What on earth is this I hear you cry..?   To be honest I'm not too sure myself!

It is a Wolkswagen Polo that Ipswich VW (Main Dealer) kindly lent me to abuse on an extended test drive.  After snatching the keys and pairing my Bluetooth, I nearly cried at the lack of power under my foot.  God help me!  How do people drive things like this..?  The car itself is quite inviting - the interior is a dream.  It is a comforting experience at the cockpit.  Large and spacious, I would happily hop in this car and nip out for food if the engine wasn't so sluggish.  The interior is delicious - I love how everything fits.  Its just a damn shame they created such a car with such a mentally exhausting engine.

I know now why old people annoy me.  It isn't their fault - its this frigging car! 


The Chassis

Power aside.. it is a Volkswagen, and the Chassis more than made me chuckle when I attacked a few bends.  This is where I started to be impressed!  When cornering it is really stable, and begs to oversteer at every chance.  So, although it has quite possibly the most depressive engine in existence it didn't turn out to be the worst car I have driven.


The Body

I cannot lie here, its a VW Polo.  Hardly anything worth masturbating over.  But - it does have subtle lines and the manufacturer has 'tried' to make it more appealing to the eyes of, lets face it, really old people and women who work for the NHS.  Image Number 4 in my slideshow (top right images on laptop, first images after the text on 'mobile' devices) is a nice angle.  I would probably use that to push sales to younger drivers wanting a brand new car.   Sadly I was given a four door so have nothing else to say other than I wouldn't have one.  Its only saving grace is the Bosch ECU perched anxiously under the bonnet, exposed to the elements and waiting for water ingress or a rodent to chew the also exposed wiring loom, thus creating an expensive replacement for whichever poor bugger happens to own this car in 3 years time.  Why do Volkswagen leave the ECU's exposed on their low end cars..?  Maybe I just answered that question.


The Throttle

Diabolical.  Next!


The Exhaust

I didn't even notice a tailpipe on this car.. let me check.   NOPE.. and there is no audible tone when driving, so... Next!



To end.  It isn't the worst car I've had to review.  I quite fancy the engine bay, and love how the air intake points towards the Coolant Expansion Tank (image attached).   Anyway, the car was never designed to win Le Mans so we can be safe in the knowledge that we wont ever see this 3 Cylinder again.  Ever.


Nicholas Lawrence //ON CARS
nick@on-cars.com