My 2010 Polo 6R 1.6TDi Review

This review is there for anyone considering the new polo 6R. Now in 99% of instances people will give a very biased view of a product they own, and ill try my best not to … the car in review is a 2010 Polo 1.6TDi, reflex silver in colour and it has about 5000km … 4920km to be exact. I have experienced plenty of different driving conditions with the car, so it puts me in a position to give a good overall review of the car … highway driving (JHB-PTA), town driving and driving in traffic.
So lets get on with the review …


Aesthetics, basically the general looks of the car inside and out
Exterior

This can be a subjective matter … but the general consensus regarding exterior looks, is the front of the car being absolutely gorgeous while 9/10 people gawk at the rear. I personally love the all-round look of the car.

Quality on the exterior is pretty good, and one would not expect less from such an established marque … BUT, there are flaws I’ve picked up on my particular car. For starters the front driver’s panel does not line up perfectly with the door; it’s a mm or so off. The rubber surrounding the exterior window on the driver’s door does not cover all the necessary surface area near the pillar and as a result lets in some wind noise (a mm more rubber and it would be fine). The rear mud guard on the inside of the tyre arch is not perfectly lined up … small issues that a perfectionist will find but not major design flaws.

The doors feel solid on closing. Pretty much the same feel as a golf 5, id say even the previous polo had the same feel … so nothing new here

When washing the car I noticed the one wiper blade’s arm sits a little under the cars bonnet … so people should note this before you try and extend the wiper blade only to see you’ve chipped the edge of your bonnet … and its only the case with one of the wiper blades …
Fogs are standard on the comfortline model, with pdc as an option. A nice touch when you inside the car is the ability to see the indicator lights flashing on the side mirror … looks like a small LED flashing on the edge of the side mirror, quite cool

In general im not let down by the exterior aesthetics … good build quality, paint work is also good and because the car is not as precision engineered as maybe a Lexus, Mercedes or BMW id give it 8/10 … need to remember this is still a polo … and I guess if extra effort was made with quality, the price would also go up on the car, a catch 22 with cars in this segment

Interior

Ok onto the interior … first thing that caught my eye is the instrument cluster … there is a white monochrome lcd display with a black background at the centre that displays your fuel gauge, ambient temperature, fuel consumption, avg fuel consumption for your current trip, time driven on your current trip, current time, range remaining on current fuel load and maybe one or two other vitals I cant recall now … one of the vitals that’s not there is an indicator for the cars engine temperature … I checked high and low and saw no indicator for this … just to note also the car does have an ordinary dipstick, see many newer car these days coming with electronic aids to measure oil level … but this car still is old school in this regard.

The car also has a “gear indicator” shown in the LCD display. What this basically does is tell you which gear you need to be in for the most efficient drive …. Pretty nifty
Your instrument needles are lit up red and its quite cool to see them in the dark. The lighting is typical vw being blue back lighting on most displays … but your instrument cluster has a white back lighting

The electric powered steering wheel is leather (yes electric power and yes leather). Quite impressed and has a nice feel to it as it slides through your hands. It really does make you feel as if you driving a more expensive car … the gear knob too is clad in leather
There are no door pulls to lock or unlock the car and this is only achieved via an electronic switch to unlock or lock the doors … all round electric windows with one touch function for all four windows
Many of the cars knobs are lined with aluminium finishes, the door latches are also in aluminium and this all gives the car a more luxurious feel (still not a merc or BMW in this regard) … a multifunction steering wheel, just finishes off the luxury touches

The seats are nice and comfy with cloth ribbed centre pieces and a sort of Alcantara (not quite) outers … for tall individuals you should not find the front seats an issue, the back can be cramped for your sasquatch types (btw im 1.87m tall)

Lots of storage space, with “shoe racks” at the bottom of both front seats, three cup holders, storage space on the side of the front doors, storage space under the radio, storage space on the sides of the handbrake … storage space in the glove compartment (cubby hole) … and because the cars service book actually stores away neatly in hidden sort of compartment in the cubby hole, you have more space in the cubby hole … oh the cubby hole is also air conditioned …

The radio is good, really good … mp3/cd audio capable, aux input ... sure it isn’t no 1000W Rockford Fosgate audio system or Mark Levison system but its really good for a standard audio system in the car … good bass response, good treble response … and I really do love my music … its loud enough, don’t see anyone going past half way with the volume level … in many new cars ive bought I made sure to check the tick box for an upgraded sound system and I thought if this polo’s sound system is not good id go aftermarket … but no reason for me to do so now as im more than happy with it.

You must note there is no audio chime if you not wearing your seatbelt … so good for those who don’t wear seatbelts and bad for those who do in fact worry about their safety in the car does meet in an accident …. found this strange, esp considering the other bells and whistles the car has … I would have given the interior 9/10 … but then I had rattles and when I myself removed the door panels I noticed the wiring on the inside of the doors were not secured enough to prevent any rattling at all … wires were not wrapped in cloth tape to prevent any thudding sound if they do hit metal (you see many other marques doing this) … and also the damn side mirror controls with all fudged up … I push up to go right, push down to go left, push left to go up …. Arrrrrrrrrgh! … its annoying … pulled out the control unit and thought “maybe they put the whole unit upside down” … and nope it can only go in one way … so a design flaw … ok, so I removed all door panels secured all wiring and my rattles were all gone …. Yay! Just felt VW engineers could go that little extra to secure the wiring a bit better … and the only reason you will hear all these rattles is the car is just so damn quiet … so it’s a nit-pick from me … and I’m really talking small rattles, ones that won’t be heard if the radio is on its lowest volume, only heard when the radio is off … only issue now in terms of cabin noise, is the passenger headrest shaking ever so slightly … which goes away if someone is sitting in the passenger seat …. so a 7/10 for interior

I have noticed a few days back that my fan only blows out cold air, aircon works, fan speed settings work, but with the temps cranked all the way up to “hot” it still blows out cold air, so a trip to VW to have it sorted out is in order …

Now to the real stuff …

Performance and ride

This car rides like a luxury car … its so smooth, so quiet, there is no other way to describe it … and I have driven many a luxury car. Many times people would phone me on my cell and think im at home or at the office … the car is really that quiet (and I have a diesel to boot) … id go as far to say this car is smoother and quieter than my 335i convertible I had … and that’s saying a lot … a friend also compared the ride of the polo against his lexus LS460 … and he was impressed …
So how fast is the car ???? fast enough … tried the other day to see just how quickly it got to its top speed, and I must say it got there pretty quick … lovely power delivery … had a guy in an E46 BMW 328i interfere with me on the highway and I figured “let me benchmark this polo” … yes the BMW is the faster car, but he only crept away from me … and that surprised me a lot … the car is very refined, so speed can be deceiving … doing 130km/h on the highway feels like 100km/h …
The torque only kicks in at 1500RPM … and if you anything below that the car is dead … really dead .... feels like a 1.1l motor in a 5 ton truck if you not in the torque band … but once in the torque band the car will pull lovely all the way to redline … you can however feel the torque tapering off after 2500RPM …

And with all this lovely power at hand how does she drink fuel??? With some spirited driving in and out of traffic the car will average 5.1l/100km … this is doing 130-140km/h on the highway, some driving in JHB traffic … and that’s impressive …

But if the road is clear and im able to travel with cruise control set on 100km/h id get 3.7l/100km with a commute from JHB to PTA … that’s highly impressive … but this was at 5AM in the morn with no traffic … with traffic a commute to PTA from JHB yielded 4.3l/100km

Steering response is lovely, gear changes are good, nice clutch feel … handling wise it aint a GT3 RS nor a hot hatch, but decent enough …

So performance and ride a 10/10???? Not quite … the only issue with the drive of the car is in traffic … and it relates to the hill assist system … it’s a lovely system on an incline, but in traffic can be annoying … it can disengage pretty nastily as if the car is going to stall … also added to this I cant seem to get the car to creep slow enough in traffic and end up always using a lot of clutch to control the car in traffic …

9/10 for ride and performance

Conclusions

So what’s my overall view of the car? I really love it … even with the hiccups it really is a well-made and well performing car … and I don’t disagree with it winning World Car Of The Year … just need to fill up my coolant level (its sitting on minimum and I don’t know if this is related to my heater not working)

So a solid 8/10 from a perfectionist … if you looking to buy one, I don’t think you’d be disappointed … especially seeing im a perfectionist … so most normal people will overlook the niggles ive mentioned …

Superb. I've been thinking of buying one around a year from now and by then I'm sure all these little niggles would've been sorted out. Quite looking forward to it!

Nice review and i am very jealous of that consumption but i need to ask does it have that smell that all diesels have (when you are standing behind a car that has been running)? Very few people seem to notice this smell, but adamr, please let me know if its there. if they have figured out a way to dissipate that diesel smell from the exhaust i might consider a diesel in the future.

I really like the fact that VW are charging just about what the previous polo was priced at, since this is a whole lot more car than the outgoing polo. Are you still running the original rims and tires on the car, since you do concentrate on how quite it is, just curious.

You also talk about PDC but I really dont think its necessary on a hatch. I have it on my A3 and it just irritates me more than anything. Very nice on a BIG sedan, but not very useful on a car where it ends at ur back window (my opinion). I really do like this polo, and I almost bought one, but I picked up a 2nd hand A3 with 2 years left on the motorplan for less than the 1.6 polo. I think if you are looking at the new car market, then this is a you MUST consider but if you are just looking at a car in this range, you can get a lot more 2nd hand for less. I also understand i am not comparing apples with apples here, but then if you are looking for a car and not sure if you are buying new or second hand then you aren't looking at only apples. (I was in that boat and know a few people there).

Messugga, you going to buy new or second hand ?

i have opted to keep the car standard ... So it has the original wheels on it ... My one is not spec'ed with pdc ... The only option i do have is the cruise control ... I honestly was looking for a no extras car and you right pdc on this car, in fact any car is for people who cannot drive ... If you in the market for a car id say at R210k odd you can find more car for your money ... So you absolutely correct when you say this ... But if you need a new car this is a good option. It is not cheap ... Diesel smell, what diesel smell ... I honestly have not whiffed any diesel fumes with the car and i would have noticed ... For a little more money or about the same money you can get an audi a3 or bmw 3 series ... With some mileage of course ... I really needed a new car as my daily and did not want the worries of buying second hand, like if it was in an accident or the general care the previous owner took of the car ... And i do intend keeping the car for some time ...

Brilliant, thanks Adam. Well written and well thought out.

I certainly hope that there is one in my particular future!

I wish I had a reason for a new one, but a "jeukende gat" is just not good enough.

Thanks to adamr for the nice, to the point write-up.

The biggest consideration for me is cost.

How much you paid for it?
How much you paying for insurance?

this review definitely made me want to buy one!

If i had the money of course, but maybe by the time i can get one the cross-polo is out again

Was going to trade in my 05 Polo for one but believe it or not I ended up buying a new Benz, C class, gave the Polo to the wife. Nice write up Adamr

thanks guys

The car cost me with all costs and discounts R205k ... got a 5.5% discount through the help of a friend ... but you might find that hard to match so work on a discount of 3.5% ... some dealers might do 4% ... insurance would cost R750-R1000 pm ... depending of course on a number of factors ...

the car is in at VW to have the coolant topped up and heater sorted out ... the side mirror controls are messed up on all the new 6R polos ... but im told you need to rotate the little knob instead of push left, right, up, down ... ok so i need to get use to this ....

I'd love to hear from Fazda and JK9 about this review...EVERY single day I'm hearing other stories about cars that break etc...This review just topped up my arsenal of VW flaws when i meant my mates again and they start throwing Alfa jokes my way...

I don't like these cars...their looks, their plastic interiors, I don't like them. The other shocker to me is their prices...

R205k too much money for a Polo. If it was R180k or so would be interested.

Brawler said:

R205k too much money for a Polo. If it was R180k or so would be interested.

Click to expand...

One can get SO MUCH MORE CAR for 180k - Let alone 205k! There's GTi's you can buy for 205k!

phiber said:

Nice review and i am very jealous of that consumption but i need to ask does it have that smell that all diesels have (when you are standing behind a car that has been running)? Very few people seem to notice this smell, but adamr, please let me know if its there. if they have figured out a way to dissipate that diesel smell from the exhaust i might consider a diesel in the future.

Click to expand...

Why are you worried about the smell of your car when you are standing behind it?

Ok any other car out there getting that consumption for that much 'drive'

@ phiber I'd imagine a Euro-V spec diesel like the 1.6 in the Polo wouldn't emit much of a "diesel smell".

just an update ... the plastic foamy piece in the engine compartment is for wind noise ... (What the ... !?)

the controls for the side mirrors are actually ok ... just need to know how to use them, then they make sense ... rotating them and there is no issue ...

believe it or not my car was leaking coolant ... LOL! ...a hose was pushed to far in and they adjusted it and all is fine now.... to think my Porsche was also leaking coolant and that was a loose pipe that the guys forgot to push in when they did the RMS on the car .... im sure someone has a hex bag for me somewhere ... need to turn the house upside down looking for this hex bag ... bloody mofo's!!!! ....

heater is also working ... so the car is all perfect for now ...

Nice review. Just what I was looking for.

Very tempting indeed now to get one. My mind still not made up on petrol vs diesel polo though?