Interestingly, despite the firm suspension,
the ride is comfortable at low speeds. That the Polo is relatively heavily
engineered means it stays put even on bad roads. While ripples on the road get
through at motorable speeds, the Polo offers a fairly comfortable ride on most
highway stretches.
The
changes on the inside are more comprehensive although still not a world apart.
The highlight is the leather wrapped three-spoke steering wheel which gets a
flat bottom with chrome and piano black inserts
VW is discontinuing the three-cylinder
diesel. Instead, the Polo now gets a 1.5-litre turbo-diesel unit derived from
the engine we see in the 1.6-litre guise in the GT TDI. Obviously, power is
down by around 14bhp to 89 and torque by 20Nm to 230. Unlike the three-pot,
this engine is quieter, and you hardly hear it inside the cabin while the car
is idling. The only issue is that power comes in only after the turbo spools,
which might sound good, but it will be a pain to control those low-rpm surges
in power in city traffic.
Show it some open space, and the genius in
the engine emerges. It doesn’t mind being revved, but needs to be upshifted
quickly into second. After that, it feels as though the car has been unshackled
and it builds speeds in clean sweeps.
Unlike
in many other cars, the Polo’s glovebox is huge and actually useable
The torquey nature of the engine means it
can pull ahead from low speeds in higher gears. While it might not be great for
outright performance, in real world traffic situations, this saves you quite a
few clutch-gearshift operations. By the way, the clutch is still quite heavy on
this car.
Though the engine is lower on power
compared to GT TDI, you don’t really miss the drop in top-end power, because
the torque is more than happy to take care of acceleration. The dash to 100kph
takes 13.6 seconds, a good two seconds faster than the 1.2. More importantly,
VW engineers have managed to keep fuel efficiency in the pink: the urban figure
on our test run stood at 12.6kpl, while on the highway it returned 16.5kpl
despite being pushed hard.
Rear
seat continues to lack space but the quality inside is stupendously good
And, you can push the car hard without ever
feeling vulnerable. Unlike many hatchbacks on Indian roads, it feels solid, and
is ready to barrel down the highway in a manner suited to cars twice its size.
Plus the steering, while being a bit on the heavy side, is able to tell the
driver about how hard the car can go. And, that remains the beauty of this
Volkswagen. Unlike most ubiquitous hatchbacks, the Polo has always been one of
a kind. While it isn’t quite the ideal Indian city car due to the heavy
steering and clutch action and a notchy gearbox, it is one of the safest and
most well-built cars around, and an automobile that doesn’t like to restrict
itself to the humdrum of the daily commute. In its new avatar, it is even
better prepared to play that role.
