Has the Polo gained some muscles?
The Polo is one of those VW’s that has just been there forever, a real fixed value for the brand.
So when it comes to renewing these models, they mostly do minor changes. Let’s take a look at this specific Polo, because it does have a few interesting bits and bops.
R line
I might have the most unpopular opinion on this, but why spend an extra x amount, when you could easily save up or spend that extra money on a golf with fewer options.
It does come with some very flattering esthetic changes, as well as the futuristic-looking LED bar in the front.
Is it worth the money? I wouldn’t say so, at least not on this specific car. Unless you’re all in for it and adore the looks, then by all means, go for it! The only shame I feel like, is that it doesn’t come with any engine or suspension benefits.
What’s new?
Coming from the 2017 6th generation, this then is the facelift. The rear-end definitely has gotten some more up-to-date taillights, now being boomerang-shaped, more like its bigger brother (the Golf).
The front-end though, really looks like a baby golf in my opinion. Especially with the continuous LED strip thanks to the r-line, and not to forget; the adaptive IQ-Light-Matrixledheadlights. I drove the car on a few very dark roads, and these made it an ease to have a well-lit road in front of you.
And apart from a few other features we’ll summarise in the coming paragraphs, I have to say, it isn’t really that much different from the pre-facelift.
DSG in a 1.0
When I picked up the car, the only thing I was excited about was the DSG to be honest. The week before I had been driving a GTI with the DSG gearbox as well, so I was curious how it would behave in this Polo.
It was not to my surprise, that the gearbox was “detuned” a bit and a lot less engaging. Nevertheless, it was more of a smooth driving experience, and it fitted the car more in this case. So all in all, I couldn’t complain!
Interior
I feel like they looked at the mistakes they made in the Golf and solved that in this Polo in many ways. It comes as standard with a fully digital dashboard. This certainly gives the interior a more premium feel. You can choose from 4 different infotainment screens varying from 6.5 to 9.5 inches. Our car was fitted with a wonderful 9.5-inch display.
If there’s one thing I absolutely don’t like about VW’s new interiors, are all of the digital buttons, especially those that have a slider function.
On this face-lifted Polo they luckily avoided most of those “digital sliders”. For example, the volume is now adjustable with two separate buttons on the side of the infotainment display, as well as the volume buttons on the steering wheel, that are now physical instead of digital. Let’s hope they continue that trend into the models to come as well.
On the quality side of things, this interior has to be leading in its class. Almost everything you interact with frequently is of great quality and feels rigid.
Driving aids
Our car came with the Travel Assist-adaptive cruise control and the collision warning and lane assist. These all together worked quite well, although it was tricky when driving in town, and the Polo all of a sudden break-checked the car behind you, because you entered a zone of 30 km/h… It took some getting used to and figuring out the right settings so that these dangers could be avoided.
The lane assist worked flawlessly on the highway and made the car a joy to do long distances in. Although it might get boring when the car does most of the work for you, I found it to be a very safe feature to have.
Motorization
From all I mentioned in the above, you might feel like the Polo is in a whole other ball-game now. Well, motorization-wise, it’s still very basic…
Over in Europe, the Polo is available with a 1.0 L TGI 3-Cylinder on Natural gas, producing 90hp and 160nm of torque, connected to a manual 5-speed. Then there is the most powerful 1.0 TSI that puts out 110hp and 200nm. This one is always connected to the DSG transmission. In between those two there is the one we tested, the 1.0 TSI with 95hp, available with either a manual or DSG transmission.
I quickly found out that this car was perfectly usable for your day-to-day commute. Don’t try to race anyone at the traffic lights or go have some fun on back roads, because for those occasions, the Polo is just a bit underpowered and it feels kind of “sluggish”. That all seems logical when you look at its 0-100 km/h time, 11,3 seconds… Yet you can’t blame them because those prestations are normal for this kind of engine. Apart from that, I’d choose this car over some of its concurring models, to go do my daily commute in, for sure.
Conclusion
I’m going to end this article the same way I started it, and that is by saying that the Polo has been, is, and will continue to be a fixed value for VW. You’ll benefit from the overall build quality VW group is known for, and get a solid car for the class it’s in. You get more physical buttons compared to its bigger brother (the Golf), and a premium-looking dashboard. You just have to be able to live with its price and the fact that it doesn’t have all that much “character”.
