Volkswagen planned to reveal the mid-cycle refresh of the Polo tomorrow, but a certain someone has inevitably broken the embargo set by the Wolfsburg-based brand. Happily for prospective customers, all the information has been made public, including two weak points.
As you already know from the headline, the car’s exhaust tips aren’t real. The faux tips are integrated into the rear-bumper valance and finished in black plastic on low-spec trim levels. Another questionable update regards the touch-sensitive buttons for the climate control. These buttons may look interesting, yet none of them provide actual feedback to the driver while driving. As opposed to physical buttons that go hand in hand with muscle memory, touch-sensitive buttons require the driver to take his or her eyes off the road to make adjustments.
The final niggle—and it’s a personal one—concerns the rear end. The Golf-inspired taillights are way too large for a subcompact hatchback, and they look completely out of place in comparison to the better-designed headlights that can be connected by a long strip of light-emitting diodes. Subtle revisions to both bumpers and refreshed designs for the wheels also need to be mentioned, along with the standard digital instrument clusters.
Yes, there are two of them. Lesser trim levels make do with 8.0 inches for the driver’s cluster and 6.5 inches for the infotainment system, while swankier models boast 10.25 and 9.2 inches, respectively. Similar to the Golf, the Polo’s lineup now consists of the Life, Style, R-Line, and go-faster GTI.
There is no Polo R, unfortunately, but looking at the bigger picture, it wouldn’t make sense because the subcompact hatchback isn’t selling all that well. Volkswagen moved 169,467 examples last year, down from 257,804 units in 2019 and a mind-boggling 456,363 units in 1997 when crossover utility vehicles were regarded as novelty automobiles in the Old Continent.
As for the oily stuff, the most spartan configuration consists of a single liter, natural aspiration, and three cylinders for 80 metric horsepower and 93 Nm (69 pound-feet) of torque. The force-fed 1.0 TSI develops between 95 and 110 PS (94-108 hp), the 1.0 TGI bi-fuel engine makes do with 90 PS (89 hp), and the TDI is nowhere to be found because diesel isn’t cool anymore.
The 2.0-liter TSI in the Polo GTI doesn’t have any output figures at the moment of reporting, but don’t get your hopes up for big changes over the outgoing 200 PS (197 hp) and 320 Nm (236 pound-feet) of harrumph.
UPDATE
Volkswagen has finally published the press release for the all-new Polo.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News