Wow is the 1.4L petrol slow :(

[The_Hawk]

I'm considering a new vehicle to our stable and thought that the base model Polo might be the go. Anyway, thought I would head down and have a look see at what they are like.

Nice looking little car, feels nice, seems comfortable... but that 1.4L NA engine. OK, I'm coming from a VR6 so I was prepared for a little less go... Now to be fair, I could see my mother is this car. But I think even my wife wouldn't accept the performance, it makes the Multivan feel like a veritable sports car!

I'm going to have to hunt down a 77TSI or a TDI and have a bash to see if it gets any better. Ideally looking to go manual (and not the DSG I drove today) so maybe that will make some different (or at least make me feel better about wringing it's little neck )

[Corey_R]

The 1.2TSI is fantastic.... I've never been in the 1.4, but I've heard it doesn't compare well

[themmc]

The 1.2TSI is fantastic.... I've never been in the 1.4, but I've heard it doesn't compare well

Yeah 1.2L TSI is great - when I had a test drive I was quite amazed at how zippy it was. (My current car weighs same as 77TSI but has 2L/100kw/194nm but the 1.2TSI feels just as quick).

[The_Hawk]

Just test drove the TDI variant and it goes damn well. So well in fact I may be joining the Polo Club very very soon

[ventlo]

You have dealerships open on Sunday?

[The_Hawk]

You have dealerships open on Sunday?

Trivett is open to 5:30pm on a Sunday... although I only noticed that after seeing a car listed on Carsales at 4:20pm. We then made a bit of a dash to have a look see

[Sword_Dude]

Yep, the base model does not at all compare with the TDI or TSI, shame shame shame!

[gavs]

Aaron, if you think the base 1.4 is slow, come drive my mk4 golf with the 1.6! Truthfully though, it does almost feel identical regarding performance so take a jump up to the 77TSI, you won't regret it

[The_Hawk]

It seems the 77TSI is near impossible to find without ordering and waiting a long long time. There are 6 manual 77TSI's listed on Carsales at the moment, 5 in Victoria, 1 in the colour I want. There is two DSG's in NSW, neither in the right colour and one is demo only and not for sale. Still might be worth a drive to see how it runs.

Bottom line, the TDI is quite fun to drive and it's buckets of torque make it go pretty well in my test drive. It has pretty much everything I want, so pending final negotiations I might just buy this one and Join the Diesel Club... again... again

[gavs]

Yeah, i love the instant, low down torque of a diesel. Maybe ring some dealers because it seems like there is about to be an influx of polos soon, 22 or so delivered in Melb last week, another 92 GTIs and 3 doors on the Tombarra, due in 4 or so weeks and another 54 on the Morning Carol due in Melb 25 may. I'm sure there will be some 5 door non-gti's picked up in Port Elizabeth on the tombarra too....

[kaanage]

I drove one of these as a courtesy car and I didn't think is was THAT slow. The DSG kicks down quite smartly if you give it a bootful and it revs out OK so it can cope with traffic situations quite nicely. The D mode is upshifts VERY early to get good fuel economy so that makes part throttle response fell very tepid but it keeps up with normal traffic just fine. You just have to accept that it will scream if you want to move faster than normal traffic speeds.

The big disappointment to me was the MASSIVE drop in interior quality between the Trendline (1.4 only) and Comfortline (TSi & TDi) versions.

[pologti18t]

Most reports on the Polo suggests that the TDI is the weak link of the range. Most put down to the peaky nature of the new 1.6L diesel engine, especially when paired to the 5 speed manual gearbox.

The 1.2TSI is the sweatspot in the Polo range apparently and the reason why 1.2TSI are hard to get and diesels are not

[PoloPie]

While I would agree that the 1.6TDI is a bit peaky (1750-2500rpm is the sweet spot), the bucket loads of torque are available where you need them, 3rd gear around 60, 4th around 80kph, etc. It takes a bit of time to adjust to know which gear you need to be in but it goes nicely and is a pleasure to drive. It cruises really well too.

Most people have gone with the TSI and I probably would have too if I could have... but there's nothing wrong with the diesel if you don't fancy a huge wait for the TSI

[kaanage]

With peak power coming in at just 4200rpm, that doesn't give much of a powerband
No wonder diesel fans find this engine peaky - people used to petrol engines might not notice, though

I wonder if VW have deliberately detuned the bottom end to help with the DPF regen issue that plagued the initial release of the Polo TDi in the UK.

Can you get anywhere near the official fuel economy figures, PoloPie (5.8 l/100km urban, 4.0 l/100km country)

[PoloPie]

Yeah you're right with the power band, but it's really all about the torque (1750-2500rpm), power comes on fairly strong just after this if you need it. I'm guessing that they have detuned the engine quite a bit for the DPF regen reason... I'm sure it has far more potential since the same engine has a 85kW and 250Nm variant (or so wikipedia says).

On a longer run (40km+) which is mainly highway I have gotten sub-4.0L/100km. I live more out in the country, so my day to day is mainly on 60-80kph open roads, where you can get 4.0-5.0L/100km. Urban is typically 4.8-6.5L/100km depending on traffic obviously. Over two full tanks my average is 4.8L/100km.

I suppose I'm a bit conservative though since diesel is so expensive here at the moment and I don't drive in a whole lot of traffic