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.
This isn't always the top priority for a sporty hatchback, but the Polo scores well with a taut but smooth ride (none of the bouncing and floating of past Polos) and sportily huggy seats with unusual trim - a giant figure one on each seat with an arrow to show the direction of travel. The seatbelts are colour-matched, too. Automatic air-conditioning is standard.
The Polo is less spacious than some supermini rivals, and its boot space is tall rather than long, but there's sufficient space for four adults and plenty of headroom. The new dashboard allows both a passenger airbag and a glovebox, unlike the old one.
The three-door gets six speakers, the five-door eight, all powered by an RDS stereo with a boot-mounted, six-disc CD autochanger. There's also a choice of two optional satellite-navigation systems.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Polo
wrote on 03 03 2008
wrote on 29 05 2006