My other car is a Hyundai Creta automatic & I prefer taking out the Polo every single time.
BHPian Amsdoc recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I am about 1 month in my ownership of a Highline + AT Polo. Booked it on the 1st of Oct and got it just at the end of Dec/1st week of Jan. Here are just a few of my points:
- For people with a family, this is strictly a second car. We use it primarily for city driving and mainly as my wife’s car and she is very happy with the smaller dimensions in tight places.
- Still, it is quite reassuring for me when my wife and kid are out in this car as opposed to if it was a Maruti etc. It gives certain confidence of safety that this is a properly built, safe and sturdy vehicle.
- I love driving it and the engine + gearbox combo is a hoot. Loves to be driven hard but unfortunately, that shows very quickly on the mileage. My other car is an auto Creta and I prefer taking the Polo every single time I go out of the house.
- As mentioned by most people, it has a very aggressive initial creep function but that settles down after a while. The gearbox is very linear and I haven’t felt any untoward upshifts/downshifts. No head nod and no lag. I have hardly used sport mode ever! Want to try it out on a ghat road to see how it functions.
- The Highline has a rear ac vent which the daughter surely appreciates and maybe the dog too.
- The rear windows don’t go down completely which the dog hates. He loves the Creta for only this reason. All windows have single touch full up/down function, by the way.
- The music system is basic and old but extremely functional with Android Auto/CarPlay functionality. It is also very responsive and I find the music output not too bad as well with deep bass up to sensible volume levels. As pointed out in the review, the cable for Android Auto does tend to get in the way of the gear but in the Automatic it really doesn’t matter much.
- The standard lighting has been ok for city use. Haven’t taken it out on highways yet.
- In all my cars, I have fitted fairly premium tyres except this one. It came with MRF ZVTV tyres which surprisingly feel fine for our purposes. Again haven’t taken it out on highways and in wet conditions but for now, they feel fine and the ride feels great as well.
- I love the self-dimming IRVM, the ORVMs seem to have shrunk in size as compared to the old Polo but you get used to them pretty quickly.
- It comes with Cruise control as standard in this version but I found the controls on the stalk very fiddly. Surely it needs steering mounted controls (I have seen some mods with steerings that had CC functions) for it to be useful. In the city, this is a hardly used feature so I have actually turned it off.
- For a measly price of 9k I got a rearview camera fitted at the dealership (fits above the number plate, the logo flip one is also a possibility but the dealership charges you an arm and a leg for it. It can be fitted separately if you have the ball to try that mod on your own and there is an excellent thread that shows you how to do it) and it functions quite well. To my surprise, it also has dynamic lines which was a welcome surprise!
- Car comes with VW connect which is a small device that connects to the OBD port. Once paired to your phone, it gives you all kinds of info which I find quite useful but a bit intrusive at times when my wife found out I was speeding (80kph on a highway by the way is enough speeding to send out a notification).
Mods planned
- May get a maxi-dot cluster installed after a while.
- May change tyres if I find these inadequate on out of town drives.
- May get headlights changed if I find these inadequate on out of town drives.
In short, personally, I do not think there is another car that comes close to this one in terms of sheer driving pleasure and safety in this class if you are looking for a second car. People who have booked it won’t be disappointed. Looking at the new offerings from VW, I am not too optimistic about the new Polo that may come our way. Plus with the troublesome DSG (we have had 6 VWs with DSGs before this and none have given any problems but none were driven more than 1L kms so don’t know if the DSGs on them would have failed or not) out of the way, hopefully, I am looking for a hassle-free decade of ownership. I would encourage people to hold on to their bookings and get this car while it lasts. It is a gem!
Here’s what BHPian sunikkat had to say about the matter:
Polo is indeed one great ride.
Did you book it in Dec? I tried with all showrooms in Bangalore and none of them had stock in Dec. Finally took delivery of i20 IVT considering it’s a beater car for city and more spacious. Though I am happy with i20 for the intended use, still when I see a Polo, I feel that I should have waited.
Here’s what BHPian Guna had to say about the matter:
Did you consider the i20 N-Line and what are your thoughts? It costs about a couple of lakhs more but comes with many modern features besides the space.
I have been contemplating swapping my 3-year-old i20 CVT with either a pre-owned Polo GT (DSG), new Polo AT or N-Line.
Keyword: My VW Polo Highline Plus AT: 1 month ownership experience