Wow is the 1.4L petrol slow :(

[kaanage]

I drove one of these as a courtesy car and I didn't think is was THAT slow. The DSG kicks down quite smartly if you give it a bootful and it revs out OK so it can cope with traffic situations quite nicely. The D mode is upshifts VERY early to get good fuel economy so that makes part throttle response fell very tepid but it keeps up with normal traffic just fine. You just have to accept that it will scream if you want to move faster than normal traffic speeds.

The big disappointment to me was the MASSIVE drop in interior quality between the Trendline (1.4 only) and Comfortline (TSi & TDi) versions.

[pologti18t]

Most reports on the Polo suggests that the TDI is the weak link of the range. Most put down to the peaky nature of the new 1.6L diesel engine, especially when paired to the 5 speed manual gearbox.

The 1.2TSI is the sweatspot in the Polo range apparently and the reason why 1.2TSI are hard to get and diesels are not

[PoloPie]

While I would agree that the 1.6TDI is a bit peaky (1750-2500rpm is the sweet spot), the bucket loads of torque are available where you need them, 3rd gear around 60, 4th around 80kph, etc. It takes a bit of time to adjust to know which gear you need to be in but it goes nicely and is a pleasure to drive. It cruises really well too.

Most people have gone with the TSI and I probably would have too if I could have... but there's nothing wrong with the diesel if you don't fancy a huge wait for the TSI

[kaanage]

With peak power coming in at just 4200rpm, that doesn't give much of a powerband
No wonder diesel fans find this engine peaky - people used to petrol engines might not notice, though

I wonder if VW have deliberately detuned the bottom end to help with the DPF regen issue that plagued the initial release of the Polo TDi in the UK.

Can you get anywhere near the official fuel economy figures, PoloPie (5.8 l/100km urban, 4.0 l/100km country)

[PoloPie]

Yeah you're right with the power band, but it's really all about the torque (1750-2500rpm), power comes on fairly strong just after this if you need it. I'm guessing that they have detuned the engine quite a bit for the DPF regen reason... I'm sure it has far more potential since the same engine has a 85kW and 250Nm variant (or so wikipedia says).

On a longer run (40km+) which is mainly highway I have gotten sub-4.0L/100km. I live more out in the country, so my day to day is mainly on 60-80kph open roads, where you can get 4.0-5.0L/100km. Urban is typically 4.8-6.5L/100km depending on traffic obviously. Over two full tanks my average is 4.8L/100km.

I suppose I'm a bit conservative though since diesel is so expensive here at the moment and I don't drive in a whole lot of traffic

[pologti18t]

1.2TSI

Max torque is 1500-3500rpm
Max power at 5000rpm

Looks like diesel torque delivery and a nice petrol like top end