Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £12,460 to £12,960
2005 restyle has brought looks up to date, quality feel inside and out, space, safety equipment, ride and handling, interesting engines, aura of rational Volkswagen-ness.
Mediocre performance from some engines, expensive.
The Polo falls short on few measures, but some supermini rivals do the job better, and for less.
The power steering is light and precise, firming up at speed more than the Fabia's otherwise similar system does and making the driver feel more confident. The gearchange is especially smooth, light and precise, unlike the old Polo's. Add light but progressive brakes, a smooth clutch and an accurate accelerator response (apart from a few hesitations in the 1.4 16V), and you have a particularly painless car to drive. Dials are neat, switches are logical, and the view out is clear especially over the low dashboard and through the deep windscreen. The only snag is that the sloping nose is invisible from the driving seat.
It's massively more fun than the old Polo, revealing an encouraging new direction in VW's fun-to-drive philosophy. The steering is precise, if still a little short on true road feel, and the grip, balance and fluid responses let you have quite a good time. Up to a point, the harder you accelerate through a bend, the more you can feel the rear wheels helping the tail round so the front ones don't drift out. If you then decelerate, the line tightens a little more - but it's not at all abrupt, because emissions tweaks on the engines prevent the deceleration being sudden.
The current diesel engines - the weedier 1.4s and noisy old 1.9 SDI have been discontinued - are much stronger, and the torquey 80bhp version of the 1.4 is particularly good. In the Bluemotion, however, it's teamed with different transmission ratios for better fuel economy - it may be super-efficient, but it's slow.
The three-cylinder 1.2 petrol engines aren't quick either, but are smooth and reasonably lively off the mark - fine for nipping about town. The 1.4 FSI (with direct injection) can get a bit noisy when pushed hard; the 1.6 is less stressed, and the turbocharged 1.8 GTi (150bhp) is great fun - check out our separate review for more on this.
On most models, a five-speed manual gearbox is fitted. A four-speed automatic is offered with the 75bhp 1.4-litre petrol. The 130bhp turbodiesel comes with a six-speed manual gearbox. The manuals are smooth-shifting and robust; the auto's not bad, but can struggle to pick out the right gear for quick progress through twisty bends.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Polo
wrote on 03 03 2008
wrote on 29 05 2006