2018 VW Polo GTI Launch Control and Exhaust Sound Put to the Test

We were the first to suggest that it was going to have a 2-liter turbo. It just made sense, as the 1.8 TSI it had just received was being replaced by a 2.0 TSI on models like the Tiguan.

There's no way that a larger engine doesn't make the Polo better. In fact, were it not for the Polo R WRC, this would be the biggest engine ever fitted to the supermini. But you can walk into the dealership tomorrow and buy one. It will park itself and comes with everything a Golf has. How's that for progress!

Volkswagen products... how do we put this nicely... they're a little dull sometimes. However, you can't say that about the Polo GTI, not when it matches the MINI for the engine displacement in the segment. In fact, what the heck is this segment? Because there's a 217mm difference in length between the two.

Anyway, this video is an excellent example of acceleration testing. The Polo's new digital dashboard takes center stage and shows the car actually accelerates to 100 km/h in 7.21 seconds without launch control or 7.06 seconds with it turned on. That's not bad, but it's nowhere near as good as Volkswagen claims.

I personally would care. Front-wheel drive cars are notoriously hard to launch, and this is a Polo that's about as fast as the Scirocco 2.0 TSI or the Golf 5 GTI. The only way to make it even faster is to find more traction, but you can't put dragster tires on a tiny car.

If you don't like the Polo GTI, you could opt for the Clio RS, which is about €600 cheaper. The MINI is also a prime pick, as should be the 2018 Fiesta ST.