77TSI DSG v Fiesta Zetec WT DSG

[funtastic]

Do you do many country drives in the polo? I expect we will be driving it in the city 90% of the time but nice to know it handles the country roads well. How is the comfort over long drives and do you find the cabin size gets claustrophobic at all?

[FJ Steve]

Do you do many country drives in the polo? I expect we will be driving it in the city 90% of the time but nice to know it handles the country roads well. How is the comfort over long drives and do you find the cabin size gets claustrophobic at all?

it was purchased to be a shopping chariot. 99.995% city driving (with freeway work). And to try and preserve the .:R32.

Yesterday, 3 of us went to see some friends who live in Lower Chittering. We are in Mindarie, so out along Neaves Rd, up Gt Northern Hwy and over to Lwr Chit. This is the first time we had stretched the legs on the Polo, and it handled the work very well. Handling (we have the sports package) was very good (considering I am used to the AWD of the .:R32 and the taught suspension that goes with it). Comfort was very good, but I do miss the .:R seats. In saying that, I did not feel any discomfort while driviing the Polo, and interior size etc is quite good, when you consider the external dimensions. I do not find it significantly smaller than the .:R. Remember, the internal dimesniosn of the Polo are said to be the same as the MKIV Golf.

We now have 10k kms on the Polo (since mid December 2010), and despite some minor warranty niggles (still being sorted), the car has perofrmed well. Fuel economy just keeeps getting better and better. We regularly get 700kms from a tank....that's doing daily trips from Mindarie to Burswood in peak hour (occasionally I am allowed to take it to work - Bassendean).

[sVWatt]

tried Polo, Fiesta and Jazz before I decided.

Jazz engine smoothest of them all. Interior old. No ESP.

Fiesta fun drive, cheap plastics, poor ergonomics. Now lost its soft dash and adjustable steering column. Grunty less refined engine.

Polo safest - ESP, airbags etc. Interior - understated quality. Little touches like cooled glovebox, height adjustable seat, proper cup holders (unlike Honda micro holders falsely claimed to be cup holders), on DSG hill hold etc etc. Engine not quite as refined as Honda, but on par with Ford.

Ford Aus were dissapointing - imagine importing a car without rear airbags, when the UK model had them as standard - that put me off them.

I'd had Polo's in the UK and they went to 200k miles on the clock - not a worry - solid build.

Pay the extra and watch your smile grow in the auto dimming mirror

[break]

To give you and idea, we've gone with the Fiesta for my girlfriend for these reasons:

* Price - The Polo is just too expensive to compete with the rest of the small hatch market
* Drive - The Fiesta, particularly the manual diesel, was a far more balanced and 'fun' car to drive than the Polo.
* Space - Fiesta won on boost space, interior space wasn't much different.
* Economy - The Fiesta is marginally more thirsty 1.6 petrol vs 1.2tsi, Fiesta diesel is on par with Polo diesel (although the Fiesta's diesel motor certainly feels sportier)
* Mechanical Build Quality - More and more reports of mechanical issues across the VW range (I had lots with my 06 Polo GTI, a friend is having all sorts of problems with his 08 Golf GTI)
* Gearbox - DSG Vs Powershift is a clear winner to the Powershift for non-sporty people. It doesn't hiccup in slow traffic, it doesn't roll back on hills... its FAR more 'user friendly' than the DSG, but it is significantly slower to shift and doesn't feel as sporty. Really depends on what you're after... I'd prefer the DSG, but my girlfriend hated it in contrast to the powershift.


The downsides to the Fiesta really were the interior build quality, which wasn't as good as the VW. Definitely not 'bad', it certainly felt robust enough, but the Polo really does feel more solid and classy on the inside.

Overall, the Fiesta mops the floor for our needs.

[Blurter]

Do you do many country drives in the polo? I expect we will be driving it in the city 90% of the time but nice to know it handles the country roads well. How is the comfort over long drives and do you find the cabin size gets claustrophobic at all?

I recently did a trip up the Hume from Canberra to Sydney to see Neil Diamond and found the car to perform really well on the highway. I had four adults and luggage int he car and simply set the cruise at 110 and the little beast held that speed for all but two hills, where it dropped back to 100 or so. Returned about 5.8 km/l including half an hour into and out of Sydney. I was happy.

I've also taken it on a trip to Mogo with the family and it pulled like a 12 year old up the Clyde Mountains. This is my first Turbo car and it would be hard to go back to ATMO.

This sort of open road performance was another factor that swayed me from other small cars which, while I'm sure they are fine on the open road, simply wouldn't do it as easily.

It's not all beer and skittles though, as I have a couple of annoying interior rattles that need attention and some other small issues that have already been addressed - rough idle, seat adjuster.

[gvas]

Do you do many country drives in the polo? I expect we will be driving it in the city 90% of the time but nice to know it handles the country roads well. How is the comfort over long drives and do you find the cabin size gets claustrophobic at all?

I drive between Melbourne and Geelong twice a week and Melbourne and Ballarat once a week for work. Can't say I have any complaints at all regarding comfort or fuel economy, of course I do usually drive alone. Although I admit I wouldn't take the family for a long country trip in the Polo, that was never my intention when I bought it anyway, that job belongs to our Volvo XC90.

Also, I've owned the 2 previous Fiesta Zetec models to the current one (I don't mind the little Fords) doing the same trips, and considered the current model, but this time went Polo instead. No regrets...