Home Test Drives & Reviews Volkswagen Polo GTI – Performance You Can Live With

Volkswagen Polo GTI – Performance You Can Live With

Test Drives & Reviews

by Kon - Oct 7, 2011

It is not often that we are handed test cars with the explicit warning to ‘be careful when it rains’. Yet, those were the parting words of Volkswagen Group Malaysia’s (VGM) PR manager, Mr T Yogendra, as he passed me the keys of the Polo GTI test car pictured in this review. That ominous warning tells us that this is a car to be respected.

The heavens never gave us the opportunity to put Yogi’s words to the test, but even in the dry, the Polo GTI was quite capable of giving us a few hairy moments. It is a stiffly sprung car. If the surface is perfectly tarred, it corners with bags of grip to spare and very minimal body roll. Problem is that not every corner or bend is as smooth as a baby’s bottom, so if you hit a mid-corner bump whilst gunning it, the Polo GTI gets unsettled pretty easily.

The stiff suspension has other implications too, and it revolves around the ride quality. It is not an uncomfortable setup to be sure, as it absorbs potholes and various surface anomalies with great authority. Where it loses some marks is in its high speed ride, where low frequency undulations can be keenly felt as you go faster.

Putting the above two criticisms aside, however, there is then very little to fault about the Volkswagen Polo GTI. Indeed, how much can you complain about when you have an award-winning engine, state-of-the-art transmission, and a legendary badge offered to you in one package at less than RM140k before insurance?

VGM offers the Polo GTI in two variants – three-door and five-door. Both feature identical mechanical specifications and kit count, being differentiated only by two rear doors and RM3,000 from each other. The choice between one or the other probably boils down to how often you have passengers at the rear and how much trouble you want to put them through getting in and out of your car. They are even of the same size – identical in length and wheelbase.

Three-door and five-door model occupy exactly the same footprint.

There is a decent amount of kit onboard, but the party piece is most certainly the 1.4-litre twincharged direct injection engine with 178hp on tap at 6,200rpm. Torque is similarly generous, with 250Nm usefully spread between 2,000 and 4,500rpm. Bear in mind that the 7-speed DSG loses little of that output whilst handing them to the front wheels and that kerb weight is well below 1,300kg. Serious ammunition on board then.

And you can feel it. If you drive it sedately, the Polo GTI picks up speed effortlessly, and if you don’t keep the speedo in check, you will find yourself way past the national speed limit before realizing. At wider throttle openings, acceleration gets even more rapid and the engine serves to entertain with an amusingly addictive growl as its sound track.

7-speed DSG is the standard transmission.

Claimed performance figures are 6.9 seconds for the century sprint and top speed of 229kph. Fuel consumption, tested in the combined cycle, is quoted at 5.9 litres/100km. Although we got nowhere near those figures, the Polo GTI was still remarkably frugal taking our exuberant driving style into consideration. Almost 400km was needed before the 45-litre tank was sufficiently emptied to have the fuel warning light called into action.

So, it is a little wild to drive, yet remarkably economical, but what is it like to live with? Well, the rear hatch will swallow a week’s worth of groceries. One particularly thoughtful touch is the placement of two retractable notches to hold up the floorboard when you wish to access the spare tyre and tool kit.

What’s a little bizarre, however, is that the extra volume freed up by the use of a space saver spare tyre was not exploited to give extra cargo volume. The polystyrene partition used to organize the tools was rather thick and forced the floorboard to be raised several inches. Of course, if you really do need the extra cargo volume, the polystyrene piece can be removed and the floorboard lowered, or you can also make use of the 60:40 split folding rear seats.

Space saver spare. Note the two little notches that hold up the floorboard as you access the spare.

Stepping inside, you will be greeted by a cabin almost identical to the base Polo 1.2 TSI, but differentiated by sprinklings of GTI touches. The steering wheel is now chunkier, finished with red stitching and with a ‘GTI’ badge on its lower spoke marking its ID. Seats are finished in fabric, and the old-timers will be pleased to see the same Tartan pattern that was the hallmark of the first Golf GTI. Some of the younger generation may not find it as fashionable though.

One criticism that has been leveled against the standard Polo is that the Malaysian-spec vehicles have low kit count. How that criticism came about when the package includes four airbags, seat-belt pre-tensioners, ISOFIX, ABS, EBD, and an award-winning drivetrain is beyond us. Nevertheless, the dearer Polo GTI adds cruise control, curtain airbags, sunroof, electronic diff lock (XDS), traction control and an uprated suspension setup to its armoury to offer improved value.

To be sure, the Polo GTI is not a vehicle without flaws. Its handling is a little on the twitchy side, as slight disturbances on the road has the ability to throw it off. But as with many cars, it is always a question of getting used to the vehicle’s characteristics before one can extract the best performance out of it. When you consider the amazing combination of performance, economy, and not to mention badge cachet, VGM’s asking price of RM133,608 – RM136,608 (OTR w/o Insurance) for the Polo GTI makes it nothing less than a steal.