You guys (VoA) are killing me by not having this available in the USA. But then I would not buy it new anyway and would have to wait for a cream puff low mileage used car to show up. But I digress.
Photography by J.G. Pasterjak
Driving cool cars not imported stateside always offer a recipe for mixed emotions. On one hand, you get a cool experience that you wouldn’t otherwise get to have, but on the other hand it’s a slap in the face knowing that you can’t ever have the cool thing unless you get a gig with Cirque du Soleil doing ren faires in the EU full time.
Never has this been more evident than our recent week behind the wheel of VW’s Polo GTI, which reminded us what those three letters stirred in us the first time we ever saw them slapped on a hotted-up Rabbit.
Although Polos are built all over the world, in both hemispheres from South America to Asia to Africa to, of course, Europe, we here in the U.S. don’t get to play along.
The U.S. is simply not a strong enough market for the compact segment to have VW competing with itself between the Polo and the Golf, although it’s a bummer we don’t get to try out the hot version of the smaller of the MQB-based stablemates. The Polo is built on the MQB A0 platform, while the current Golf is built on the larger MQB Evo chassis, but both share the same excellent driving manners that all of the MQB VWs and their platform-mates have in common.
The GTI version of the Polo, which retails in Germany for the equivalent of about $38,000 at current exchange rates, shares plenty of mechanical bits, and lots of performance DNA, with its larger Golf cousin, though. Both GTIs share the same seven-speed DSG transmission with a 4.17:1 final drive, and both share the 2.0-liter TSi turbocharger four-cylinder attached to that excellent paddle-shifted transmission.
In the case of the Polo, however, the 2.0 is detuned slightly from the Golf GTI’s 241 horsepower down to 207, but the Polo’s power plant retains the flexible feel of all of the TSi engines while being equally happy lugging from 2500 rpm or running all the way to the redline.
The good news here is the Polo’s less powerful engine has less weight to carry around and a smaller footprint to toss into corners, and this is where the Polo really stands out. The 3000-pound Polo is nearly 200 pounds lighter than a similarly equipped Golf GTI, and the Polo’s 14.5:1 power-to-weight ratio means each of the Polo’s ponies only carries about 1 pound more that the Golf’s.
But the real magic is in the chassis. The Golf GTI’s 103-inch wheelbase shrinks to a little more than 100 inches with the Polo, and the overall length of the Polo is over 8 inches shorter than the 169-inch Golf. That size decrease translates into a feeling of nimbleness that’s reminiscent of what made us fall in love with the GTI badge in the first place.
Inside, the smaller Polo has a “just right” feel for two people, although the wayback of the five-door hatch is notably smaller than a Golf’s. We’re splitting hairs here, as the Polo is a fully capable hatchback, and a few miles–or kilometers, anyway–will trigger those powerful nostalgia pangs for a day when compact cars were still actually compact.
The Polo GTI is barely a couple inches in every dimension larger than a 1990 Honda Civic Si, and stirs the same emotions. Although, to be fair, it is some 700 pounds heavier than that flyweight Honda, but have you priced a vintage Si lately?
That extra weight over the 35-year-old Honda does net you a lot of modern amenities, and the Polo GTI is every bit as loaded as the Gold GTI when it comes to conveniences and connectivity. Yes, it does share the current touch screen control center of so many modern VWs, but every software update has brought a little more intuitive interface to the panel, so we’re done complaining because this is how the world is now.
Overall, the Polo GTI maybe stirs more of the same GTI emotions that we felt for the original Rabbit and Golf GTIs than the current Golf-based sportster. Certainly, nostalgia is a big factor there–it’s fun to drive a small (by modern standards), nimble, sporty car that still has sophisticated road manners like the original GTIs–but the Polo GTI is also an objectively fun car, more than worthy of the GTI badge, nostalgia or not.
Besides, that detuned 2.0 TSi is probably just a tune away from Golf GTI (or beyond) power levels. How long until we can import used cars from the EU again?
You guys (VoA) are killing me by not having this available in the USA. But then I would not buy it new anyway and would have to wait for a cream puff low mileage used car to show up. But I digress.
Noddaz said:You guys (VoA) are killing me by not having this available in the USA. But then I would not buy it new anyway and would have to wait for a cream puff low mileage used car to show up. But I digress.
why doesn't my car run like that?
Yeah I totally get the realities of international business and federalization and importation and whatnot, but this one not coming stateside stings. It's very much the spiritual successor to the GTI we all grew up with, and one of the most direct links to the golden age of hot hatches I've driven in the last decade.
With as much speed as we got out of our Mk7 GTI by plugging in a fancy dongle, I'm confident you could get GTI (or maybe even R) levels of speed out of the Polo.
I saw 3000 lbs and thought what? How heavy were the earlier versions and a series 2 (1981 - 1994) was 1625 to 1750 lbs. Cars have put on a lot of weight.
Rons said:I saw 3000 lbs and thought what? How heavy were the earlier versions and a series 2 (1981 - 1994) was 1625 to 1750 lbs. Cars have put on a lot of weight.
Yes they have. But then cars have come quite a long way since then also. Sunroof? Yep, but it had a hand crank. Stereo? Yep, two speakers and maybe 20 watts of power. A/C? Maybe, if you think you couldn't live without it. And you worried about the weight penalty.
Very cool. Small cars like this and Toyota's European GR Yaris and Ford's Fiesta ST would make fun autocrossers on technical courses. With 200 TW tires my wife gets better times with her Fiat 500 Abarth than faster heavier cars and parking in town is a breeze!
In reply to Colin Wood :
Do you have an article on that? What did you guys use?
My late-nineties-something trip to Germany had me dumbfounded when I saw that the Golf had younger, smaller siblings in the Polo and the diminutive Lupo. Two cars which I thought were pretty cool and smaller than the Golf; was wishing we had them here too.
In reply to chp5 :
Yes. Here are the two specific updates I was thinking of:
I'd also recommend checking out the rest of the updates since there's a lot of great info in there as well:
In reply to Rons :
Funny thing is my 2016 GTI S PP 6spd manual w/cloth and no sunroof comes in right at 3000lbs as well. My 1984 Jetta GLI is 1980lbs but feels like it's made of balsa wood in comparison to the Mk7
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