The Volkswagen Polo
Overview
In
the past I’ve knocked Volkswagen products but in recent years the claim is that
the cars have dramatically improved.
When I was given a 2005 1·4 Polo as a loan car I figured this would be an opportunity to see
how good the Polo had become.
On
paper, the Polo looks to offer a comparable driving experience to the Ka. Power
assisted steering, alloys and a similar core equipment list. Its 1·4 engine produces slightly more power
and torque compared to the Ford 1·3 but uses slightly taller gearing in a
heavier car. The official performance
figures give the Ka a slight advantage in the standing start acceleration tests
and the Polo has a higher maximum speed.
On paper the Polo is slightly more economical but my stewardship was too
short for a meaningful comparison other than it was “comparable” to Kermy’s fuel consumption. For something that is thoroughly more modern,
that’s disappointing.
Performance
The VAG 1·4 is a
relatively modern engine with double overhead camshafts operating on a total of
sixteen valves. The engine is reputed to
be tuned for mid range poke rather than delivering the goods at the top end of
the rev range. It is quiet and smooth
most of the time but is disadvantaged by producing the all-too-common generic (banal) engine note.
Unfortunately,
this version of the Volkswagen 1·4 is handicapped in two ways. One, despite being tweaked for torque in the
mid range the engine still needs lots of revs to perform. There is precious little under 2,000
rpm. By 3,000 rpm things are improving
but even then it doesn’t pull well until 4,000 rpm is showing. The party is over by 5,500 rpm and the
limiter kicks in at 5,750 rpm but by this point you know it wants the
next gear up. Thus, the power band for
effective performance is between 3,000 rpm and 5,500 rpm. The Endura-E is also designed for low to mid
range torque and its effective rev range is something like 750 rpm lower than
the VAG 1·4.
This
is an important point. The Ka has
shorter gearing and produces stronger acceleration lower down. That means it requires fewer gear changes for
a given cross country pace compared with the Polo.
The
second reason is more significant and is because of Volkswagen’s drive-by-wire
technology. All this means it that the
accelerator pedal is connected to the ECU rather than to the engine. The ECU
interprets what the driver wants from the engine and moves the engine throttle
itself. Drive-by-wire systems are
primarily used to reduce emissions. The
very best can improve engine responses and reduce fuel consumption.
Not this one: VAG have robbed the engine of all sensitivity to small foot
movements.
What
this means is that a gentle squeeze on the accelerator causes precious little
to happen. Continue to squeeze and still
nothing happens. Motorway gradients
become very frustrating experience. The
ECU interprets what your foot does into what it thinks you mean and if you want
some acceleration you need to make a more aggressive movement than squeezing
it.
This
means that when you’re trying hard with the Polo it will perform much better
than when you just want to up the tempo a little. It’s not quick, but providing you keep the
engine speed over 4,000 rpm the Polo feels quicker than the Endura-E powered Ka.
But for “speed management,” that is maintaining a constant speed over an
undulating road, the system quite simply sucks.
One has to exaggerate foot movements.
It is as though the Polo’s drive-by-wire system has been designed for
those people unable to cruise and who out of habit constantly change their
accelerator foot position.
This
is in stark contrast with the Ka, admittedly a car with an excellent throttle
response and as far as I’m concerned, the benchmark.
Handling
and Ride
Volkswagen have not
instilled the Polo with the same chassis abilities that the larger mark five
Golf benefits from. The Polo has the
underlying firm ride of many German cars but unfortunately in twisty stuff the
car suffers from body roll. Body roll by
itself isn’t a bad thing, but here it is combined with poor directional
stability that has the Polo tripping over itself.
The
car will also wheelspin away any excess power in the lower gears in a bend or
over a roundabout and then understeer or
wash out side. This happened to me a few
times in the dry and every time I tried applying full, or close to full,
throttle in second gear. Once the
tachometer needle swept past 4,000 rpm, the engine zipped to the limiter with
an accompanying bzzzzzt from the spinning tyre.
I struggled to believe that the Polo’s chassis, tyre and suspension set
up is so inept to be unable to cope with just seventy five brake horsepower so
I kept on trying.
Interior,
Equipment and Build Quality
Volkswagen
pride themselves on build quality and it’s true that the Polo’s doors shut with
a solid clunk and the controls feel well put together. However, the dashboard rattled. This from a machine with under three thousand
miles on the odometer. I do not expect a
rattle in _any_ car, let alone something that pushes good build quality upon
you and is new.
The
dashboard is dark, sombre but easy to use.
Like all modern VWs the Polo has blue interior illumination, which at
first is a nice touch but after a while becomes quite annoying. I do have medical reasons for not liking a
blue glow at night so this won’t apply to everybody.
In
terms of equipment, this particular Polo came with ABS,
remote central locking, electric windows, electrically adjustable and heated
door mirrors, semi-automatic air conditioning but a
stereo radio cassette. Does anybody
still use cassette tapes? I’m sure some
people do, but fitting a cassette player and charging several hundred pounds
for an upgrade to a CD player just smacks of being tight. I really cannot see evidence that the money
saved has been put to good use elsewhere.
Conclusion
In
isolation I admit that the Polo is a solid buy.
It’s solid, it ought to be dependable and will probably not depreciate
very quickly.
Against
this, it is unexciting and boring to drive.
Wringing the cars’ neck to get decent acceleration isn’t very rewarding
nor is hustling it through a series of corners.
On the motorway, the dull drive isn’t rewarded by something that is easy
to cover a large distance in because of the drive-by-wire implications.
For
the people who buy Polo after Polo, they are getting better and better
but for anybody else, I’m happy to slate the Polo. If you must buy a Volkswagen, buy a used Golf. If you want
VAG engineering, buy a Skoda Fabia. If
you want a small car, take a look at the Ford Fiesta.