[poloman]

Delivery in August ! Only three colors availabe ! All this, only with 40 dealerships to cater for.What is happening here? Going by this rate diesel deliveries may start next year. Some thing is wrong in VW assembly line.It would be difficult to imagine that this delay is due to unexpected demand. Even if 200 cars are ordered per dealership, it amounts only to 8000 cars. I think the dealerships are getting arrogant and carried away by the initial hooplah, going by the post of a BHPian from Hyderabad being told no TD vehicles available. There were reports that VW delayed Polo launch to avoid big backlogs and be ready with pool of cars available for delivery with in reasonable time.Looks like their plans have gone haywire.

[jassi]

test drove a petrol polo today - as they had a car mela at office. Good build quality and good plastics - but nothing to write about on the engine front. Completely un-inspiring, no fun and 3 cylinder clatter makes things more irritating. I drive a santro xing (ok it has some mods, ffe, etc) and can't see any reason to upgrade to polo/punto unless there is a 1.2 tsi or a 1.6 variant. Ofcourse this is just my opinion and my requirements are more sporty hatch

I can imagine most people sidelining the engine part and going for a premium brand like vw because of the euro build quality

[khan75]

Left the office pretty early today to clean the GP up for a quick photo shoot. I must say, the GP smashes the Polo in the looks department. The Polo's engine seems a bit peppier than the heavy feeling unit in the GP though.

Originally Posted by rejoycjohn

Thanks Essyouwe , for the info .
@ Khan75 Congrats on your buy .

Are you planning for the tyre upgrade ?Eagerly looking forward for your review

The above statement becomes invalid , as i assume that you got a Highline ( looking at the total cost of your vehicle )

Yep I got a 1.2 Highline (see sig).

The default shoes seem decent enough for city commutes. I guess I'll wait for opinions from fellow Polo owners before thinking about upgrading the tires.

[formel_eins]

Originally Posted by poloman

Delivery in August ! Only three colors availabe ! All this, only with 40 dealerships to cater for.What is happening here? Going by this rate diesel deliveries may start next year. Some thing is wrong in VW assembly line.It would be difficult to imagine that this delay is due to unexpected demand. Even if 200 cars are ordered per dealership, it amounts only to 8000 cars. I think the dealerships are getting arrogant and carried away by the initial hooplah, going by the post of a BHPian from Hyderabad being told no TD vehicles available. There were reports that VW delayed Polo launch to avoid big backlogs and be ready with pool of cars available for delivery with in reasonable time.Looks like their plans have gone haywire.

Polo comes with a 50% localization, but even at this level VW have managed to launch the car at 4.34 lakh for base version. All this makes me think that VW is working on razor thin margins. Now VW was under lot of pressure to announce polo, so probably they went ahead with it and capitalize on the hype created after auto expo. Maybe VW is delaying the deliveries so that they can source more components locally, and increase their margins, well thats my thought, anybody in support for my theory

Originally Posted by hpzone

here is the pricing from VW Cochin. I thought the 5025 handling charges are very high for a 4.3L car

I booked the car in Kolhapur and in the quotation they dont mention an handling charges at all

Originally Posted by fz_rider

Polo 1.2 short Test Drive report :
After hearing all the appreciation I was eagerly waiting to see the car in flesh! The demo car was in trademark Red, and boy, it surely is the best looking hatchback in the country. It's got the best QUARTER profile. The sporty chin and the muscled arches along with the shoulder-line gives it a purposeful SPORTY stance.
Under the hood,the engine bay looks pretty empty.
Now, come inside and one's greeted with good built quality. The doors have that particular heavy feel and the 3 stage mechanism. Seats at front are well shaped and are comfortable, though they are just a little tight on thigh support. The plastic quality all around is perfect, though not as good as a Fabia, but still way ahead of the competition. I liked the mechanism of steering columns adjustment. It's pretty smooth and free flowing. The dials lite up nice, the switch gear has a good tactile feel.
Moving back to rear bench, the legroom is quite similar to the Punto, but the angle and overall comfort is better. Again the thigh support is tight, but the angle makes perfectly for it.
The boot is similar in size to that of Figo. The boot opener in the Logo is just fantastic.
Coming back to the driver's seat, the view is pretty clear from the driver's seat and one can judge pretty easily. The gear-box is a treat and simply the best in class. The performance is satisfactory and bottom end and mid-range is pretty strong.
The ride quality is good and keeps all the bumps away!
The steering has a heavy feel, but it's pretty light being an electronic one.
All through the review I spoken only Good things, but here's a little dampener. After spending close to 5L on a base model an owner expect's the engine to be silent, leaving every thing aside. But for me the engine was a tad on the louder scale. The refinement levels are acceptable and the smoothness is good,but the 3-pot clatter is a dampener. As you gain momentum, the motor becomes a little silent, but i think the engine bay needs a little more dampening.
Now, the prices:
Trendline costs 4.92 L on road
Comfortline - 5.48 L on road
Highline- - 6.47 L on road

somewhere in this thread i read that based on customer feedback VW will be providing covering under the hood (I dont know the technical term) just like they have done for diesel. This would be available for newer deliveries. This should help to reduce the engine grunt. Well if they dont provide, I think it would be possible to buy it as a separate acc or make on our own

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[rangaraj]

Took a quick test drive of the Polo.. I am 6'2" and i struggled to get into a comfortable leg position driving the car. The clutch pedal is too high and dont like riding the clutch.. I cannot see myself driving it in bangalore. Of course, the rear seat space is pathetic when the driver seat is pushed back. Though i have read about how impressed readers are of the 1,2L engine, I was not impressed at all - felt sluggish - i guess the other two cars i drive are the 1.6L Ford Ikon Rally Sport (Rocam engine) and the 2L diesel Sonata. I loved the design and the finish though. The rear seat comfort is great - nice contours.. Anyways, not my cup of tea..Walked across to the Ford showroom and found driving the 1.4L diesel Figo much better to drive though..

[poloman]

formel_eins, I think your analysis is spot on. There were some reports like VW loses 85000 on each Polo sold. All ridiculed the news but seeing the disinterest to sell in volumes I think there is some truth in this. The 85K figure may be wrong but their initial margins may be too low for their liking. So rationing is happening at dealerships.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Hey are you sure about this? All the other VW sites list 1.4 4-cyl as entry level variant.

In fact there is another version of the 1.2 for overseas markets that is even lower than ours. Its a SOHC 6v engine that puts out only 59 bhp.

Even the Fabia 1.2 HTP puts out 5 bhp less than the Polo

[khan75]

I'm 6'1" and don't seem to have a problem driving the car. Push the seat right down and to the back during the TD.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by jassi

test drove a petrol polo today - as they had a car mela at office.

Was this in Cisco ? Believe me you got some lousy drivers in your place taking easy corners like it has to be done sideways. I was over there on some work

[pareshpandit]

Originally Posted by poloman

Delivery in August ! Only three colors availabe ! All this, only with 40 dealerships to cater for.What is happening here? Going by this rate diesel deliveries may start next year. Some thing is wrong in VW assembly line.It would be difficult to imagine that this delay is due to unexpected demand. Even if 200 cars are ordered per dealership, it amounts only to 8000 cars. I think the dealerships are getting arrogant and carried away by the initial hooplah, going by the post of a BHPian from Hyderabad being told no TD vehicles available. There were reports that VW delayed Polo launch to avoid big backlogs and be ready with pool of cars available for delivery with in reasonable time.Looks like their plans have gone haywire.

Ahaha... It's funny that I made the exact same calculations and came to make very similar assumptions!
About a couple of weeks ago, I had gone through the roof on my budget, just to get the Neu VW Polo...
A week prior to that, I had told the SP at VW after my TD that I would be booking the Polo on the coming Thursday. He said, "Okay Sir, you are welcome."

Now, I had told this chap why it would take me 5 more days:
a.) I had to surrender my existing car to Maruti,
b.) I had to cancel my next Maruti booking (to get the Polo), and
c.) I just plain liked Thursdays better!

Here comes Thursday, and a.) and b.) are taken care of. I go to the dealership with my cheque-book; my SP is absent on account of ill health; and I am told that the wait period has now gone up from 6-8 weeks to 3 months since 'yesterday'!

I said, 'Come on man... You know what, I do not even have a car now... blah blah blah...'
The Sales Manager (SM) tells me that, 'I am sorry sir, you should not have done that...'
I said, 'Yeah, tell me about it! Can't you squeeze me in?'
SM: 'Sorry Sir, it is on first-come-first basis only. There is so much demand...'
Now I was like... 'How much demand are you talking about?'
SM: Sir we already have 130 bookings
Me: Let's say that on an average we had not even 130, or 150, but 200 bookings per dealership across India [as per the exorbitantly unexpected demand]! There are 40 dealerships... That makes 8,000 bookings... With a 1,10,000 capacity plant... At least 9,166 vehicles p.m. are produced at full capacity...
Meaning WHAT?... VW did not even prepare for the first month of a NEW launch??! I smell fear of 'bad sales'...!!

[Now I know a new plant would not run at full-capacity; but even if one starts production at 50% capacity about a month in advance of launch, IMHO, 4-6 weeks time would have been sufficiently manageable at the point in time when I went for my booking! ]

My further thoughts were that this is the case with production. Think about A.S.S. when multiples of these 130 would drove in to 40 [perhaps 50-55?] dealerships for service... What would the wait be like?... [No clue!]

All in all, the SM said that he could best ''try'' to get it a week earlier for me. Well, I said thanks and came back to my old budget--suddenly, with the heightened delivery period, I had a lot of time to think about how over-budget I had gone for the love of Polo!

But the good thing was, it got me thinking, took me out of my budget range, and the Maruti stable! We have now booked the little Spark from GM. Thank you VW afterall!!


P.S.: But I still love the VW Polo for all it is! I will get one in the coming years for sure!

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[EssYouWe]

@Mustang 101

I extensively tested the Polo v/s the Figo this week. Here's a very brief review about the drive:
The 1.2 mills are both very low on refinement. Fit and Finish (esp. around fog lamps and general panel gaps) is poor for the Figo.
The Polo feels genuinely from a couple of segments above.

Both engines disappoint wrt power. However, the Figo sounds way sportier than the Polo.
The driving position is higher in the Figo, makes city driving a breeze. However, I prefer a lower seating position (find it more relaxing as I usually drive long distance). Still, Figo provides great road visibility.

The red coloured console and ICE are very very tacky. The seat fabric is good. Please try to provide a Punto style grip for the steering. Neither car had a decent steering wheel.
Figo's drive was very well sorted, so was the Polo's.

However, your dealerships (Harpreet Ford) and the Figo's fit and finish just don't make one feel good.
Figo makes a lot of sense for people on a budget. A wonderful city hatch and a very competent highway muncher in the form of the 1.4 TDCi.

Cheers!
(I'll PM you a link for the full review)

[agm]

I'm 5"10,and have driven both the cars and honestly i find Polo to have better driving position and much more comfortable compared to Figo.

[EssYouWe]

I found both cars rating poorly for driving comfort. I am 5'11" and my knee fouled with the central console on the Polo to an extent that I started hurting.

The Figo has all the pedals way too much to the left. And my left foot constantly fouled against the left footwell wall.

[jassi]

yeah thats correct - there are quite a few bhpians at cisco, but I am guessing they aren't the lousy drivers i was there later in the day and the only cars left worth test-driving were punto and polo - didn't wanna waste my time with manza and xylo. wonder if all the bmw's,toyotas, hondas, etc dissappeared because of the lousy drivers So i just hung around for a few mins, test drove the polo and went back to work. For the few mins I was there did not see any lousy drivers though.

Originally Posted by ajmat

Was this in Cisco ? Believe me you got some lousy drivers in your place taking easy corners like it has to be done sideways. I was over there on some work

[Vid6639]

This is what I noticed in the Figo driving position.

- The steering is fixed at a mid point with no steering adjust. However if you look at the point where the steering console meets the instrument panel you will see a 0.5" gap. This is because the piece is from the Fiesta which has steering adjust and in Figo it is just fixed in one place. In the Fiesta you will see the gap when the steering is tilted downwards. The steering position was good for me but I would have preferred atleast rake if not reach adjust.

- The seat height adjust is a joke. It does not increase the height at all. When you increase the height it lifts up your butt but reduces the underthigh support. When you make it lower it increases your underthing support but makes your butt go down. It is like a see-saw, one side is your butt and the other side your lower thigh area. Depending on the lever you can decide which way the see-saw should swing.

That said the driving position is not bad. It's fairly comfy even for a 6"1' person like me. The visibility is fantastic and you can clearly see all around from the Figo driver's seat. Easiest car to maneuver in town.


Now coming to the Polo.

- Seat and steering adjust is top notch. You can get a perfect driving position even if your tall as the height adjust in lowest position completely sinks the seat to just a few inches above the door sill level. Although you will be comfortable sitting in this lowest position it is a pain to get in and get out as ingress/egress becomes difficult.

- The steering is adjustable for rake and reach and you can get a perfect position. I love the steering far away and a bit lower.

- Tall people cannot opt for the Trendline as it does not have seat height adjust and will find it difficult to even get into the Trendline variant especially if you are tall and well built.

- Visibility is not great in the polo as the window line is higher and the car has a large front overhang which makes it difficult to judge in traffic.

- Left knee hits the centre console if your tall. Not an inconvenience but it touches.

- Clutch is heavy and pedal angle is very weird. The pedal is placed ok but is facing too upwards so instead of pushing it forward you have to push it down like the santro.

Which is your poison, take your pick.