Volkswagen Polo 1.2 TSI 2014 Review - International

There are few arguments when you proclaim the Volkswagen Polo to be the best car in its class. The 2010 World Car of the Year winner has long felt a cut above the rest, with the best ride, the sturdiest build and the best interior materials in the business.

Plenty have tried to bridge their gaps to the sheer quality of the big-selling Volkswagen and perhaps Hyundai’s i10 has come closest, but it still doesn’t quite deliver the Polo’s unshakable feelings of strength and solidity.

It’s lineball the second most important Volkswagen worldwide, but Down Under it ranks fourth in the VW stable behind the Golf (17,342 sales last year), the Amarok 4x4 (6941) and the Tiguan (6441).

The Polo might be the dominant player everywhere it goes in Europe, but its 5582 sales in Australia were down a few per cent last year, leaving it seventh in the light-car category. Both Hyundai’s i20 and Suzuki’s Swift more than doubled the Polo’s volumes, while the Toyota Yaris, Mazda2, Holden Barina and Kia Rio all trumped its 5.9 per cent market share.

It might have been outsold, but not out-engineered, which means the new Polo’s many upgrades take it even further ahead.

It gets a core of engineering stuff, like all-new turbocharged petrol and diesel engines, like electric power steering and two-stage dampers to deliver both a comfort and a sport setting. Oh, and idle-stop and regenerative braking systems to lower fuel consumption.

The 2014 Polo gets a raft of interior fun stuff, too, like the touch-screen sat-nav straight out of the Golf, and it’s actually the first Volkswagen to use the Group’s new multimedia system. Plus it continues to deliver 280 litres of luggage space with the false floor at its lowest level, or 952 litres with the seats folded down.

Then there are the safety systems, with the Polo delivering emergency city braking to avoid crashes when drivers won’t, post-collision auto braking and a drowsy driver alert system.

Then there are sophisticated options like radar cruise control and full LED headlights and you start to see why a car that was already ahead might have created an unbridgeable gap. It does so much on pure engineering and packaging that probably wasn’t needed.

Certainly, the exterior design group didn’t think their efforts could yield much more out of the Polo’s shape and you have to take VW at its word that it has new front and rear bumper sections because they look pretty similar to the old one from most eyes.

Firstly, there is sad news for diesel fans. The diesel Polo is no more in Australia. A car that found a hardy few fans, it had shrunk to less than five per cent of Polo volumes and, with the economy gap to the diesel and the petrol models shrinking with every generation, VW Australia decided it was time to let go. And so we won’t be going into detail on the new diesel engines.

Secondly, there is sad news for those who want what Europe gets. Australia won’t see the two-stage damping system in its Polo. VW is still considering the LED lights, radar cruise control and even the reversing camera (which means they might end up together in a pack).

Also, prices are set to rise. A bit. Not sure how big a bit yet, because the car won’t be here until September, but it will be countered by a rise in spec on the current car.

There will be a stronger (81kW) version coming, too, but for now we will only get the 66kW version of the 1.2-litre four-cylinder engine, complete with turbocharging and direct-injection, and it sees the end of the old multi-point injection four for Australian use.

The result is a lovely, smooth powerplant with a creamy note, a distinct lack of vibration and enough strength to pull all the way to 184km/h. It will rev out to 6000rpm, even though its peak power arrives at just 4800, and its 160Nm of torque hits at 1400rpm and sticks around in a flat line until 4000.

They don’t sound like big numbers, but the Polo only weighs 1107kg and even that includes a 75kg allowance for the driver. It’s 32kg heavier with the seven-speed DSG transmission that more than 80 per cent of Australian Polo drivers choose (it’s close to 90 per cent manual in Europe).

It feels livelier with the five-speed manual gearbox attached to it, even though both cars post identical acceleration numbers (10.8 seconds to 100km/h, but it’s really not that important down at this size).

It’s also a willing little thing, able to urge the Polo on from very low revs even with three adults and their luggage on board. And it’s economical. VW claims an NEDC combined economy number of just 4.7L/100km, which translates to 107g/km of CO2. It’s not as cheerfully thrifty as the 3.4L/100km posted by its 66kW 1.4-litre diesel sibling, but it’s not bad.

What’s always been brilliant in the Polo has just been polished further. The interior is extremely comfortable and the dash and seat trims are high quality. The touch-screen dash fires up its supplementary buttons whenever you reach to within a hand’s breadth of it and it’s very, very easy to use, either for navigation or for audio.

It also inherits the Golf’s steering wheel, complete with its flat bottom, yet it retains plenty of familiar practicalities from its predecessor, including door pockets that hold a full 1.5-litre bottle of anything, two drink holders in front of the gear lever, a big glovebox and folding armrest.

The seats are tremendous for a car this size and price, capable of carrying big people all day without complaint and the head and legroom in the rear is excellent, too.

And so is the ride quality. It’s no sports car in the corners and though the stiffening of the damping via the two-stage suspension button helps, it’s really a lot less relevant than you can even imagine in this class. VW Australia has probably done well to ignore it.

It’s the car’s effortless delivery of comfort and a quiet cabin that lends it an air of authority none of its foes can match. It has levels of ride comfort that verge on mid-sized premium standards, especially now that the revamped suspension settings (it still runs a beam rear axle and a MacPherson strut front-end as the core architecture) let it waft better over the fiddly bits.

The Polo’s never been a car to be hurled at the scenery (well, not unless you are Mr Ogier), but it does allow you to carry a surprising amount of corner speed when you want to and the new electric steering doesn’t seem to lose anything much by way of feedback. It’s light, unobtrusive and perfectly in keeping with the Polo’s city character.

Easy to drive, comfortable, quiet, solid and safe, the latest Polo is an excellent car. But, then, it always was.

2014 Volkswagen 1.2 TSI pricing and specifications:
Price: $TBA (but slightly more than the current car)
Engine: 1.2-litre inline turbo-petrol four-cylinder
Output: 66kW/160Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed DSG twin-clutch auto
Fuel: 4.7L/100km (combined, auto)
CO2: 108g/km (combined, auto)
Safety Rating: TBA

Overseas Bluemotion TSI images shown