Buying a car is stressful and difficult nowadays. How much will it cost? Will it be reliable? What about resale value? Don’t despair, SA’s best-selling nameplate is back and it just made buying an A0 hatch easier than ever
Electrification is the buzzword at the moment but decision makers from Wolfsburg in the compact A0 segment decided against employing any form of electrification in the new Polo – whether it be full BEV or plug-in, self-charging or mild-hybrid solution. It would have made the Polo impossibly expensive. Instead, the firm recognised that the Polo is – and always has been – all about a pragmatic, simplified offering that democratizes the best bits of the Golf at a more affordable price point. That’s it, secret sauce.
Of course, a great source of national pride is the fact that Volkswagen has farmed Polo production out to South Africa’s Kariega (formerly Uitenhage) plant since 2002. More than 700 000 units of Polo have been sold locally since the first model came off the line, making us the tenth biggest consumer of Polos in the world. But Kariega also produces cars and engines for the most discerning markets in the world.
Recognised amongst the group’s top facilities (out of 121 plants in total) after a multi-billion-rand investment in 2017 to build cars on the MQB A0 platform, we were delighted to hear plenty of fascinating facts about the Kariega plant at the launch event for the Polo.
Kariega produces both left- and right-hand drive models, it has a 1:5 model mix – as in one Polo Vivo is built for every five Polos – and, best of all, these cars sit nose-to-tail on one single production line. 1 200 components are fitted during the build process, there are 38 variants available between engine, gearbox and spec line and, in total, 692 variants of options can be fitted by the customer. Here’s the fascinating bit though – one Polo/Polo Vivo comes off the line every minute and 42 seconds. That’s 680 cars per day, 165 000 per year. I’m sure you’ll agree, those are impressive numbers.
Let’s get straight to brass tacks on the new cars though. As before, the Polo range consists of two TSI engine options offered in a high and low state of tune – a 70 kW manual and up-tuned 85 kW paired with a DSG – and the 147 kW Polo GTI which is DSG-only of course. There are four trim lines: base, Life, R-Line and GTI, segmented with a fairly basic vehicle for entry-level and fleet customers priced at R311 900, the Life retails for R350 000 with a manual and R370 000 for a DSG, featuring 15-inch alloy wheels, LED headlamps and the digital cockpit come as standard. Your R-Line 85 kW DSG gets 16-inch wheels and plenty of additional trinkets like IQ Light and IQ Drive for R421 000. And the Polo GTI retails for R489 400 with all the bells and whistles.
We seized an opportunity to test Kariega’s new baby by grabbing one straight from the national launch and subjecting it to an exacting 800 km test from Gqeberha to Cape Town over the typical sort of terrain a Polo will encounter on a daily basis. Things started off uneventfully enough with a gentle N2 cruise to Plettenberg Bay, affording us time to drink in the updated interior and specification of the Life. It’s all regular Volkswagen inside – just as that we’ve come to know and love – soft touch plastics on par with the Golf, the same top-quality touchscreen infotainment system, a leather-wrapped multi-function steering wheel, electric windows all round and a handy hill hold assist for the manual we were driving.
Optionally fitted to our test unit was the IQ Light (R15 500) package as well as a sunroof (R14 500), which is apparently South Africa’s most popular option. The paint job is a new purple finish know as Vibrant Violet Metallic, to ensure you’re not mistaken for an Avis rental car, and certainly the most striking feature must be the full-length LED light signature of the IQ Light system. This is made up of 24 LEDs per headlamp to give the best illumination possible. Sure, it’s optional, but for the money the technology is affordable. VW democratizing its technology yet again.
And as we discovered when we dived off the N2 where we could enjoy some of the twists and turns of Nature’s Valley and Bloukrans passes, the new Polo is all about light, easy reactions and driver-friendly fun. The MacPherson strut front and torsion beam rear suspension keeps you connected to the road without fuss, while the electrically assisted power steering imbues the vehicle with the sense that there’s an absence of any unnecessary weight. The Polo turns on a dime and for a mass-market A0 hatch it drivers impeccably well. What a car.
Switchback fun done and dusted, there’s still the small matter of the 400 km before the Polo is home safe in Cape Town, time to knuckle down. From the quiet and comfortable cabin, you can take all the dawdling trucks and cut-and-thrust overtakes on the N2 in your stride. True to form, with (optional) adaptive cruise control set, we settled in for the long haul and soaked up all the joys of the Garden Route.
The 1,0 TSI is such a driveable motor when the road clears, its seemingly meagre 70 kW/175 N.m is more than up for the task, proving wonderfully quiet at speed. At 120 km/h the needle registers at 3 000 r/min on the rev counter, which would ordinarily be a bit worrying, but the cabin is near silent. You genuinely don’t need a sixth gear for noise suppression. Maintain your momentum when overtaking and you can even maintain a decent average speed and fuel consumption. The CAR fuel index rates the Polo Life at 6,50 L/100 km but we registered 5,50 L/100 km on mostly open-road driving.
Expressed through its pure, simple linearity of form, the new Polo, above all else, reinforces the key attributes that make a great compact hatch and then enhances them with VW’s digital knowhow. As we can now confirm, it’s a genuine delight to drive, and Kariega is building its peoples’ cars better than ever. And that’s certainly something to celebrate.
In a nutshell –
Volkswagen Polo 1,0 TSI 70 kW Life M/T
Engine: 999 cc, 3-cylinder, turbopetrol
Power: 70 kW @ 5 000 r/min, 175 N.m @ 2 000 r/min
0-100km/h 10,8 sec*
Top speed 187 km/h*
Tyres: 15-inch alloys, 195/55
Economy: 6,50 L/100 km (fuel index)
Transmission: 5-speed manual
CO2 emissions: 124 g/km
Price: R350 000
Words: Ray Leathern
