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We might have bought the best Volkswagen Polo in India...

3rd April 2025, 11:01 by Deepankar Sadekar

The engine has been run in with care and its too early for any wear to have happened. Perfect time to get a car.

BHPian sauravpat recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Did we possibly buy the best VW Polo in India?

Introduction:

Is my old man getting on a bit or is Pune traffic taking a turn for the worse? A bit of both perhaps led us to possibly the nicest VW Polo in our country.

Our pre-worshipped Honda Jazz MT was chugging along as our city car without any fuss and apart from the slightly subpar AC, we were really happy with our first foray into the world of pre-owned vehicles. But eventually the bumper to bumper traffic got to my dad, the sole user.

The hunt for a new automatic city car started with a maximum budget of 12L. We did not want to go the pre-owned route again since me and my brother have move out of the country for the time being and did not want to have any potential maintenance headaches.

Cars considered:

1. Tata Nexon and Punch: We always wanted to get a Nexon and got it home for a test drive. I thought it was quite a nice car with everything you could need from a city car although a little bigger than we wanted. I felt the AMT is not the best but certainly passable. But my dad has clearly been spoilt by the A4 and the Vento since the moment he felt the vibrations of the 3 cylinder pot on the pedals and steering wheel as well as the piano black on the dashboard, he directly ruled it out which was quite harsh according to me. But that was that and the Punch was also then unceremoniously dropped.

2. Skoda Kylaq: If this was already in the market in December, it would have been our go to choice but we would have to stretch our budget to almost 14-15 L to get the decently equipped automatic. Since the whole car change had to be completed before I left in January, we kept this option on hold.

3. New Swift Dzire: Again, according to me a really good option as a city car with lots of space and features and unbeatable reliability. Also vetoed down since my dad is not a fan of its looks.

This was clearly going nowhere and we were running out of options since I wasn't sure about Citroen's and Renault's futures in India.

Enter yearly NRI trip back to India in December:

Like most international students, I too headed back to warmer and sunnier pastures to primarily fulfil my Biryani cravings in December. Like me, my dear friend @Fluidicjoy was also back in town for his yearly jaunt in Pune.

I casually asked him for advice on which car would make sense as a replacement for the Jazz and we compared notes on the Tata twins when he said that they were also looking for a replacement for their Polo.

My ears lit up at the mention of his Polo. It made perfect sense.

1. My dad has driven a Jetta, Vento and A4 for the last 10 years and is used to VW controls.

2. The Polo in question is the updated TC automatic and not the DQ200 meaning that gearbox reliability wasn't an issue.

3. @Fluidicjoy has basically turned the Polo into a sub 4m Passat with all the features that he has retrofitted.

4. Small, maneuverable and safe to make short trips around Pune when required.

5. A guarantee that the car has never been abused and has been treated with much more love than I could ever be able to give a car.

6. Buying the car from a close friend meant that all the worries regarding the ownership transfer vanished into thin air.

Bringing the Polo home:

@Fluidicjoy brought the car home for my dad to take it for a 10 minute spin, he was happy and that was basically that was that. As soon as we sold our Honda Jazz we could get it home.

I put up ads on Carwale and TeamBHP and waited. Found a buyer in a couple of weeks and took it to a known garage of his for an OBD scan and thorough inspection. His mechanic was happy, he was happy and we settled on a really good price which meant that we used the Jazz for 3 years and 20k kilometres for a total cost of 1.3 lakhs and 12k in maintenance. Really really good experience with our first pre-owned vehicle which we would have never considered without TBHP. I went to the RTO and completed the paperwork with the new buyer and off he went with the perfect city car for a new driver.

The next day I was off to get the Polo home and some wonderful macarons and Awla sarbat later, the Polo was home.

Likes:

1. Fun to drive: 110hp,sub-4m dimensions and no unnecessary height to negatively affect driving dynamics.

2. Features: Thanks to the magic of @Fluidicjoy and his retrofits, I can't think of a single feature that's missing from the Polo which we could have got in a 12L new car.

3. Solid build: Much more confidence inspiring to drive and travel on highways compared to the Jazz.

4. Documented service and retrofit history: This thread speaks for itself, doesn't it?

5. Practically new but run-in: We picked it up with 14,500 kms on the ODO. The engine has been run in with care and its too early for any wear to have happened. Perfect time to get a car.

Nit-picking:

1. Interior space: A known compromise which we made but the rear seat space and headroom in a Jazz is just miles better.

2. Ingress and egress: Tallboy design of the Jazz meant that it was much easier to get in and out of.

3. Fuel efficiency: If not driven carefully, the 1.0 TSI will return 10 kmpl at most in the city. Much lower than the 13-14 from the Jazz. Again a known compromise.

4. Creep: This is the only real negative about the drivability of the car. On cold starts and while reversing, the car will lurch and you will touch another car or wall if you aren't on it.

Service:

Bhpian Asit Kulkarni was his usual helpful self and a normal oil and filter change was performed after we got the car so that my dad doesn't need to worry about anything for the next year.

First Long Drive:

Before I headed back to my Uni, I took the car out for a spin to the Temghar dam on the way to Lavasa for a fun drive with a friend.

The Jazz was a perfectly reasonable car but you couldn't call it exciting or fun. The Polo is the polar opposite. It pulls and pulls taking you to 100 kph in no time with predictable handling manners and a much more sorted suspension setup to have fun while driving.

Looking to the future:

This is the defacto city car that my parents use now with the Vento and A4 now only being used for intercity trips and times where 4+ people need to be transported for longer durations. My dad is super happy with the car and I hope it stays this way for the next 5 years at least.

With both me and @fluidicjoy out of Pune, the retrofits will be taking a pause and the Polo will do the one job it is best at for the next couple of years at least. Being a car.

It really is the last of its kind and we have vowed not to sell it unless it physically stops being drivable or causing big maintenance headaches. Fingers crossed.

Long story short, we found a ~10-L car that offers 110hp, an autobox, a proven Engine-Gearbox combination, Wireless AA/Carplay, front and rear parking sensors, rear AC vents, built-in navigation, reversing camera, paddle shifters, auto-dimming bezelless IRVM, rear wiper, superlative LED projector headlamps with cornering functions, auto wipers and headlamps, power folding mirrors and much more.

A hard deal to beat? I think so!