Small car: the new VW Polo is the better Golf

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The new VW Polo is the better Golf

Small car: the new VW Polo is the better Golf-better

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Source: Volkswagen

Small car: the new VW Polo is the better Golf-polo

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Like the current Golf, the new VW Polo has a straight and straight radiator grille.

Source: Volkswagen

Small car: the new VW Polo is the better Golf-golf

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The typical Polo line with the rising lower edge of the window and the sturdy rear shows up at an angle from behind. The trunk now holds 280 to 980 liters.

Source: Volkswagen

Small car: the new VW Polo is the better Golf-Blue Motion consumes just liters

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The whole car also looks very straight from the side. The increase in length remained within limits at three centimeters, the new Polo now measures 3.95 meters.

Source: Volkswagen

Small car: the new VW Polo is the better Golf-better

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You can tell at first glance how tight the seats are. Not everyone likes that right away, but sagging seats are not an issue in modern VW models.

Source: Volkswagen

Small car: the new VW Polo is the better Golf-golf

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Typical business-like VW cockpit. The large gear selector lever signals a novelty: The lightning-fast double clutch transmission can now also be ordered for the VW Polo.

Source: Volkswagen

Small car: the new VW Polo is the better Golf-Blue Motion consumes just liters

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It has been possible to order the new Polo (it only has three doors as standard) since March 5, and delivery will begin at the end of June.

Source: Volkswagen

Small car: the new VW Polo is the better Golf-Blue Motion consumes just liters

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A year later, the new BlueMotion with a three-cylinder engine and a consumption of 3.3 liters will also be available. In the meantime, there is also an economical BlueMotion model: E.…According to the EU standard, s consumes 3.8 liters.

Source: Volkswagen

With the new Polo, VW is bringing a small car onto the market that no longer has anything to do with the original Spartan model. Those who can do without a few centimeters in length and a little comfort are even better served with the new Polo than with its big brother, the Golf, and save money at the same time.

A.As an embarrassing solution, it was born out of the Audi 50 in 1975 – and has been built 10.6 million times since then. The Polo is undoubtedly the third mainstay of Volkswagen after the Golf and alongside the Passat. Now in its fifth edition, it will affect the Golf, Europe’s best-selling car, like never before.

The Polo will shake the number one throne because it has outgrown its traditional role as a classic second car for wife and girlfriend. He will not come to a number of 600,000 per year, as VW wants the Golf for global sales, but presumably almost every Golf customer should at least take a look at the model one class below. The Polo is a temptation for VW customers. Thanks to its many qualities, it is also becoming increasingly interesting for families with a limited budget and an alternative to classic compact cars.

Ferdinand Dudenhoffer, car analyst from the University of Duisburg / Essen, is convinced that "the new Polo will definitely nibble on sales of the Golf." "The distance between the two has never been so small, and the Golf has also faced further internal competition from the Skoda Octavia and the Seat Exeo."

In fact, as auto experts say, the Polo has now "grown up". At 3.95 meters, it has almost caught up with the 1983 Golf II – only three centimeters are missing. Compared to its predecessor, it is 32 millimeters wider, 54 millimeters longer, but also 14 millimeters flatter. Because the track width has increased by 30 millimeters, it now crouches more comfortably on the asphalt. With optional 17-inch rims, it looks convincingly self-confident. Visually, the Golf VI can hardly keep up.

The drag coefficient – it expresses the quality of the aerodynamics of a car – is a top result at 0.32 for a car in the Polo class. Detailed work on joints, edges and radii pays off just as much as an almost smooth sub-floor.

In terms of appearance, the new Polo continues the puristic design language that design chief Walter de Silva introduced with the Scirocco and the Golf VI. The urge to have a no-frills family face – the Italian defines it as "Simplicita" or "Anti-Decorism" – is less hypothermic in polo than in golf. From the outside, it seems to be little more than a facelift of the Golf V and is hardly noticeable in the crowd. The Polo is different: it is more pointed than its bigger brother, with only one crossbar between the front headlights – the Golf has two crossbars at this point. It has a raised third side window, sharply contoured shoulders, a clever waistline of the doors and beautiful three-dimensional taillights. Thanks to their sharp angular shape, they give the Polo a distinctive night look for the first time.

Details like these have finally freed the VW Junior from the nimbus of the small car. "We think that we have succeeded in transferring the classless image of the Golf to the Polo for the first time," says VW spokesman Bernd Schroder. Especially since there is no risk of a waiver from a technical point of view. Starting with the basic version with 60 hp, all the important safety details are free: ESP anti-skid protection, hill start assist, head-thorax airbags, active headrests and internally ventilated disc brakes.

In the standard crash of the Euro-NCAP consortium, VW expects another five-star result despite the tightening of conditions – it couldn’t be better. The body should yield 50 percent in the footwell in a frontal collision and 20 percent less in a side impact than in the predecessor, says Polo project manager Ernst Lindner. For pedestrian protection, the bonnet was deliberately raised a little higher than actually required by law. Even with the larger engines, there is a few centimeters of space between the hood and the hard engine parts.

In the interior, VW has cleverly transferred the fine ambience of the Golf to the next lower class. Even with the Comfort version, the dashboard has a soft “slush” surface, and the seats are covered with fluffy Alcantara. In the top model Highline, fine aluminum trim frames the air vents, the gear stick console, the instruments and numerous pushbuttons. So why should you buy a Golf? Also from Comfortline there are daytime running lights, air conditioning and a foldable rear bench seat. This allows the 280 liter luggage compartment to be expanded. It seems that VW has done everything to ensure that the little one makes life difficult for the big brother with many temptations.

When it comes to engines, the new Polo does not show any nakedness either, whereby ecology takes precedence over powerhouse. Among the four petrol and three turbo-diesels, one stands out: the new 1.2 TSI with turbocharging and direct injection. The 105 hp contrasts with an average consumption of 5.5 liters / 100 kilometers – 19 percent less than the 1.6-liter predecessor. Those who primarily drive in the city should also be happy with the two three-cylinder engines (60 and 70 hp).

The three 1.6-liter diesels with 75, 90 and 105 hp now all inject according to the common rail principle – they do this much more gently than the gruff pump / nozzle units before. The 90 hp version can even be ordered with the 7-speed dual clutch transmission on request – this, too, was a technology delicacy in the Polo class that was unthinkable until recently.

The Polo Blue Motion consumes just 3.8 liters

As a "Blue Motion" – but then in combination with a conventional five-speed manual transmission – the diesel is content with 3.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers. At the Geneva Motor Show, VW indicated that this is not the last word in terms of minimizing consumption: In the future Polo 1.2 TDI with 75 hp, start-stop system and brake energy recovery, consumption will increase to 3.3 liters – that is the same emissions of 87 grams of CO2 per kilometer. These are fewer emissions than a Toyota Prius produces. Planned start of production: February 2010.

The Polo, built in the Spanish VW plant in Pamplona, ​​seems to be well equipped for the fight against displacement in the increasingly popular 4.0-meter class. VW emphasizes that the Golf is still the much more comfortable car in a direct comparison, has even become cheaper compared to its predecessor, adjusted for equipment, and is currently even driving extra shifts for individual versions. But even in Wolfsburg, one cannot rule out the possibility that customers could change their attitudes for the first time as a result of the tense economic situation.

"In the past, 20 percent of Polo customers regularly switched to a Golf when they bought their next car," says VW man Schroder. "This development could be reversed for the first time with the new Polo."

Willi Diez, automotive expert at the Nurtingen University of Applied Sciences, still sees the Golf as the preferred family car. "In addition, the new Golf Variant will compensate for any losses in favor of the Polo."

Nevertheless, Diez also predicts an increasing risk of cannibalization for the Gulf. Because the price of the new Polo is also hot: the basic version of the five-door model costs 12,885 euros, followed by the 735 euros cheaper three-door model in September. More and more voters from the Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen party could come to the conclusion that as much polo is enough for me as a golf. And thereby save a good 3,000 euros.

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