[arshad_98]

First of all, I would like to thank the Team-BHP moderators for approving my application and allowing me to be a part of this amazing community.

Prologue: It had been almost twelve years since my friend had made any changes to his garage which had a Hyundai Santro Xing GL (Best looking hatch of its time) and now was the time for an upgrade with a budget of INR 9L. The hunt began in the month of September 2020 after he came back form Bhubaneswar and about 3 months later in December, after visiting several showrooms in Vadodara and going through many reviews on the internet, thoroughly reading several car review threads on Team-BHP, he decided that the 2020 Volkswagen Polo Highline Plus MT 1.0 TSI will be the new member of his family.

Picture of his previous car, Hyundai Santro Xing GL:


Other cars considered:

1) Tata Nexon 1.2L Turbo, Petrol, Manual: This was the first car my friend took a TD of. He felt the engine to be a bit sluggish and wasn't satisfied with the performance overall, being an engine performance-oriented guy he chose performance over looks. the Nexon was hence ruled out from the list.

2) Honda Amaze 1.2V, Petrol, Manual: Being well under budget, decent looks, good performance and spacious cabin, this car made it to his shortlist.

3) 4th generation Honda City SV MT, Petrol, Manual: This was also an option as the new Honda City 5th generation had just launched and there were possibilities of the prices of the 4th gen City to come down or high discounts available with the same. But nothing as such happened and with a heavy heart, this option was not put on the shortlist.

4) Maruti Suzuki Baleno Alpha, Petrol, Manual: While there was no intention of upgrading to a Maruti Suzuki, my friend still decided to test drive the Baleno and boy oh boy! he was amazed by the feel and feedback the steering wheel offered, the looks, the features and the engine performance as well. But in this case, he had to compromise the safety which he wasn't ready to, still, this car made it to his shortlist.

5) VW Polo Highline Plus MT 1.0 TSI: TBH, my friend visited the VW showroom 3S, Old Chhani Road, Vadodara to checkout the Vento. But Vento being way out of budget he developed his interest towards the Polo (hot hatch). Took a TD of the Polo HPMT 1.0 TSI and was sold away by the performance this car had to offer. After an awesome experience with the Polo, he came back home and went through the shortlist.

Considering all the pros and cons of the cars he shortlisted and good research for about a month and a half, he booked the VW Polo Highline Plus MT 1.0 TSI in Candy White on 11th December 2020 with a booking amount of INR 21000. He also had made an agreement on paper with the dealer that he would only buy the car if it is available before 31st December 2020 and also if only the paint of his choice is available. TBH, we were pretty sceptical that the above requirements would be met and started looking for the upcoming cars in 2021. But to our surprise, the SA called him up on 21st December 2020 and said that the car with all the above requirements was available and had just been transported from the factory. All of us (me, my friend and his father) decided to schedule a PDI the next day, spoke to the SA and she also gave an affirmation for the same.

We all left for the showroom in my friend's Santro (this was the last time I sat in his Santro), with the Team-BHP PDI list in hand, we inspected the car for about 45 minutes almost and the car was perfect, the SA was also patient and told us that this was her first time seeing people come for the PDI. The car was December 2020 make (fresh out of the oven), the car had 6kms on the odo, no dents, no scratches and ticked all the boxes on the PDI list, my friend and his father were very happy with the car.

Interestingly, an event that happened during this PDI was that the trip meter showed 6.9 km meanwhile the odometer was at 6 km which would draw in some suspicion. But, we brush up our maths and common sense a bit, the reading is perfectly accurate. Let me explain to you if someone is finding it difficult to get a clear picture. Actually, the trip meter has the reading accurate up to a single decimal place i.e 6.9 km, whereas the odometer has no decimal place and thus showed 6 km. And, upon writing, it reminded me a con of this car is that it has a single trip meter whereas most cars these days come with two trip meters.

Picture of the car in the yard during PDI:


It was already late after the PDI was done and it was time for the showroom to close, my friend and his father decided to do all the payments the following day (23rd December 2020), the loan was already approved by the Bank of Baroda hence there were no issues during the payment process.

The D-Day:

After all the payments were done and approved by the dealer, the car was ready to be delivered and the delivery was scheduled on 25th December 2020. The delivery process was smooth, no hassles, it took about one hour for the registration process and a small cake cutting ceremony with a song playing in one of the display cars were done keeping all the preventive measures in mind and a box of chocolates was handed over to us. The only thing that was bought that day were the mud flaps, rest all cosmetic updates would be done in the future. It was an amazing purchase experience at VW Vadodara 3S, the staff was helpful and the SA had great knowledge about the cars, she was always available over the call to solve our queries.

Few pictures from the delivery day:

The reveal:


If looks could kill:


It has been around 32 days as I am writing this thread since he bought the car home, it has covered 990 kms till now, I have been in the car for about 5-6 times in the passenger seat, in the front and in the back as well.

What I like:
1. The car has some really good looks.
2. Ride quality is amazing, feels like you are gliding on good roads, the stability on the corners at high speeds is crazy good.
3. The tires are of perfect size 195/55/R16 (Goodyear Assurance).
4. Plenty of safety features.
5. Auto-dimming IRVM.
6. Cornering lamps.
7. Build quality is remarkable, everything that you touch feels premium from door handles to AC knobs.
8. Cruise control (I am sure it is not going to be used much but still a good feature to have).
9. Turbocharger really improves the performance, the car just pulls once RPM needle reaches 2500 revs, this makes driving fun.
10. Feel and feedback from the steering wheel is amazing, weighs up accordingly on high speeds, the flat bottom and the steering wheel being leather-wrapped, adds icing to the cake.
11. Good ICE, the audio is good enough for our liking.
12. Rain sensing wipers is a good touch.
13. Looks are too simple and elegant, unbelievable for a car from a very old platform.
14. Availability of lights in the driver's as well as the passenger's footwell gives a premium look too.
15. All the four windows come with the anti-pinch feature.

What I don't like:
1. Lack of projector headlamps is a drawback.
2. This car is strictly a four-seater, the rear bench can accommodate only 2 passengers, the tunnel hump in between restricts the space.
3. NVH are a bit too high for my liking (I am used to a Hyundai petrol, so yeah).
4. No Auto-folding of the ORVMs on lock and unlock, this should be done internally using a dedicated button from inside the car.
5. Ingress and egress is a bit difficult, probably because the ride height is low.
6. Sad to see the missing rearview camera in the top model (GT is considered to be the top trim but then it is an automatic) of a premium hatch.
7. Engine is vocal during idling conditions, sounds more like a diesel engine and not petrol (I guess this is because it's a 3-cylinder but Tata Nexon turbo petrol also has a 3 pot engine but it ain't that vocal).

I have heard the horror stories about Volkswagen ASS, cars being parked in the service centre for weeks due to the unavailability of spare parts. I am not mentioning this point in the 'What I don't like' section as my friend has not experienced any problems so far (I mean, of course, the car is new but still).

Few apprehensions about the car that have been felt till now:

1. There were two instances where the RPM needle was fluctuating between 1000 RPM and 1200 RPM after cranking the engine and the event continued for like 15 seconds and after that, it stayed at 1000 RPM as normal. Both the instances happened during the drive to the Statue of Unity. During the 1st month service, this issue was raised to the Service Advisor and he mentioned that this is normal in the new 1.0-litre TSI engine. In fact, in the scan, no error code was reported.
2. Another thing which I noticed that the speed sensing door lock was then functioning on how I assume it to work. For example, in my another friend's Hyundai Creta, the doors get locked when it attains a speed of 25 kmph(not sure, if this is the exact correct speed) and when we try to unlock the car by pulling the small lever, the lever does not come to the unlock position even when we use force. This justifies how a speed-sensing door lock should work.

But in contrary, in my friend's Polo, the door gets locked after attaining 25 kmph, BUT a passenger sitting inside the car can easily pull the lever to open the door at any given speed and this took me by surprise. Because then what is the use of a speed-sensing door lock??
3. Initially, when we inspected the car during the PDI, there no dates (i.e. in the format WWYY) on the tyres (Goodyear Triplemax Assurance) and upon inspecting all the cars in the stockyard and showroom, we realised that all the cars (read Polo, Vento) which came with 16-inch wheels had no dates mentioned on the tyres. Although, the cars with 15-inchers with the same Goodyear Triplemax Assurance tyres had the dates (i.e. in the format WWYY) inscribed on them. Even the sales advisor had no clue why the dates were not present.

Later during the 1st-month service, this issue was also raised and when the car was jacked up on the hydraulic lift, it was found out that all the dates were mentioned on the inside of the tyre, which is a ridiculous thing to do and I still do not understand why a company would do so?
4. There was a noticeable panel gap in the rear left door. But this was fixed in the 1st-month service.

Here are some pictures of the car:

Some aesthetic skies and the car of course:


Top-down shot, just like on the race track:


Engine and Performance (the main reason why it was bought), Driveability and Comfort:

This particular variant, VW Polo Highline Plus, comes with the 1.0 litre, 3-cylinder, 6-speed manual transmission, turbo-petrol TSI engine, which produces 110 BHP, 175 Nm torque and has a fuel efficiency of 18.24 kmpl (ARAI rated). The former used to come equipped with the 1.2 litre TSI engine which produced 7 BHP less than the present one. The petrol variant was mainly bought because the daily commute is very less, less than 5kms during week days, about 50kms during weekends and about 3-4 long drives (300kms) in a year. As of now, the car has 990kms on the odo, with one long drive to the Statue of Unity (103kms from Vadodara).

During this drive, the car gave a mileage of 17.7kmpl as per the odo but when we calculated manually it was around 16.3kmpl, the SA had already told us that there would be a slight variation in the MID reading and the original figures. Anyways, coming to the drive experience, I am amazed by the performance this engine has to offer, the car reaches the 100kmph mark in no time, overtaking is no task now, the stability of this car at the corners is too good at high speeds and the feel and feedback offered by steering wheel allows you to escape those all-of-sudden appearing potholes on the road.

During the drive to the Statue of Unity, there was heavy traffic which in-turn added two hours more to the drive, but the cabin inside felt very comfortable and it was no issue for the driver (my friend) to dodge the traffic without breaking a sweat, the only thought he had was if it were an automatic. The ICE is decent, the Apple car play and Android auto work fine.

Some pictures of the hot hatch from the drive to the Statue of Unity:

Polo parked along the river Narmada:


Polo with the World's tallest statue:


What an amazing look this car has:


The drive to the statue had been amazing, the car performed well all along though we faced heavy traffic it was not an issue as we were in a comfortable hatchback. Most of the time I was sitting at the back, me being 5'8, it was quite comfortable. IMO, this car is strictly a 4 seater, for everyone to be seated comfortably, adjusting 5 would make the journey a tiring one for all.

Pictures of the car for comprehensive understanding:

Flat bottom and leather-wrapped steering wheel with ICE and MID mounted controls:


Rake and Reach Adjustment for the steering wheel:


Centre console is tilted slightly towards the driver for ease of use. Nice touch:


Multi-Information Display, tachometer and speedometer are analogue:


Bass, Sound and treble adjustment in the ICE:




Glovebox with adequate space and a sunglass holder:


Illuminated driver and passenger side footwell respectively:




Driver side door handle with one-touch roll down/up function windows, ORVM adjustment knob and lock/unlock button:


Auto-dimming IRVM, a bit small in size compared to my i20:


Passenger side view of the cockpit:


Tinted windows (OEM):


The positioning of the handbrake is in a very odd place, under the handrest:


Legroom in the back with driver's seat in the frontmost and backmost position respectively:




Rear AC vents with 12V charging socket:


Boot space (280 litres) is adequate not plenty (of course it is a hatchback):


The Headlamp assembly, they look like projectors but are not:


Bumper lip in the front gives the car a very sporty look IMO:


Now comes the heart of the car, the engine bay:


That is it BHPians, this is the ownership review of my friend's 2020 VW Polo HPMT 1.0 TSI. Wish you all many happy miles ahead and drive safe.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

Will go to homepage today

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by arshad_98

But in contrary, in my friend's Polo, the door gets locked after attaining 25 kmph, BUT a passenger sitting inside the car can easily pull the lever to open the door at any given speed and this took me by surprise. Because then what is the use of a speed-sensing door lock??

The door is locked - the outside handles won't open it.

The door can always be opened from the inside and this is how it should be. In an accident, you don't want to be trapped inside because a door locked. If you have children, use the child lock feature for the rear doors.

[shashi792]

Congratulations.

We too recently brought a GT-TSI home (Sunset Red) for my Brother. Of all our cars (Duster AMT, Ecosport TDCI, and Alto 800), we absolutely love driving GT. A few years back we had TD'd 1.2 GT TSI. While the gear shifts are not so slick like DSG, but it looks like a decade ahead when compared to our Duster AMT.

[arshad_98]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

The door is locked - the outside handles won't open it.

The door can always be opened from the inside and this is how it should be. In an accident, you don't want to be trapped inside because a door locked. If you have children, use the child lock feature for the rear doors.

Thank you for clearing my doubt, didn't think of it this way.

Originally Posted by shashi792

Congratulations.

We too recently brought a GT-TSI home (Sunset Red) for my Brother. Of all our cars (Duster AMT, Ecosport TDCI, and Alto 800), we absolutely love driving GT. A few years back we had TD'd 1.2 GT TSI. While the gear shifts are not so slick like DSG, but it looks like a decade ahead when compared to our Duster AMT.

Thank you and congratulations to you too! The driving dynamics of the Polo are amazing. Germans do know how to engineer their cars!

[Rhik94]

Originally Posted by arshad_98

First of all, I would like to thank the Team-BHP moderators for approving my application and allowing me to be a part of this amazing community.

A very warm welcome to the forum!! Your beast looks slick.

I too have booked a Polo Highline Plus MT and awaiting delivery. Hoping to get it in a couple of weeks.

Are you exploring any modifications for your Polo? Maxidot, Headlights et all.
If you could post a picture at night with the headlights in action that would be great. That is the only part that I am skeptical about.

Wishing you many many miles of happiness with the German firecracker!!!

[arshad_98]

Originally Posted by Rhik94

Are you exploring any modifications for your Polo? Maxidot, Headlights et all.
If you could post a picture at night with the headlights in action that would be great. That is the only part that I am skeptical about.

Wishing you many many miles of happiness with the German firecracker!!!

Thanks a ton for your lovely wish!

As far as the mods are concerned, I do not want to end up in any warranty void woes and plan to keep the car in stock for 4 years i.e. till when the car is under warranty. But for that matter, I am thinking of doing all the possible plug and play type mods that would not void the warranty. I do have a very small list of them and I do not know if these even count as mods

1. Medal pedals.
2. White license plate light
3. Blacked out OVRM, roof and alloys.
4. OEM Spoiler.

Your concern for the headlights is understandable as in various other threads owners have complained about the poor throw from the OEM bulbs. As of today, I have clocked about 1,500 km with my Polo with very less night driving so, I can not personally comment on the performance of headlights. And yes, as requested I will post a picture of the headlights at work in dark conditions.

[RoadMonkey]

Originally Posted by Rhik94

A very warm welcome to the forum!! Your beast looks slick.

I too have booked a Polo Highline Plus MT and awaiting delivery. Hoping to get it in a couple of weeks.

Are you exploring any modifications for your Polo? Maxidot, Headlights et all.
If you could post a picture at night with the headlights in action that would be great. That is the only part that I am skeptical about.

Wishing you many many miles of happiness with the German firecracker!!!

I also own a Polo TSI Highline Plus (AT), the headlights for the high beam are inadequate. The low beam is sufficient for city driving but an upgrade is a must for any highway driving. I haven't been comfortable with the illumination offered for highway drives and have paid for it by crashing into potholes at higher speeds than I'd have liked to.

I think VW offers upgrade as an accessory, can't speak for their improvement over stock but that's what I'm considering. I don't want to run into warranty issues by installing aftermarket headlamps.

[nick.cs]

Regarding the door unlock thing (which i also eventually found out) i remembered that you can go through the below post to understand some of the quirks of the VW stable. The below link is for vento but i am sure most of them will be applicable for polo as well.


Link (Volkswagen Vento - User Discovered Features and Quirks)

[i_nv]

Congratulations on your new car. A bit confused. Is this review of your friend's car or your car ?

Originally Posted by arshad_98

As of today, I have clocked about 1,500 km with my Polo with very less night driving so, I can not personally comment on the performance of headlights. And yes, as requested I will post a picture of the headlights at work in dark conditions.

[arshad_98]

Originally Posted by i_nv

Congratulations on your new car. A bit confused. Is this review of your friend's car or your car ?

Thank you!
It is my friend's car, but I was the one driving while the car clocked 1500kms, that is why I referred myself (a mistake maybe ).

[Fire0072]

Wow, that's indeed a great-looking car, I must say.

I couldn't ignore how elegant and simplistic it looks and yet attracts a lot of attention to date.

Congratulations to you for getting into the forum and your friend for his german pocket-rocket.