skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Yay, its Friday – I’m off to JHB for the weekend to visit one of my dearest friends, I leave tonight and return on Sunday, really looking forward to the massive catch up session. Some 3, 4 odd weeks ago I was invited to the launch of the new Polo, and so last night I attended the launch, didn’t really know what to expect, had never been to one of these events before so I imagined they’d want people to check the car out and have some form of marketing speeches to try and reel us all in etc. the event was meant to start at 7pm, with the registration at 18h30, I left work at 18:30, so I was running a bit late and some of the roads were closed since it was the day of the opening of Parliament, and also to make matters worst I didn’t exactly know where I was going, somewhere in industrial Parow, some office part etc, I had memorised the map, so figured I’d find it easily, just look out for Modderdam Road, which I’d never heard off, this is the problem with living & working in town, a part of me prefers it that way :P. Ok thankfully I didn’t get lost, and I got there, and had to submit my keys, I was like ‘oh ok’, then got it at 19h05, the speeches were already going on so the nice PoloSky people offered that I can skip the speeches and go on to do the test drive and I was like, ‘now you’re talking’, so here I was thinking, there will be someone coming with me, there is a predefined route to take, NOPE! You test drive by yourself, can drive wherever you want, for almost as long as you please, I got quite excited. Currently I drive the current 1.9 TDI, so I wanted to test drive the e
quivalent but unfortunately with the whole world consumed with the effects of Global Warming, they have discontinued it, now the top of the range, at least for now will be the 1.6 TDI which they claim has the same power output and matching torque, which I can believe based on the experience I had when I test drove it, but the missing turbo charge kick makes the drive less satisfying. (Continues below)
The car drives insanely smooth, its like you’re driving a Merc, you know when you drive a car that feels like its gliding on clouds, as if the mechanics are oiled with silicone, I thoroughly enjoyed that – only two things I didn’t like were the clutch being too soft, with each gear change my foot was on the floor in seconds, but I guess that would take getting used to the car, and also it feels a bit cramped, even though they claim, its longer AND wider than the current models, but they did admit it is much lower/shorter which is probably what’s making it feel cramped, the second thing I hated was how the sides felt very light and cheap. Like you know when you use central locking on a Yaris, it gives off a ‘ting’ sound, as if some twine is snapping, but the current Polo, it sounds like some sophisticated mechanism is locking, now the new one sounds like the Yaris, either the doors have been made thinner or something, I did not like that. Also when you close the doors, they don’t sound like solid heavy doors, they give out a tin like sound, and the last downside which I almost forgot is found on the outside – the back of the car is nothing short of horrendous, bland & awkward – and the VW people had the nerve to justify it by saying, it’ll grow on the people, apparently with every launch of every Polo there’s always initial reservations about the backs, so lets hope this grows on me as well. All in all the drive is spectacular; it’s a lovely car to drive. If you are a big guy, you might feel claustrophobic, even I did a bit and I’m only 1.76cm. The front design is also very nice, very similar to the much sexier and pricier Scirocco. The prices for the new Polos are not modest either, I believe they started around R169K – go check the car out, I feel a lot of people will love it, it’s a lovely car. Pics taken from the PoloSky Venue where they are having the launches.
Yay, its Friday – I’m off to JHB for the weekend to visit one of my dearest friends, I leave tonight and return on Sunday, really looking forward to the massive catch up session. Some 3, 4 odd weeks ago I was invited to the launch of the new Polo, and so last night I attended the launch, didn’t really know what to expect, had never been to one of these events before so I imagined they’d want people to check the car out and have some form of marketing speeches to try and reel us all in etc. the event was meant to start at 7pm, with the registration at 18h30, I left work at 18:30, so I was running a bit late and some of the roads were closed since it was the day of the opening of Parliament, and also to make matters worst I didn’t exactly know where I was going, somewhere in industrial Parow, some office part etc, I had memorised the map, so figured I’d find it easily, just look out for Modderdam Road, which I’d never heard off, this is the problem with living & working in town, a part of me prefers it that way :P. Ok thankfully I didn’t get lost, and I got there, and had to submit my keys, I was like ‘oh ok’, then got it at 19h05, the speeches were already going on so the nice PoloSky people offered that I can skip the speeches and go on to do the test drive and I was like, ‘now you’re talking’, so here I was thinking, there will be someone coming with me, there is a predefined route to take, NOPE! You test drive by yourself, can drive wherever you want, for almost as long as you please, I got quite excited. Currently I drive the current 1.9 TDI, so I wanted to test drive the e
quivalent but unfortunately with the whole world consumed with the effects of Global Warming, they have discontinued it, now the top of the range, at least for now will be the 1.6 TDI which they claim has the same power output and matching torque, which I can believe based on the experience I had when I test drove it, but the missing turbo charge kick makes the drive less satisfying. (Continues below)
