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With 14 million cars sold to date, the Volkswagen Polo model line is one of the most successful in supermini history. This MK6 version is larger than before, better equipped and more personalisable. Features like a digital instrument panel and a whole raft of camera-driven safety kit also borrow much from the class above.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00​​​ Introduction
00:34​​​ Background
03:14​ Driving Experience
09:04​ Design & Build
19:10​​ Market & Model Range
35:08​ Cost of Ownership
42:42​​ Summary

Background

Why would you buy a Volkswagen Polo? You wouldn't buy it on price, because there are many rival superminis that cost less. Many of these cars will have more equipment inside them. Some will even be nicer to drive. That much-vaunted Volkswagen build quality is, statistically at least, something that the Japanese and Koreans covered off some time ago. So what's the appeal?

It's simple. The Polo is all about understated refinement or, to put it another way, conspicuously not trying too hard to impress. Now this is a very hard trick to carry off. Try too hard and this Volkswagen loses its cool. Don't try hard enough and the car looks like a complacent trinket for posers, which is possibly even less desirable. So with this current sixth generation Polo, the Wolfsburg brand is looking to land it square in that profitable sweet spot.

Driving Experience

Almost every car has its unique selling points. With this Polo, these lie in quality and comfort, delightful damping having long been a traditional attribute in a Volkswagen supermini. Given that even the previous rather crudely platformed version of this model managed to cruise over potholes and tarmac tears that would upset most of its rivals, we expected that the stiff sophistication of this sixth generation design's all-new MQB A0 chassis would lift it even further clear of its competitors in this regard.

Which is, by and large, how it's turned out. We were told that this new generation Polo would ride like a much larger car and sure enough it does, easily shrugging off pock-marked urban surfaces. And that's despite the lack of anything particularly advanced in terms of suspension design. Certainly, many competitor brands are going to want to know how a straightforward MacPherson strut-front and torsion beam-rear set-up can deliver damping this good. It handles higher speed undulations brilliantly too - one writer described the response as being akin to 'riding on jewelled bearings'. Even larger wheel sizes don't seem to upset it much.

And engines? Well all the options are now three cylinders, petrol-powered and 1.0-litre in size. Your choices start with a three-cylinder 1.0-litre MPI unit with 80PS, which sits below two 1.0-litre three-cylinder TSI engines with either 95 or 110PS. 7-speed DSG automatic transmission is optional on those TSI petrol models.

Design and Build

So low key is the Polo's styling that the changes made to this MK6 model may be lost on some customers. Perhaps more obvious though, is this sixth generation design's larger size. It's now only slightly shorter than a MK4 Golf used to be and, thanks to a longer wheelbase than that car, significantly larger inside. To be specific, this MK6 Polo is 81mm longer than its predecessor, making it now over 4m long. It's now also slightly lower in stance and 69mm wider. Volkswagen thinks that the resulting stretched silhouette is 'more masculine', you decide.

In profile, the new styling is defined by an arrow-shaped 'tornado' double line, while at the front, there's a smarter grille flanked by headlamps that can be optionally ordered with full-LED beams. Inside, the vertically-orientated dashboard of the previous model has been replaced with horizontal architecture and a higher placement for the new centre-dash infotainment screen; this monitor varies in size between 6.5 and 8-inches, depending on the variant you select. An upper cross-panel flows across the dash into the doors and can be colour-personalised to suit your taste.

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