range and progressed on to the local VW dealership. I’d always liked the Polo’s but they’ve usually been out of my price bracket so I was surprised to find that my local dealership were offering me a better deal than Seat. They were offering a basic specification brand new Polo 1.2 E (5 door) in “Summer blue” for £7400 on the road a massive saving of £1100 off the list price, needless to say the offer seemed too good to pass up!

----Initial Impressions----

The first thing that struck me about the car were the front headlights which gave the car a bit of a bug eyed look. The car has two large almost oval headlights on the outside and then two substantially smaller headlights on the inside, in between which is the radiator grill. I am still not entirely sure of the design of the lights, though I suppose you could possibly look at them as cute…at least my girlfriend does. While the previous style of Polo had an almost aggressive front, though I suppose a bit more bland, VW have opted to give the new Polo a quite unique front….well unique in as far as it goes as the design of the front was borrowed from the Polo’s younger sibling the Lupo. Looking at the car from the side it appears well proportioned, though perhaps a little higher than the previous model.

Due to the price tag of this car you don’t get fancy alloy wheels or large tyres though larger tyres and alloy wheels are available as costly options. The Polo range come with different sizes of tyre based on the model you choose. What this does mean on the positive side is that the tyres are inexpensive to change. What you do get in the package are black plastic protective side strips, these should hopefully reduce car park damage. From the rear the new Polo has a look of the old style golf and the old style polo, which is not a bad thing though it does mean as a design its not much of a trendsetter.

Size wise the car is quite a bit larger than my Seat Ibiza even though the old Polo and my Ibiza had shared the same platform and were therefore the same size. In fact the new Polo is almost as large as the golf was in the early 1990’s, so much so that certain sections of the German motoring press referred to it as the Golo just after it was launched. The Polo in fact shares the same basic layout as the Skoda Fabia. While the outside could be described perhaps as boring and conventional the car looks far more inviting from the inside out.

----The Cabin ----

Pulling open those chunky VW doors (which make a reassuring clunk when you close them) you immediately feel the quality and robustness of this car. Internally the cabin is surprisingly roomy for a car this size though if you had to find fault it could be described as a little dowdy at least in this model as it comes with very dark grey “anthracite trim” and a light grey roof.

Settling into the front of the car first, the seats have the usual initial Volkswagon hardness, which means that they are good for your back though not the comfiest seats in the world. When purchasing a car the driving position should be a key factor, it has to be for me as I am 6”4 and usually have trouble finding a car with enough headroom and legroom to accommodate me so it was surprising that the Polo’s driving position proved ideal for me. The Polo seems to have acres of legroom, far more than my previous Seat. It’s actually quite nice for once to be able to drive a car without my legs jammed against the steering wheel! Due to the high roof of the Polo I also had around 20cm spare headroom, another first, so no more ducking when I go over speed bumps! Visibility out of the front and rear windscreens is excellent with the front pillars causing little loss of vision. The instrument display is clearly laid out and easily visible behind the wheel, though there is no trip computer or other gadgets.

The only gripe I have about the driving position is the steering wheel. Its composed primarily of a rather harder cheaper looking plastic and to me at least is just too small, designed more for smaller ladies hands. After two weeks of use, though it still feels small, I am starting to get used to it and its proving less of a concern than I initially thought.

All controls are ergonomically well designed with everything the driver needs being easily accessible. The dashboard itself slants down at a 45 degree angle and is composed both of soft touch plastic and a rather harder cheaper looking plastic around the radio cassette and heating system. Generally speaking though the cabin gives off the impression of quality. Since this is the most basic model electric windows are not available which means you can at least open the window the amount you want to! Perhaps a little strange in light of this, electric heated mirrors are included and are operated via a switch on the driver’s door along with a switch for central locking.

Another downside to this car is the lack of air conditioning though this can be added as an extra for another £800. The heating system provided seems effective and demisting the windscreen was almost instantaneous, it also includes the useful air recirculation function.

Whilst corners have been cut in the level of equipment provided, at least you do get a sound system in the form of a radio cassette. Though this is still provided in most cars, manufacturers do need to realise that few members of the public now use cassettes and a CD player would be much more useful, even if it was only a front loading one! The radio cassette provided is Volkswagon’s own brand (beta model) and is designed to only fit VW’s, making it less of an attractive target for thieves.

I’ve experienced VW’s own sound systems before and have found them to be pretty good. Unfortunately this one goes against the trend, while it looks and feels robust and well made and provides a decent enough sound especially when listening to the radio, the sound quality deteriorates when listening to tapes. Its not that the sound is especially bad it just feels dull and lacking in sparkle that no amount of twiddling with the treble and bass could alter. Compared to the factory fitted sound system in my Seat Ibiza this one is substantially worse. The principal speakers are located in the bottom of the front doors with smaller speakers being sited at the base of the front pillars, the rear doors also contain two large spaces for speakers, though in this model the speakers have not been fitted.

I’d been used to having limited storage space for items in my Ibiza’s cabin so it was surprising when I found how many storage places the Polo has. There’s storage in the usual places such as the side of the doors as well as a tray under the steering wheel and a further tray for small items under the glovebox. There’s also a couple of cubi holes in the dashboard itself. Perhaps the greatest design detail, at least to me, is that in the dashboard there is a pop out drinks holder, which isn’t just the usual hole in a piece of plastic. The way it slides in and out so smoothly demonstrates the thought and the quality of engineering that has gone into this car.

Sitting in the rear of the car, it’s a little more cramped than the front though there is still far more room than I would have believed for a car this size. The seats are comfortable if perhaps a little too upright, which may cause problems on longer journey’s. I think it’s the first small car where it genuinely is possible to fit two fully grown adults (perhaps not as tall as me!) in comfort in the rear. The only downside to the rear of the car is the lack of storage space for passengers. To put it succinctly there is none. There is though a rather nice cup holder for two cups located to the rear of the handbrake.

Opening up the boot your confronted by a decent size space to place your shopping and/or luggage. While you could fit four adults in the car it would be virtually impossible to fit all their luggage in the boot. If you have two small children it’s also going to prove difficult to get prams and any associated items into the boot. Space can be increased by folding back the rear seats. In space terms then the boots is only a little bigger than that of the previous Polo.

----Performance & Ride----

I am not a technical or engineering genius, in fact I know relatively little about either, but I do think it is important to briefly look at what powers a car. Opening up the bonnet through a catch in the radiator grill, ones confronted by a 1.2 litre 6 valve petrol engine that produces 55 bhp. Alright I admit it….this is pretty tame, 55bhp is not an awful lot of power, but what matters is how you use this power. This polo along with the rest of the range benefit from a new range of engines which deliver punchy performance and better fuel economy than those in the previous polo.

Looking at the rest of the engine bay the battery is fully encased by a waterproof cover a rather nice touch. Another nice touch is the fact that the process of opening and closing the bonnet is controlled by pistons. This means that there’s no fiddling around looking for the bonnet support with one hand and holding the bonnet with the other as the pistons hold the weight of the bonnet. It also means that opening and closing the bonnet requires little effort on your part as the pistons do all the work.

Performance wise, according to VW, the Polo takes an astonishingly long 17.5 seconds to reach 60mph and tops out at 94mph. While the engine isn’t great on acceleration it does do well on fuel economy which VW quote as 36 mpg urban and 59 extra urban with a combined figure of 49mpg. The surprising thing is that the car does not feel this sluggish when driving and at low speeds overtaking is easy. The cars limitations in the performance department only start to be exposed when motorway driving. In this situation acceleration does seem to take much longer and that 70mph limit takes a long time to reach. This does mean though that this car is not one to buy if you wish to experience the sheer joy of driving.

While this Polo isn’t the fastest thing on four wheels it does provide a comfortable but firm ride. Its also not close to being the lightest super mini, which may help to explain its sluggish performance, though one has to realise its almost the size of the first golf. The steering though its power assisted and adjustable for height isn’t particulary responsive and is perhaps a little too light. Personally I’d rather have the steering power assisted at predominantly low speeds than all the time, though on a car this price I don’t think I can complain.

The first thing that struck me when I first drove this car was the lightness of the clutch, you could push it right down to the floor without encountering any resistance. Volkswagon have told me that resistance should increase over time which since I am very heavy footed I am thankful for. The gears themselves are easy to change though getting into reverse involves pushing the gearstick down, then moving it left and up…hopefully I’ll have mastered this soon!

What really is impressive are the breaks, they are so responsive. Like every new Polo the 1.2 E comes with anti lock brakes (ABS) this means that the brakes by not locking mange to pull the car up far quicker which could substantially reduce the risk of an accident. I had been used to really pressing my foot down hard on my Seat ‘s brake pedal to get any response, so when I first drove the Polo there were rather a lot of abrupt stops!

After a few attempts I’ve found the width and length of the car easy to judge which has made it easy to park and in particular to reverse park. All in all then it’s not a car you would take out for the sheer pleasure of driving its really a means of getting from A to B in a safe, comfortable way.

----Safety----

In today’s world, safety is one attribute that ranks highly on most individuals lists for a car. The Polo feels and looks a safe car, it has four airbags in the car, two side airbags and a passengers and a drivers side airbag located just above the glove compartment. Like virtually all cars nowadays the Polo comes with front seat belt pre-tensioners and load limiters and is equipped with a roll cage and side impact bars as well as the inbuilt crumple zones. Does this all mean that the car is safe?

Well in answer to this question the Polo did well in the NCAP crash tests achieving a 4 star rating out of a maximum of five stars. This was composed of a 75% rating for frontal impacts and an 89% rating for side impacts. The only area the Polo fell down on was Pedestrian impacts, in which the damage to the pedestrian was measured. The Polo achieved a 1 star (17% rating in this area), which seems to suggest that though the car provides a safe environment for the occupants its not a car you would choose to be hit by if you were a pedestrian. The results of these crash tests are well worth checking out as virtually all cars are covered, they make interesting and perhaps disturbing reading (see website address below).

----Servicing & Other Costs----

Service intervals are every year or every 10,000 miles, whatever comes first and are likely to be around the £200 mark with prices varying according to where you are located in the country.

The car also comes with the usual VW piece of mind warranty of either 3 years or 60,000 miles, whatever comes first. It also has a 3 years paint and 12 years rust warranty.

Insurance costs are low due to the safety and security features including an engine immobiliser, deadlocks and central locking. This model of Polo is placed in insurance group 2.

Another thing to consider is that since this Polo only has a 1.2 litre engine road tax costs are also lower than many other similar sized cars which come with 1.3 litre engines or more.

What Car magazine have worked out that on a pence per miles basis, the Polo costs around 24 pence to run and like most VW’s the polo holds its value well.

-----To Conclude----

After two weeks of driving this car I can honestly say that I am very happy with it. I’ve had no problems to date and hopefully won’t encounter any in the near future, though I’ll update the review over time if anything does happen. All in all then from my limited experience of this car I would recommend it to any one who is looking for a safe, reliable and frugal small car. While other small cars may drive better and perhaps look more attractive, this model of the Polo probably gives you the roomiest small car per pound. In summary then do check this out if your looking at buying a small car, it really is worth considering!

----Additional Information----

This review was based on the Polo 1.2 E 55 bhp, 5 door which was purchased for £7400 on the road including a years road tax.

----Relevant Websites----

(Volkswagon UK)
http://www.vw.co.uk

(NCAP Crash Tests)
http://www.euroncap.com/content/safety_ratings/details.php?id1=1&id2=114

Any comments on this review would be gratefully received!

 

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