Today I’m driving a............Polo 1.0 SE 95ps
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 3:14 pm
My car (previous generation Polo GTI) is being serviced and having it’s first MOT today so I have a courtesy car - an almost fresh out of the box Polo 1.0 SE 95ps with the 5 speed manual gearbox with just under 400 miles on the clock. This is the fist time I’ve driven a current shape Polo, so it was good to compare it to the previous generation car. No comparison on performance though, as it wouldn’t be a fair or valid comparison (my car has a 1.8 192ps engine).
First impressions - it feels very grown up and quite large for a small car compared to the previous model. The boot is a good size and noticeably larger than the boot in my car. The front seats seem to have ‘grown’ in all directions compared to those in my car, and I found them very comfortable - an important consideration for me with ongoing back problems. The centre console area around the gear lever and handbrake sits higher than it does in my car, so you get a feeling of sitting lower down. The higher centre console area between the front seats means the handbrake is positioned higher up, so it felt a little unnatural using it at first as the lever finishes much higher up when the handbrake’s applied than it does in my car. No problems with the handbrake not holding, or the action of the lever being rough as reported by some forum members. The gear change seemed nice and slick and the gate between the gears is very close - initially, I wasn’t sure if I’d successfully changed from 2nd to 3rd or from 4th to 5th! I soon became accustomed to it though. I agree that this engine and gearbox combination is quite high geared, and found it just about possible to drive in 4th gear at 30mph in built up areas; any slower and the engine was noticeably labouring. Much more gear changing required than in my car to keep it on the boil, but that’s to be expected as it’s geared towards economy whereas my car is performance focused. I didn’t experience any issues with the clutch - and I’ve done quite a lot of mixed driving today, including some hill starts. It’s also the first time I’ve driven a car with a three cylinder petrol engine. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but it seemed quite quiet and refined once on the move and to me, it sounded OK accelerating up through the gears (I didn’t push it hard though, even though courtesy cars and rental cars are meant to be the fastest!).
I really liked the dashboard / instrumentation layout. Although the infotainment screen is a fingerprint magnet, the screen image is so much sharper and seems more responsive to touch than the screen in my car. The instrumentation dials are very clear and look quite classy. Something I didn’t like was the speed markings on the speedo in 20mph increments. Quite a lot of my driving is in 30mph speed limit areas, and there’s also lots of 50mph limits on ‘A’ roads around where I live too. Without 30 or 50 mph parking on the speedo, I found it more difficult at a glance to check my speed to make sure I was sticking to the speed limit. I could live with the hard plastic door cards, even though they’re an obvious area of penny pinching by VW compared to the door cards in my current car.
I not one to get hung up on a car’s fuel consumption, but for comparison purposes, over a 30 mile journey this morning was just under 50mpg. This included 8-10 miles of stop start traffic because of a 6 car accident! Driving my car on the same route (without the accident hold up, I would get around 40-41 mpg at this time of year.
I had an opportunity to see how the courtesy car Polo fitted in my small 1980’s garage - it fitted without any problems, which was what I was expecting, as I my previous car (mk6 Golf GTD) fitted. Folding mirrors would have been a benefit though, to give a bit more clearance between the door frame uprights.
All in all, I was quite impressed, and the GTI+ will be on my shortlist next year when I think about changing my car next year.
First impressions - it feels very grown up and quite large for a small car compared to the previous model. The boot is a good size and noticeably larger than the boot in my car. The front seats seem to have ‘grown’ in all directions compared to those in my car, and I found them very comfortable - an important consideration for me with ongoing back problems. The centre console area around the gear lever and handbrake sits higher than it does in my car, so you get a feeling of sitting lower down. The higher centre console area between the front seats means the handbrake is positioned higher up, so it felt a little unnatural using it at first as the lever finishes much higher up when the handbrake’s applied than it does in my car. No problems with the handbrake not holding, or the action of the lever being rough as reported by some forum members. The gear change seemed nice and slick and the gate between the gears is very close - initially, I wasn’t sure if I’d successfully changed from 2nd to 3rd or from 4th to 5th! I soon became accustomed to it though. I agree that this engine and gearbox combination is quite high geared, and found it just about possible to drive in 4th gear at 30mph in built up areas; any slower and the engine was noticeably labouring. Much more gear changing required than in my car to keep it on the boil, but that’s to be expected as it’s geared towards economy whereas my car is performance focused. I didn’t experience any issues with the clutch - and I’ve done quite a lot of mixed driving today, including some hill starts. It’s also the first time I’ve driven a car with a three cylinder petrol engine. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but it seemed quite quiet and refined once on the move and to me, it sounded OK accelerating up through the gears (I didn’t push it hard though, even though courtesy cars and rental cars are meant to be the fastest!).
I really liked the dashboard / instrumentation layout. Although the infotainment screen is a fingerprint magnet, the screen image is so much sharper and seems more responsive to touch than the screen in my car. The instrumentation dials are very clear and look quite classy. Something I didn’t like was the speed markings on the speedo in 20mph increments. Quite a lot of my driving is in 30mph speed limit areas, and there’s also lots of 50mph limits on ‘A’ roads around where I live too. Without 30 or 50 mph parking on the speedo, I found it more difficult at a glance to check my speed to make sure I was sticking to the speed limit. I could live with the hard plastic door cards, even though they’re an obvious area of penny pinching by VW compared to the door cards in my current car.
I not one to get hung up on a car’s fuel consumption, but for comparison purposes, over a 30 mile journey this morning was just under 50mpg. This included 8-10 miles of stop start traffic because of a 6 car accident! Driving my car on the same route (without the accident hold up, I would get around 40-41 mpg at this time of year.
I had an opportunity to see how the courtesy car Polo fitted in my small 1980’s garage - it fitted without any problems, which was what I was expecting, as I my previous car (mk6 Golf GTD) fitted. Folding mirrors would have been a benefit though, to give a bit more clearance between the door frame uprights.
All in all, I was quite impressed, and the GTI+ will be on my shortlist next year when I think about changing my car next year.
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