What is it?
Probably one of the more niche choices in the Volkswagen line-up. With all of the unfavourable press diesel has been getting recently, cars such as this oil-burning Volkswagen Polo supermini are falling out of favour with the general public. So far, 2018 has seen diesel sales as a whole drop by nearly a third compared with the same period last year, says the SMMT.
Nevertheless, there are still those who might find the idea of a small, affordable and economical supermini an appealing one - namely fleet buyers, we’re guessing - or else Volkswagen wouldn’t offer one.
Well, offer two, more specifically. In addition to the numerous petrol-engined variants you can buy, the Polo is also available with a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder diesel, which develops 79bhp in its most basic state of tune and 94bhp in our £19,690 SEL-specification test car.
In addition to the healthy level of kit that comes at this trim level - think 8.0in Discover Navigation infotainment system, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, all-round parking sensors and plenty of active safety tech - you’ll also get a Polo that’s cheap to tax, and cheap to run. Volkswagen claims it’ll manage 74.3mpg on the combined cycle, while CO2 emissions of 99g/km mean it has a benefit-in-kind rate of 24%.
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The ultimate (expensive) bore
...falling asleep, sorry cannot fight the urge to nod off...trying..to fight sleep....ah.......
What is this?
Zero mention of actual fuel economy in this first drive - what’s the point?
Autocar, it would be good if you could pay more attention to those of us who do high mileages - not necessarily fleet - and who are mostly doing motorway driving. A Polo diesel should be on my list but with only 5 gears and 95bhp, it’ll be getting discounted immediately.
When I say high mileage I mean 25k/year and 500 miles/week. And I do wish people would stop treating us as though we’ve landed from Mars (hint to my Skoda dealer!).
Really quite a boring car -
Really quite a boring car - and a nearly £20k one at that with a 94bhp 5 speed Diesel engine, and believe me this engine is a course old rough thing in the various cars I’ve driven with it fitted. The amount of nearly new cars you could for the price of this thing is expansive and superior.