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Let's play word association. I'll say "non-existent niche" and you'll immediately say the words "Volkwagen Polo". What exactly is the Polo's raison d'etre?
Is it cheap? No, not with a base price of $22,190....plus over two grand for air.
Is it Euro chic in styling? No....not with shapes like the Peugeot 206 now available.
Is it highly spec'd? Well...not with rear drum brakes.
So perhaps it's a nippy small car? Ahh, maybe now we're talking. Even though it's a lightweight 950kg, the smallest Volkswagen boasts a relatively large engine capacity of 1.6 litres.
Wow! One-point-six litres in less than a tonne - a recipe for fun, surely? After all, there are plenty of sixteen hundreds with a heap of kilowatts - even the Daewoo Lanos Sport has 78kW from its 1600. So, what's the Euro-tech VW got under the bonnet? Eighty kilowatts? The Honda Civic has 88kW, the Pulsar 86kW - even the Suzuki Baleno has 71kW. Must be at least 75 kilowatts...
The Polo has a miserable 55kW.....
And unfortunately, the Polo's pathetic power output isn't compensated for by a fat, healthy torque curve, either. With a peak of 135Nm, the Polo's engine is effectively matched by such luminaries as the Baleno (134Nm) and simply wiped off the planet by the Pulsar (147Nm), Civic (144) and Lanos (145). And to add real insult to injury, the Polo requires a diet of premium unleaded! It's pretty hard to get excited by a small car that's running an engine so hopelessly off the pace.
And it's not just under the bonnet where the starvation diet is apparent. Have a look at those wheels and tyres - 13 x 5.5 inch steel rims might be just OK, but 175/65 Firestone F-580's with a treadwear factor a staggeringly high 420 can only be referred to as ultra-hard, economy rubber So how does this slow (0-100 in 13 seconds), expensive and under-tyred car come together on the road?
In some situations it's quite bearable. The auto trans picks the right gears with uncannily precise timing; it'll hold onto a gear when you want it to, change up when you'd be changing up, and kick-down with alacrity. The noisy SOHC 8 valve engine's power is harnessed very well by the trans, and with relatively low gearing, the degree of in-gear throttle response belies the paucity of grunt. Try to cane someone away from the lights and - unless you've picked a fully laden prime mover - it's going to be all over by the time you reach the opposite side of the intersection. But if you want to perform a nippy lane-change, the response is there.
On the open road the car cruises relatively quietly (well, quietly for a cheap car; not too sure about how quiet it is for the $24,000 + ORC costs of the air conditioned test car....), with just some wind noise from around the A-pillars. Climbing hills also introduces some engine and exhaust noise, but it is certainly possible to cruise long distances without drama. Throw in a few bumpy corners though, and the picture changes. As with all current Volkswagens that we have driven, the handling is largely benign. However, the hard tyres, low mass and firm damping conspire to give the car an odd - and disconcerting - diagonal pitching movement on turn-in. Get the right (ie the wrong...) mix of road conditions and the Polo will lurch, diagonally pitch and only then enter the corner. Once committed, the Polo feels settled, but a number of times we found its transitional behaviour distinctly unreassuring. As you'd expect on that rubber, ultimate grip levels are low.
The braking in our 8000 kay test car was also a bit sad. The brake pedal had an excessively long travel, and felt a little spongy to boot. There's no ABS fitted, and seeing shoe polish tins behind the rear wheels doesn't too much for us this century. However, the height-adjustable power steering is precise and well-weighted, giving competent communication of the behaviour of the front wheels.
The cabin is comfortable, with the seats supportive and featuring height adjustment as well as the usual backrest rake and fore/aft travel. The springing of the seats is also obviously tuned to the suspension, giving a very good ride. The instruments - housed in a dashboard characterised by a weird mix of straight lines and compound curves - are clear and include an LCD digital tripmeter, odometer and clock. One oddity is that the indicator flasher is almost silent; certainly you cannot hear it clicking when signalling a passing manoeuvre on the open road. Internal ventilation is poor - even with the fan set to '2', a window needs to be open to give adequate airflow on cool, sunny days.
Given the compact external dimensions of the cabin, there's plenty of room in both the front and back, with the boot space exceptionally deep. There is also a distinctive 'quality' feel inside - from the ways that the doors shut, to the use of a separate lockable release handle for the hatch (ie you can leave it unlocked), to the presence of seatbelt height adjustors on the B-pillars. The front doors have wide, long pockets alongside the large two-way speaker splits, and the single CD radio sounds good, with excellent treble and competent bass.
So with the all of this criticism - and the latter para of damning-with-faint-praise - why would anyone buy the Polo? The short answer to that is that not many actually have....just 1054 people shelled out the dough for a Volkwagen Polo in 1999, when in the same year over 32,000 Hyundai Excels were sold... However, one facet where the Polo can comprehensively outrank most of its opposition is in crash safety. Tests conducted both here and overseas have shown the dual airbag-equipped Polo is a safe car in which to hit other hard objects.
And perhaps that uncovers the niche - old people who want to potter around the city, have the ease of parking that comes with a compact power-steered car, the convenience of a hatch, the proven safety - and the probable durability - of a Volkswagen.
Wonder what the average age of a Polo buyer is....?
www.volkswagen.com.au
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