[Zigor]

I was looking for a diesel hatchback since 3-4 months. Having driven mostly Maruti cars (Swift and Ritz), VW is an alien concept to everyone in my family. I still can't forget the turbo surge of my old swift. I did 1 lac km before selling it with a heavy heart. The car started showing it's age and here I was looking for a small hatch with more power.

Alternatives considered : When the search started, it was between New Polo, Swift Zdi, New Punto

Swift Zdi
+ve Nimble, handles well, good ergonomics
+ve Engine response, Gearshift
+ve ASS
-ve Driven old swift for long time, Don't want to repeat the car again
-ve Too common and expecting face-lift in near future
-ve Even on Zdi, the brakes are unpredictable

New Punto
+ve Awesome looks (especially old model)
+ve Great ride and handling package
+ve Now has good interiors
-ve Quite honestly, did't like chrome everywhere
-ve Same engine specs, Same gearbox

To sum it up I chose VW Polo, as it has bigger engine (than Swift and Punto), better brakes (than swift). I don't think any other hatch will be launched in near future with better specs (leaving GT TDI which I think with the new pricing would be too expensive for a hatch). New Polo also offers lot of options for a remap at a later stage.


Booking and delivery experience:
I stay in Gurgaon but I booked the car at VW showroom in Yamunanagar, Haryana (my hometown). The experience was fine (no nasty surprises so far). I booked the car on 16th July. They had couple of cars ( Comfortline TDI) in backyard. I did a quick PDI and was all ready to be an owner of the NEW Polo TDI Comfortline variant. All the features of the comfortline variant satisfy my needs (15'inch tyres, ABS, Airbags, Music system, New headlamps). I would not miss much from Highline. It costs around 7.60 lacs (Insurance + Registration included). I got it delivered on 17th July so I think this is the first New Polo on Team BHP. I have driven around 1100 kms (mostly on highways). Please find a summary of my brief experience so far.



Likes :

1. Styling - I like the new style. The area around headlamps is attractive. All the changes to front and rear side are subtle and look good. I like the fact that the car comes with 15'inch tyres with rims and good plastic covers. They look quite good. I will change them to alloys at some stage but not looking to do it right now as the combination looks amazing anyway. Car looks balanced and proportional from every angle. I love the headlamps and you really have the see the throw to believe it. The design is perfect for my taste.


2. Interiors - It is fresh and appealing. It definitely feels upmarket and luxurious form every angle. Right from instrument cluster (really cool and informative) to speedometer, from seat texture to buttons and controls on every door, it looks well sorted. Ergonomics are spot on. It feels good to sit in a well laid out car. No flashiness, just pure class. Seats are made of a hard compound (which I like). They hug you well enough. Everyone seems to be happy with back seat as well. The rear space seems slightly more than the previous model. Couple of my friends who drive the old Polo have agreed to this. VW has done something which has helped for sure.


3. Engine & Gearbox - Now this is absolutely game changing feature of the car. Engine generates 90 ps of power and 230 nm torque which not only sound good on paper, it is great on roads as well. The car just pulls especially from 3rd gear onward. 1500-3000 rpm is the sweet zone and car climbs up like anything in this zone. When I change gears around 3000 rpm (with pedal fully pressed), it feels that this should have been the Polo from day one. I know it's still early days but I did 140 km/hr briefly and the car felt it could do more easily. Gearbox is good but not tuned for an outright enthusiast. There is some clutch-transmission play when you change gears quickly. Then again, sudden gear changes are not required as the fifth gear is the really good right from 70 till 130 km/hr. I remember during my highway runs, all the Swifts, Puntos (no offense owners) try to keep up but as I mentioned in a post before, 'There is no replacement for displacement'. So true !


4. Handling & Suspension - This new suspension is slightly soft than before. It is a welcome change as the ride is really good. Backseat comfort is very good and I see people sleeping at back seat most of the times. When someone is driving it really hard, we can feel the body roll in a very predictable and manageable way. Nothing alarming at all. In fact it is a good balance overall. Car handles very well around twisties and although I don't recommend the zig-zag kind of driving on highways, I must say the new engine-suspension combo is fun on highway when you decide to do so.


5. Braking - It is lot better now and ABS is up to mark. No funny stuff as it stops in straight line. I had to brake hard as a dog was in a hurry to cross the road. The car stopped in time. No complaints at all. In fact this was one of the main reasons I got this car over a Swift ZDI.


6. Fuel efficiency- It is 15km/ltr (on MID) in city and 22-23km/ltr (Tank fill method) on highway. FE does not matter much to me but I am happy with the numbers.


7. Others - I feel the car has huge scope for remap and modification. May be after some time. Right now I am a happy bloke with the stock unit !


Dislikes :

1. Apollo Alnacs are good but not very inspiring after 100 km/hr. Somehow I feel they could be puncture magnet. I will change to 205/55/R15 later.
2. Dealer provided mats and basic accessories which are nothing much to write about. They are sub standard in nature.
3. It should have been alloys in Comfortline too. Not too disappointed as it gives me lot of options.
4. AC makes lot of noise at second position (too much for my liking). Will get this checked later.
5. Music system is good while playing songs which are 320kbps. Anything below that quality and the sound is not good.


Some other points :

1. Overall build quality is very good. This is what VW stands for and seems like a clear difference from Swift.
2. Air conditioner is just about fine. As mentioned before, at second position, blower is too loud.
3. It is easy to drive in city with almost no turbo lag. Engine response is good after 1500 rpm. On highway it is a Rockstar in 5th gear.
4. Refinement levels are good and NVH is also better than previous 1.6 TDI
5. Steering response is light at low speeds (boon in city), it is fairly hard at speeds. In fact I thought it would be much lighter than this (pleasantly surprised)
6. Great boot space. Really good for hatch standards. Space management is really good.
7. Ingress, egress is good as all 4 doors open up well, only issue being low slung stance where you have to bend to enter. I miss my Ritz here.


I am definitely satisfied with the purchase. Dealer experience was good until now (Keeping my fingers crossed). I also opted for 2+2 extended warranty.
Note : My opinions are personal and I don't want to offend anyone. This is my first thread and I thank this forum for all the help while taking my decisions. Thanks guys !

Varun aka Zigor




I am sure that I don't have the talent for photography. Please understand

[psuraj]

Congratulations on the new car Zigor. Wish you many happy and safe miles ahead.

Regards
Suraj

[anandpadhye]

Congratulations!
How is the engine noise? Compared to Swift and the earlier 1.6L engine (e.g. in Vento)?
What is clutch-transmission play you mentioned?

BTW, just curious, how do you judge that a tyre is a puncture magnet?

[Zigor]

Originally Posted by psuraj

Congratulations on the new car Zigor. Wish you many happy and safe miles ahead.

Regards
Suraj

Thanks Suraj !

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Congratulations!
How is the engine noise? Compared to Swift and the earlier 1.6L engine (e.g. in Vento)?
What is clutch-transmission play you mentioned?

BTW, just curious, how do you judge that a tyre is a puncture magnet?

Thanks again, Well the noise is there when you start the engine but once the components warm up it is less as compared to old 1.6 unit. Also, it is slightly better if not equal to a Swift Diesel.

I have been using Bridgestone all my life. In fact this could be the only car which does not have Bridgestone to begin with. I feel there is certain amount of softness to Alnac tyres. I went to my friend's workplace (it's a factory). There are small pieces of metal, scraps (less than an inch) in the compound. I could see couple of those pieces stuck on the tyre, infact couple of them scrapped the tyre. That almost never happened on ER60 and other hard tyres. May be that's why I felt Alnacs could be soft in nature.

Whenever a gear is changed (mostly 2nd,3rd), there is a slight jerk in the transmission or clutch or somewhere (sometimes not always). You can feel some sort of force feedback or may be the car is too new to judge. May be it is something related to the clutch setting. I would observe carefully next time. It is not pleasant !

[e46]

Hi there,

Congrats on the new car. Its great to see all black interiors in Polo. I thought all OEMs succumbed to the two tone beige interior fad.

Abhi.

[nkrishnap]

Congrats on getting the Polo TDI home. Those smoked double barrel headlights makes it look very good. The 1.5 TDI should keep you happy about the drive.

Enjoy many more happy miles with the car.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Congrats...

The GT TDi and now the new 1.5 TDi both have really changed the performance benchmarks in the hatchback segment. Can't wait to test drive one!

The new double barrel headlamps look real sweet as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Team-BHP

[dipen]

Congratulations on the Polo. Finally with a engine for the mass market.
Somehow, the steering wheel and interiors still look very barren. Look Wise the Swift still is better. Not quality wise.

Why cant the dash dials get a chrome surround. Silver trim on the ac units would have been nice.

Drive-wise, there is nothing better than the 1.5 and 1.6 Polo Diesels.

[Rehaan]

Thread moved back out from the Assembly Line to Ownership Reviews. Thanks for sharing!

[Vid6639]

Congrats on the Polo Zigor. Looks like your the first to get the 1.5 TDI on the forum.

I must say comfortline all black interiors look nice.

I checked the specs of the Comfortline vs the Highline and was pleasantly surprised. The Comfortline is actually properly loaded. Usually the mid spec loses out a lot tempting one to get the top of the line version.

Main features which impressed me in the Comfortline were ABS, dual airbags, seat height adjust, tilt and telescopic steering, audio system with usb, aux in.

Major misses vs the highline are climate control, steering mounted audio controls with bluetooth, parking sensors, alloys and a few cosmetics.

The Comfortline is priced very close to the Swift ZDi whereas the highline is 50K more. This is very good pricing.

Suddenly the Polo appears VFM with performance, efficiency and features at a price point not much more than a Maruti.

[suhaas307]

Nice write-up Zigor!

The refreshed Polo is an interesting car. I like the all-black interiors quite a bit and I do hope they consider it for the GT variants (Seriously, who thinks beige is sporty?!) But I'm a little disappointed that VW has half-baked this face-lift. Nonetheless, the new Polo with its 1.5 diesel engine is certainly a value proposition.

One particular observation you had about the car caught my attention. You're saying that the Polo now has a slightly more spacious rear bench. This reminded me of a claim that the VW sales-rep made, a claim that I was quick to brush aside. He said that the wheelbase is now longer by a few inches. I found this a little hard to digest given that a longer wheelbase would mean structural changes. Hmmm...

[Zigor]

Originally Posted by e46

Hi there,

Congrats on the new car.

Abhi.

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Congrats on getting the Polo TDI home. Those smoked double barrel headlights makes it look very good.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Congrats...

Originally Posted by dipen

Congratulations on the Polo. Finally with a engine for the mass market.
Somehow, the steering wheel and interiors still look very barren. Look Wise the Swift still is better. Not quality wise.

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Nice write-up Zigor!

The refreshed Polo is an interesting car. I like the all-black interiors quite a bit and I do hope they consider it for the GT variants (Seriously, who thinks beige is sporty?!) But I'm a little disappointed that VW has half-baked this face-lift. Nonetheless, the new Polo with its 1.5 diesel engine is certainly a value proposition.

One particular observation you had about the car caught my attention. You're saying that the Polo now has a slightly more spacious rear bench. This reminded me of a claim that the VW sales-rep made, a claim that I was quick to brush aside. He said that the wheelbase is now longer by a few inches. I found this a little hard to digest given that a longer wheelbase would mean structural changes. Hmmm...

Thanks guys ! I want to add couple of points here :

All black interiors look better in real life. I am not a great photographer and even I was not satisfied with the photo posted above

I was surprised by (slight) extra legroom in the back. In fact I didn't believe the passengers sitting in back until my friend (previous Polo owner) mentioned it. We could be wrong too. It's just something which most people noticed.

[Amarendranath]

Hearty congratulations varun! Wish you a safe and trouble free ownership.

I had recently driven the 1.5 and came out impressed. On the plans to get one for myself, hope things workout as intended.

[F150]

Congratulations !! White doesnt accentuate the new shape at all. You should have gone for the latest orange color.

Are those mats provided by the dealer, please replace them.

Enjoy your punchy drive !!

[shashank.nk]

Congratulations on the Polo Zigor! Wish you many happy miles in it.

Its good to see VW take customer feedback seriously and improve. 2014 comfortline is better loaded than 2011 highline polo I had except for alloys.

Do post detailed impressions on the engine as you clock more miles!