QLD Hi to all

[Sword_Dude]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie (in all respects, this is my first ever forum) from Brisbane (Northern Suburbs).
Still driving a 20 year old Honda Civic while waiting for the Polo to replace it, ordered in late December with a week 18 build date so probably arriving July sometime.
I am told patience is a virtue.
BTW this forum is great so much info that just does not seem to be available anywhere else.
cheers

[Buller_Scott]

hey mate, welcome!

i LOVE the 1.2 tsi engine (well, the car too, lol)... such a fine piece of engineering imo, as i really like the idea of tiny engines utilising good technology and still being zippy.

sport pack looks the goods, too... i know they are very "original equipment" looking, but for some reason the sport pack wheels really, really attract me.

did you look at other cars when shopping? if so, what did you look at, and what were your thoughts? it'd be interesting to get your take on things, especially seeing as small frugal hatches are on the up and up.

welcome and enjoy!

[Sword_Dude]

Hey there,

Like you I love the motor and the look of the car. Funnily to me with the sport pack the Polo looks like a different car, somehow more aggressive and dare I say manly.

When I started the process I really wanted something to replace my civic but I wanted 4 doors, I started looking at the new civic and lancer but for what I need these cars are just too big now. So then I made a list of requirements.

1. About the same size as the civic (around 4 m length)
2. 5 Star safety
3. Better fuel economy than the civic (no mean feat it does better than 7l/100km!) while still having some performance.
4. A decent sized boot or hatch
5. Under $25k driveaway
6. Hopefully something that will last (but you never really know do you) as I tend to keep my cars for a long time.

From this list an amazing number of cars can be eliminated immediately

I ended up looking closely at the Fiesta, Swift, Mazda and of course the Polo.

My opinions ran like this:

Fiesta - a great car to drive, very modern, base and mid range model didn't have 5 star ANCAP, but does now. I thought with that "klingon" starship dash it would age pretty quick though. I have real concerns about quality too now that it is made in Thailand. The back seat did not fold flat which lost some points for me.

Mazda - just too girly for me, but in most other respects very much like the ford except a lot more conservative.

Swift - as good a car to drive as the ford, although the one I test drove had some pretty nice rubber which gave it a better feel than standard. Engine and electronics a bit too low tech. However the real killer was the boot, occassionally I need to put more than a lunch box in the boot and the swift just has a nonexistent luggage space.

Polo - well it took ages to find one to even test drive, which I thought was a bit of a concern for supply but heck I have a car and it still goes so not really a drama. When I finally got a chance to test drive, my thoughts were: Really nice to drive, not as responsive as the ford but real close, this was the most comfortable of the cars to sit in as a passenger or driver, had the biggest boot of the cars I looked at and I liked the under boot hidey hole as well. Safety - tick, economy - tick (but with reservations about PULP). Styling both interior and exterior conservative but classy but still with a performance edge to it when the sport pack is added. My thoughts were that the car would hold its value as it wouldn't date like the ford and wasn't already dated like the swift.

Anyway that is what I thought, but I am still waiting for July to come around.

[Sword_Dude]

With a week 18 build date, mine should be on the line this week...woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!

[totallysour]

If you dont mind my asking - what was your drive away price in the end? Also what options? DSG? Alarm?

[Sword_Dude]

If you dont mind my asking - what was your drive away price in the end? Also what options? DSG? Alarm?

Totallysour,

Drive away was $23,500 neat. From my reading this looks like a pretty fair deal, not great but not too shabby either.

This was for 77 TSI Polo manual with Sports pack and carpet mats in Flash Red, nothing else.

Dealer includes "pit stop service" for 1st 3 years, this is a quick 10-15 minute check of fluids etc without a booking from my understanding.

cheers

[team_v]

Totallysour,

Drive away was $23,500 neat. From my reading this looks like a pretty fair deal, not great but not too shabby either.

This was for 77 TSI Polo manual with Sports pack and carpet mats in Flash Red, nothing else.

Dealer includes "pit stop service" for 1st 3 years, this is a quick 10-15 minute check of fluids etc without a booking from my understanding.

cheers

Which dealer?
Good luck getting the pit stop service, from what i have heard they need to be booked in 2 weeks in advance in most cases.

Hopefuly you don't have to wait too long now.

[Sword_Dude]

Which dealer?
Good luck getting the pit stop service, from what i have heard they need to be booked in 2 weeks in advance in most cases.

Hopefuly you don't have to wait too long now.

Dealer was Austral at Newstead, I tried Norris at Kedron but they never returned calls so it was impossible to deal with them.

Oh well even if the pit stop has to be booked at least I can still get it done evwery 6 months for piece of mind.

Probably still an 8-10 week wait fom now....

[team_v]

Dealer was Austral at Newstead, I tried Norris at Kedron but they never returned calls so it was impossible to deal with them.

Oh well even if the pit stop has to be booked at least I can still get it done evwery 6 months for piece of mind.

Probably still an 8-10 week wait fom now....

This is the only case i have heard of anyone being happyier with Austral than another dealership.

I will be getting mine serviced by a qualified independent.

[Old Pete]

Sword_Dude, my wife jas a Polo 77 TSI with DSG (delivered last December). She has done around 8,000k for an average return of 6l/100k. Best so far is 5.4 Sth Coast NSW to Sydney. Got the same on the return trip. Dipped as low as 4.9 on the freeway. The only down side so far is a noisy turbo (loud rattling) on semi-hard acceleration (around a corner then uphill, for example).

[Sword_Dude]

Sword_Dude, my wife jas a Polo 77 TSI with DSG (delivered last December). She has done around 8,000k for an average return of 6l/100k. Best so far is 5.4 Sth Coast NSW to Sydney. Got the same on the return trip. Dipped as low as 4.9 on the freeway. The only down side so far is a noisy turbo (loud rattling) on semi-hard acceleration (around a corner then uphill, for example).

Thanks Old Pete, mine will be manual so probably about the same economy. I am contemplating getting the Polo tuned with the DNA chip for a little extra power and my reading indicates that there is extra fuel savings involved as well. Have you had the rattling looked at, I saw on one of the threads a lot of people talking about a rattle that got fixed by bending a pipe.

[Sword_Dude]

This is the only case i have heard of anyone being happyier with Austral than another dealership.

I will be getting mine serviced by a qualified independent.

Team_v, I think I just had a really good salesman at Austral (Trent) he was honest and followed up all my stupid questions, kept me in the loop as to when a car would be available to drive.

I was thinkiing of using the independent VAG/German specialist who runs out of Geebung/Virginia for servicing...German Autos I think. He gets some good reviews on this forum.

[Sword_Dude]

I got the call from Austral today...I have a VIN the car is built, now waiting for transport.

Just as well too I had to fork out money for a new battery for my old car today

[team_v]

Shouldn't be long now then!

Are you coming to cars and coffee on Sunday?
I will be driving in from the inner north for it.

[Sword_Dude]

Are you coming to cars and coffee on Sunday?
I will be driving in from the inner north for it.

Sorry no can do, going away for a dirty weekend with the wife, probably the last chance I will get before the new love of my life arrives!