Team-BHP - Volkswagen Polo : Test Drive & Review

Quote:

Originally Posted by krish82 (Post 1849174)

Hi Guys,

Was test driving couple of cars, polo was last in the list. The moment i took a test drive in it, perhaps sat in it, I AM TOTALLY SOLD TO POLO.
Fit, Finish, refinement, looks, quality is a benchmark. Please do not compare this car with swift, punto or figo. This comparision is only possible because polo is aggressivly priced.

I hope with more localization the quality of parts shouldnt go down. The car feels as good as a mini jetta quality wise, Damm dont care about the engine, its definetly smoother than competition and over all car has a mature big car cozy ride. After i sit and feel polo, definetly i cannot digest the quality of figo, swift, punto and even i20.

Guys dont go by papers, just feel the car and have a drive, i know its a lakh expensive than others, but you are getting great quality and VW for that lakh.

Well, what exactly does getting "great quality and VW for that lakh" say? If you just talk about interiors, the i20 has it's measure, if you talk about ride and handling, the Punto is better by a significant margin. In fact, the Figo has both covered to a certain degree.

I do not think that the Polo is aggressively priced, it has a 1.2 litre engine that takes advantage of the excise norms, like every other hatch (almost), with a 3-pot motor. It then is a lakh dearer, and to me, once you think objectively, VW is not a hallowed brand. Being the parent company of Skoda, I have seen what gross negligence stemmed from their bad management. Plus, I hate the fact that the lowest varient is so minimally specced that it's a joke, restricting people's choices of colour so that they go for the higher variant which is overpriced, talk about management strategies and gullible people.

At the end though, as a prospective car owner, you should buy the car you like the most. Go for the Polo if you like it, but please don't go overboard to say that you couldn't "digest" the quality of the rest of the bunch. I have checked out all other cars, excluding the Beat, and they are all pretty good.

I had already taken the TD of polo, but I had some points which I wanted to crosscheck again, so landed up in VW showroom. Points I wanted to check and my conclusions,

Engine noise : It wasnt annoying, with music and AC turned on I could hardly hear it.
Driveability and handling in city traffic: up to the mark
Rear seat space and comfort: satisfied
Color: Red is the color to go, white looks refreshing, silver is just plain and does not make any statement

During TD I was accompanied by a young couple and SP. Couple didnt knew how to drive so SP was driving in first half and boy oh boy he was squeezing every last bit of juice out of that engine, revving upto 6K RPM in first gear :eek: After TD on my way back home I tried to rev my NHC and it went upto 4K, I felt engine would blast if I go any further.

Quote:

Originally Posted by formel_eins (Post 1849647)

After TD on my way back home I tried to rev my NHC and it went upto 4K, I felt engine would blast if I go any further.

It seems you have hardly revved your NHC. In such circumstances, it does become little harsh after prolonged non-revving, but will free up in due course of time when revved upto the red line (its safe to do so from engine life point of view and hence the red line). Only negative tho is decrease in fuel efficiency due to spirited driving.:) The current trend of 1.2L engines need to be revved to extract whatever performance they've got, which need not be the case in your NHC or other engines with bigger displacement. I do agree however that 6000 RPM first gear is little overboard and not optimal driving.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanjayc (Post 1847771)

AFAIK, ABS has got nothing to do with stopping distance in normal day to day running & braking. Only in panic braking situation or slippery surface conditions etc ABS gets activated which allows one to retain directional control without locking up the wheels. If you feel non-ABS Honda stopping distance is less than Polo, this should mean Honda have better brakes, all other things remaining equal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EssYouWe (Post 1847813)

Hi Ambivalent.

As Sanjay has correctly pointed out, ABS has absolutely nothing to do with braking under non skidding situations.

If you feel that the brakes are not good enough on your Polo, you can look at a tyre upgrade as an immediate solution.
However, do take into account that it takes a while to get used to the braking of any vehicle.

Cheers!

I agree with you both completely. But just wanted to share an experience thats all. Probably I am used to non-ABS braking in my Honda and that is why I found the brakes to react a bit slowly on the Polo. Anyway ABS is a necessary safety feature on slippery surfaces.

Here is a link . This was posted earlier though its good to look at once.

YouTube - ABS vs. No ABS

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaurav_chopra04 (Post 1849598)

Yes, 1650/- for a wheel cover is damn costly, will definately check with another dealer. Thanks for the pointer

Confirmed the price with another dealer and have been quoted same price for the wheel cover.

However, my accessories guy says, that the wheel covers should be available in abother 2 weeks and shouldnt cost more than 2k for the set of 4 (thats max).

Quote:

Originally Posted by formel_eins (Post 1849647)

Engine noise : It wasnt annoying, with music and AC turned on I could hardly hear it.

If you stand outside, it certainly sounds like a Deisel, a lot of that sound doesnt enter the cabin because of good insulation!

Driveability and handling in city traffic: up to the mark
Rear seat space and comfort: satisfied
Color: Red is the color to go, white looks refreshing, silver is just plain and does not make any statement

agree: I agree on all the above points!

During TD I was accompanied by a young couple and SP. Couple didnt knew how to drive so SP was driving in first half and boy oh boy he was squeezing every last bit of juice out of that engine, revving upto 6K RPM in first gear After TD on my way back home I tried to rev my NHC and it went upto 4K, I felt engine would blast if I go any further.

I revvved it up to 6k plus on the test drive vehicle :D, loved the high revving engine, I think it goes till about 50 if I am not wrong (not sure though). In case of your NHC, looks like you have a sweet spot, the engine doesnt vibrate till the time you are within those rpms, I guess 1 to 3.5k rpms and there after it does. thats because most people after buying a new car, runs the engine within those rpms, (not to stretch the engine or to chk the fuel economy are few reasons). Hence the pistons form a sweet spot within those rpms and as you revv high, the piston runs faster and becomes a bit harsh as it tries to become uniform with those limits. Once you revv the vehicle at those rpms for some 200-300kms over some time, the engine vibrations will go. All cars have rev limiters and the cances of engine blowing off is almost next to impossible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by v.anand (Post 1849735)

In such circumstances, it does become little harsh after prolonged non-revving, but will free up in due course of time when revved upto the red line (its safe to do so from engine life point of view and hence the red line). Only negative tho is decrease in fuel efficiency due to spirited driving. The current trend of 1.2L engines need to be revved to extract whatever performance they've got, which need not be the case in your NHC or other engines with bigger displacement. I do agree however that 6000 RPM first gear is little overboard and not optimal driving.

Absolutely, I completely agree to you post!:thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98 (Post 1849944)

Probably I am used to non-ABS braking in my Honda and that is why I found the brakes to react a bit slowly on the Polo. Anyway ABS is a necessary safety feature on slippery surfaces.

Thats one problem many people face when they upgrade from a car with no ABS to a car whih does have one. After having driven the non- ABS cars regularly, I had a hard time getting used to Cedia's ABS brakes. The same was the case with my brother, when he upgraded from swift to civic. If you keep driving both as we do (god help you, one gets used to niether of them). But if you stick to one for some time, you get used to it.

I just tested the polo 1.2 petrol high-line.....and I'm just amazed at what the car offers. I have driven a WV golf GTI 2l, 240bhp ; Seat Lenon 2l, 200bhp.....driving the 1.2 l, i expected just an average car,i.e, after reading all the threads above as a matter of fact i also drove the ford figo and it was sad, the engine had to do some real work to keep the car moving and there is no feel of the engine...(possible that the engine fell is masked so it does not revel the strain.

At the same time, in the polo the engine had no strains, the car gave a constant performance even while climbing the car showed no strain but the figo while climbing shows a lot of strain(a/c had to turned off simply to get the car moving.) the engine knocked at times showing strain while the polo had no knocking at all.

I previous threads i read of the engine noise issue with the polo, which i never found. I believe the noise has been miss-understood. the noise you hear in the cabin is not of the engine at all. there is something hat started almost as soon as automobile emerged..... the feel of the car while driving...if you take any sports car or just sports versions of driver driven cars you will experience the same kind of sound as you here in a polo. That sound is designed to be heard to get a good feel of the car. the sound is of the air filter pulling in air, air escaping through bleed valves and the exhaust. These are actually the requirement of a good driver driven car. It no really understood here because all the cars in the Indian market id specially designed for India or specially degraded for India. the sound of th polo actually lets you be part of the car, felling the power, rpm and gears. I loved the sound while changing gears giving a fell like actually driving a powerful sports car.

Overall the polo 1.2 actually stand up to its mark, for a 1.2l engine i felt it to be the torquey and powerful and there is no car launched in India with a 1.2l engine which is as good as this car.

I absolutely loved the car. best in standards and driving fell.....:thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amartya (Post 1849445)

Yep, Sorry i accept figo is VFM, What i am trying to say is, Polo, this car just by seeing it and touching it we can judge its superb quality. If VFM is the key then i say nothing can beat the MANZA, its as big and comfortable. But after driving it no way i will buy it even for 5 lakhs, reason? i can still buy a new accent again. i dont know whats happening with skoda, but once upon a time octavia was all over the roads.

If we want little more fuel efficiency, logically a 3 pot motor should provide more as we have to pump in fuel to only 3 cyls instead of 4, and certainly budget conscious users arent going to but the 1.6. So a person with a tight budget not expected to drag race, but deserve a better quality car/status/mileage i think VW has done a great job. We cannot compare JAZZ with figo/swift etc.. just because its placed high above. What if VW placed the base model arount 7L.

VW may not be a great brand, but it is better with comparision to the others in small car segment.