VOLKSWAGEN POLO

New technology, extra kit and design tweaks give the supermini a mid-term refresh

- ILLYA VERPRAET

TESTED 22.11.21, KENT ON SALE NOW VOLKSWAGEN POLO

TESTER’S NOTE

Even small cars increasingly have automatic gearboxes, so I enjoyed this one having a manual. It’s not the most positive shift, but it’s slick and satisfying enough to use. IV

Time waits for no man. Or car. In the time since we road tested the current Volkswagen Polo and declared it top of the supermini class, quite a few new or thoroughly refreshed rivals have entered the fray.

So it’s facelift time for the Polo. Its design is awkwardly caught between Volkswagen’s older, more rectilinear design language and the more recent swoopy monobrow style first seen on the Mk8 Golf, which makes the fussier headlights and bigger taillights sit slightly uneasy on the more restrained body.

Volkswagen has also revised the trim levels, with more kit fitted as standard. Not counting the GTI, there are just three: Life, Style and R-Line. The cheapest Polo, costing £17,885, is now a Life with a 79bhp naturally aspirated 1.0-litre engine, but really you want at least the 94bhp turbo version costing £18,825, which can be paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox or a five-speed manual. There’s also a 108bhp DSG-only version, which comes solely in R-Line trim and costs £23,355.