What is it?
It's VW's supermini mainstay - always good, but always in the Golf's shadow. Oh, and always ever-so-slightly dowdy. The all-new Polo is based on the same VW Group platform that underpins the
SEAT Ibiza, but whereas its Spanish cousin majors on flair and style, the Polo has quality as its USP - and in spades, too. Just like the
Golf VI, which has again raised the bar for interior quality and hatchback refinement, the new Polo sets out to do the same for the supermini sector. So, DSG twin-clutch transmission is an option, as is touch screen satnav, and the plastics are softer to the touch than an Andrex puppy.
Why's it here?
Because the current Polo is showing its age and the new Golf makes it look positively archaic. The newcomer gets power from clean 1.2- and 1.4 litre petrol engines, and a 1.6-litre diesel in 74bhp and 89bhp states of tune. Then there's the little issue of the aforementioned BlueMotion: it will do 74-miles with a mere gallon of fuel and will spit out a tax-beating 96g/km of CO
2. However, in 2010 the BlueMotion 2 will appear, which manages - get this - 85mpg and 87g/km of CO
2. Even if reality results in three-quarters of that mpg figure, it's still quite remarkable.
Show stopper or floor filler?
Amid show stars like the
Lamborghini Murcielago SuperVeloce and even the Ford iosisMAX, an ordinary Polo is a floor filler if we're honest. Yet it's still one of the few world debuts of a bona fide production car at Geneva, and that's worth something. Plus, the BlueMotion version is actually causing quite a stir thanks to those amazing stats. It's a strange motoring age we live in; not so long ago news of a VW supermini with a double-digit power rating would have raised few eyebrows. Now, our collective environmental obsession means it garners more interest than Brabus's entire show stand. Outrageous.
Mark Nichol - 4 Mar 2009
