Category: Hot Hatchbacks 
Price Range: £12,460 to £12,960
Looks great, well built, lots of kit, punchy performance.
Uninspiring handling.
More frills than thrills.
No problems here - the driving position is commanding, the seat and steering wheel adjust for height and the new-look Polo dials are ultra-clear. The accelerator, brakes and clutch are all smooth and progressive, the power steering is light for parking, and the gearchange, often rough and obstructive in pre-facelift Polos, is much slicker now.
The previous Polo could make you think you were sitting in the bottom of a gloomy pit, but lighter trim materials and a curving-down dashboard have fixed that.
Lowered and stiffened sports suspension should make for a meaty, interactive drive, and it's true that there's plenty of grip and the steering is precise. But there's something missing, which is that you can't fine-tune the cornering line with the accelerator in the way you can with the most entertaining hot hatchbacks. You steer the Polo, but you don't bond with it.
With 125 bhp on offer, plus 112 lb ft of torque on tap at a low 3300 rpm thanks to variable inlet-valve timing, the Polo can reach 127 mph and touch 62 mph from a standstill in 8.7 seconds. The 16-valve engine sounds sportily rorty without being loud, and its drive-by-wire accelerator responds keenly. Somehow, though, the Polo doesn't feel quite as lively as the figures suggest, and you're aware of its considerable weight compared with, say, a Citroen Saxo VTS or a Peugeot 106 GTI.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Polo
wrote on 03 03 2008
wrote on 29 05 2006