- Doors and Seats
3 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
1.4TSC, 4 cyl.
- Engine Power
132kW, 250Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (98) 6.1L/100KM
- Manufacturer
FWD
- Transmission
Auto (DCT)
- Warranty
3 Yr, Unltd KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
2012 Volkswagen Polo GTi Review
So after a little over two years of ownership of my MY12.5 Polo Gti, I'm trading up to something a bit more exciting and faster. I thought it would be nice to to share my journey.
- Low down torque with the twincharger engine, very little lag & can be quite rapid on the right road, Very good fit & finish when compare to any of it's rival, The tartan seats looks ace, ergonomics is good., DSG works great when it gets going!, Sound good from the inside although the sound pipe in is fake!
- Oil consumption issues with the 1.4 twincharger engine, Dry clutch DSG not the smoothest at low speed, try to get to the highest gear whenever possible, unless you're in Sport, in which case it 'really' doesn't like to change up., Suspension is on the hard side & not very compliant , The XDL electronic differential is not the most effective, The boot is very small even considering the compact nature of the car
It was October 13', I had just return to Sydney after being away studying & working in the UK. I was on a look out for a car at the 20-25k range, I had my eyes on the brand new Clio, Fiat 500, 2nd hand Citroen DS3 Sport as well as the Polo. After test driving all of them, the Clio was ruled out due to the relatively low powered motor although the design was really fresh. The Fiat with the 0.9L twinair was tons of fun but again it was a bit underpowered and a little too small. The DS3 was quite funky but ultimately I went with the Polo Gti because it was more practical with it's 5 doors, a DSG box. The initial impression was a small car with plenty of go, perfect for the hilly roads of the Sydney forest district where I lived and work. I also really liked the grown up look of the car compare to something like the Fiesta.
The honeymoon period didn't last long, as I soon realise I got an oil burner. The dealership was happy to do free refill and conduct oil consumption test. This whole charade lasted for the entire time I own the car with a fresh oil refill nearly as often as I go the the gas station. My car was burning over 500ml per 1000km, which is over the offical acceptable limit of 1L per 2000km. Software updates, breather hose, oil jets were all suppose to fix the problem, but it seems to make very little difference each time they send me away. Instead of doing the right thing by doing an engine rebuild, VW HQ just drag their feet till the warranty of the car ran out and promptly decline to sanction anymore work on the car. But I must note the staff at the service department at the were mostly very helpful.
With my rant over... now to the positives!
Did I enjoy the car? Yes, there was lots of memorable drive out in Central coast, Kangaroo Valley, Ku-Ring-Gai national park...
The Polo is a very easy car to drive and given the handling characteristics, you need to be pretty stupid on the road to breach it's limit.
It gets off the line reasonably quickly at the traffic lights, especially if you have it in "sport", although it gets a bit manic around town refusing to change up. So I just had it in manual mode most of the time. Vision all round is good, with little blindspot. Ergonomics is generally great.
It's good to know VW has finally ditched the twin-charger on the facelift 6c model as well as introducing a stick shift.