Polo will upgrade cult of VW
There’s a cult of VW. It has been carefully built up by the company that started out as a one-model carmaker and stayed that way right up to the 60s, when it diversified into hippie-wagons, successfully, and later a few other cars spectacularly unsuccessfully. Like the 411.
(If you have to ask, don’t. You’re too young, and history will bore you.)
The cult of VW startede with the Beetle. It wasn’t such a great car. It wasn’t even called a Beetle, that was a later nickname. It was a cheap car, it was reasonably reliable. Mechanics could change the engine fast. In Ireland, randy vets of my acquaintance loved it. Though being randy in the back seat was only marginally easier than in the later similarly cult car, the Mini. It was VW’s only car until after the unsuccessfuls came the Golf.
The Golf is its own story. And it took long enough too. But cults don’t promote the time that it takes to become one.
The Polo took even longer. Because the little underpowered, undersized, frankly miserable car was no match for the equally underpowered, undersized, frankly miserable Ford Fiesta of the same days. But a Ford, after all, was a Ford. And a Volkswagen was only a Beetle, or a Golf which was much more modern but competing with a rally-sexier Escort.
Still, Polo gained from the DNA of the improving Golf. OK, last generation, anybody buying an entry-level 1.05-litre was taking on still-miserable performance and poor specification. It looked better than before, but it didn’t work nuthin’. You had to have the 1.4. It’s what I advised people, most importantly my neighbour, and those who took my advice were very happy with their Polos.
And for its time it was a sweet car. Solid, good enough looking. And I’ve always believed that the current reliability image of Volkswagen was more truly versed in the last Polo than anything else in the range. For ordinary motorists who buy their cars on a price and on a reputation of reliability, not for sexy or cult reasons.
The Polo fell behind as times moved on. Corsa and others leapfrogged. Only Fiesta stayed back with it ... and is now ready to make a quantum leap.
Is the new Polo making a quantum leap?
Hmm. Not in basic specification. In the same way that the original VW (later Beetle) didn’t provide a fuel gauge (don’t ask if you don’t remember), the latest Polo doesn’t give as standard a switch to disconnect the passenger airbag.
And no central locking in the basic version of what is not the cheapest car in its class is not just a pain, but a perceivably dangerous thing in these days of carjacking, particularly for women owners (likely a high percentage).
But it’s a Volkswagen, right? You’re paying for the badge. The reliability. The reputation.
Not enough any more, lads. We’re in the era of every car being a good car. Better is often marginal, and not as big a margin as is overall specification. So, to shine, you’ve got be really good. And you’ve got to give as good as is given elsewhere. And there’s research to say that the much-vaunted VW build quality is not seen to be as good as it used to be.
Enough of the carping (which is what the foregoing will be seen as by VW’s people here). Is the new Polo good?
Oh, yes. Very good, in many respects. Whether better than the competition is up to you (but hang in there for the upcoming Volkswagen Group SEAT Ibiza, which is going to be a really strong stylish competition).
The new Polo does look really good. The front end takes on what they promoted in the last Lupo’s lights but does something with the actual grille that punches up the frontward image of the whole car.
The Polo under review is the 3-door. It’s the current entry level, with the 65bhp engine (a 55bhp version will come available later in the year, and I have to ask why?). It looks good from the side, too.
Inside, the best part of the dashboard is that there’s a square area on the top where it is great to park the mobile phone. Otherwise it is very black and very dull. But big brownie points come for the two under-dash storage ledges, and the underseat front drawers.
Instruments score high for us over-50s, with the night-time blue that is the best end of the spectrum for those going long-sighted. Everybody else please copy. We’re all getting older.
(And here’s a thought for the guy who emailed me that irishcar.com has no ‘passion’ for motoring: son, my personal passion has matured to an ecstasy in motoring - and other things - that will take you a long life to appreciate. Meantime, Trapman is probably your man. He doesn’t appreciate it yet either, though he’s a clever guy and knows his cars.)
Space in the new Polo is good. Headroom and legroom is all that is expected in the segment (Ford is going to do better, though, when Fiesta arrives here).
But the real test is to divert from the Naas Road Friday evening gridlock via Kilteel, and this is where the most basic available VW Polo came into its own.
The ride and handling on what are not the best roads in the country were better than they ever seemed to be on the good roads at decent speed. And that’s fair enough, because we should not expect anything less these days. But, really, it was really good. And the trip was made more fun by the 1.2-litre 3-cylinder engine, which despite its sewing-machine sound at idle is a really vervy and enthusiastic motor when you floor the right pedal. It’s a wheeeeee motor that can do enough to drive you into trouble above motorway speed limits without you realising it. It does even more in the twisties, being a very fun engine to drive.
The shifter is neat, crisp to the required part of the gate. The brakes worked, what more can one ask? Switches were noticeable by the blanks of non-specification, and the only one active was the rear demister.
We should be thankful. We are buying a VW badge after all. And buying the latest VW Polo is buying one of the better versions of the badge than it ever deserved.
OK, my own view is not that it is the best car in the class ever made. But it comes close to being the best-ever VW. And in current form a competitor to its bigger brother Golf. A big competitor, and so it’s just as well that the Golf itself is up for renewal.
Now, all you’ve got to decide is what that means. And whether your 14,680 euros makes it your best bet.
I can’t make that decision for you. But if you’re one of those who subscribe to the cult of the VW, I don’t have to.
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