Volkswagen Polo review

The Volkswagen Polo has always been highly regarded but for most of its life it's played second fiddle to its big brother. You know the one we’re talking about – the iconic Golf.

The current Polo is the biggest and best to drive yet, so while it remains a small car, it's far from overshadowed by VW's incredibly popular family car. Add to that a classy, roomy interior and a range of petrol engines to choose from, and it's hardly surprising that it's a huge seller in its own right.

Those traits also help the Polo to stand out against a seriously accomplished crowd of rivals, including the very practical Honda Jazz, the sporty Seat Ibiza and the comfort-focused Skoda Fabia.

So is the VW Polo still a contender among the best small cars out there? That’s what we’ll tell you in this review – read on to find out how we rate it.

Our pick of the VW Polo’s engine line-up is the 1.0-litre TSI 95. While its 94bhp output might sound a bit weedy and the 0-62mph time of 10.8 seconds is not that brisk, it pulls strongly from low revs.

We think it makes the more powerful 1.0 TSI 115 – which has 113bhp – seem an unnecessary expense. We’d also advise you to avoid the entry-level 1.0-litre 80 engine. It doesn’t have a turbocharger so you’ll need to work it really hard to get any kind of decent acceleration, which can make journeys rather tiresome.

If you want the quickest Polo, you'll want the hot hatch version – you can read about that in our VW Polo GTI review.

The Polo is one of the smoothest-riding small cars you can buy. Around town, it deals with pockmarked roads better than a Seat Ibiza, and even if you drive over a particularly nasty crater it stays surprisingly composed.

Only the most comfort-oriented versions of the Peugeot 208 and Skoda Fabia offer a smoother ride.

It’s a similar story when you venture on to a motorway. The Polo remains calm enough, with only a tiny amount of fidgeting over small imperfections (something pretty much all small cars are prone to). Indeed, on smoother stretches of road you could be mistaken for thinking you’re driving a family car.

If you really enjoy driving and want something fun and agile, you'll be better off looking at the Seat Ibiza, which gets firmer suspension, sharper steering and generally more playful handling. Or, of course, the VW Polo GTI hot hatch.

That’s not to say the regular Polo isn’t competent through corners. It’s surefooted, with plenty of grip and well-weighted steering that allows you to thread it confidently through bends, even at quite high speeds. If you simply want something that’s composed and easy to drive you’ll be pretty happy.

The Polo's engines make themselves heard when you're accelerating but you don't feel too much vibration filtering up through the pedals or steering wheel. What’s more, the Polo does a better job than most rivals of suppressing wind and road noise, although the Fabia is a fractionally quieter motorway cruiser.

The five-speed manual gearbox you get as standard with most Polo engines has quite a slick action, making it easy to drive smoothly. Alternatively, a seven-speed DSG automatic gearbox is standard with the TSI 115 and optional on the TSI 95.

“The DSG auto gearbox you get on some Polos is a tad jerky at very low speeds but shifts smoothly the rest of the time. I'd definitely consider it if I was buying a Polo.” – Chris Haining, Sub-editor

You shouldn’t struggle to get comfortable in the VW Polo because all versions provide a generous amount of driver’s seat and steering-wheel adjustment. The standard seats fitted to Life models could do with a bit more side support – something you get from the sports seats in Style and R-Line models.

Those top two trim levels also come with standard adjustable lumbar support, a feature you have to pay a small premium for with entry-level Life and Match (and we'd recommend you do).

The air-con controls depend on the trim you pick. Life and Match cars get more user-friendly physical controls, while Style and R-Line have more sophisticated dual-zone climate control but with a fiddly touch-sensitive interface.

Unlike the Peugeot 208, the Polo has relatively slender pillars both front and back, as well as tall, wide windows all around. With such an unobstructed view, you’ll find it straightforward to place the car on the road and see what’s approaching at roundabouts and T-junctions.

To help when parking, all Polos come with rear parking sensors but you’ll need to step up to Match trim if you want a rear-view camera. If you’d like front parking sensors you’ll need to opt for one of the two top trims or add them as an option.

You get basic LED headlights on Life and Match models. Style trim upgrades them to matrix LED headlights, which can move the beam away from other drivers, allowing you to keep the main beam on without dazzling them.

As standard, every Polo has an 8in infotainment touchscreen in the dashboard, with sat-nav included if you go for Style or R-Line trim. You get Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring across the range, so you can display your favourite phone navigation app on the screen instead.

The touchscreen (which you can upgrade to a bigger version if you pay extra) has high-quality graphics and responds quickly enough to your prods. To help you navigate the system with a little more ease, there are touch-sensitive shortcut buttons around the screen.

All trim levels come with a fairly average six-speaker sound system. For better sound quality you can upgrade to the optional Beats system, which gives you a punchier experience with six speakers and a subwoofer.

The interior of the Polo is a pleasant place to be, with plenty of soft-touch materials across much of the dashboard. You'll find very few scratchy plastics. Whichever trim you go for, you get a leather steering wheel and gearknob, giving it a more upmarket feel than the Skoda Fabia and Suzuki Swift.

Indeed, in some respects, the Polo is classier inside than the pricier Audi A1. Certain versions of the Peugeot 208 are better, with more plush materials lending them that extra touch of luxury (but also increasing their price tags).

Everything feels as though it’s been screwed together well, with all the buttons, switches and stalks feeling solid and built to last.

“I wouldn't bother forking out for the 9.2in Discover Pro touchscreen upgrade. It's expensive and doesn't really improve usability.” – Will Nightingale, Reviews Editor

The VW Polo is among the roomiest small cars. Tall adults will have plenty of head room in the front, and if you slide the front seats back on their runners, there's more leg room than you’ll find in a Renault Clio or Toyota Yaris.

The Polo’s interior is broader than in the Clio and Peugeot 208 so there’s no danger of you rubbing shoulders with your front passenger. In fact, you’ll find more space than in older versions of the VW Golf.

You can cram quite a bit in the Polo's front door bins, the glovebox is a reasonable size and there’s a handy cubby in front of the gearlever that's ideal for stowing a wallet, smartphone and keys. Only the Honda Jazz offers notably more.

The Polo is surprisingly roomy in the back – two 6ft adults will fit with leg and head room to spare.

Predictably, as with most small cars, sitting three adults side by side is a bit of a squeeze, but the Polo is still better than the Seat Ibiza. If you want more space for your rear passengers, look at the spacious Dacia Sandero and Honda Jazz.

When it comes to storage space in the back, each door has a generous-sized bin, and you'll find good-sized pockets on the backs of the front seats. There's no centre rear armrest though.

All Polos have 60/40 split folding rear seatbacks and there’s no ski hatch in its middle seat to help with loading long items through from the boot. In fairness, that’s the same as with most small cars. 

For a more versatile small car you’ll need the Honda Jazz, which gets clever cinema-style flip-up seat bases. 

You get a height-adjustable front passenger seat on all Polos, and Style trim adds adjustable lumbar support.

At 351 litres, the Polo’s boot space beats most rival small cars. It’s also a good square shape and has a height-adjustable floor. If you lift the floor to its highest setting, there’s no lip at the boot entrance.

As a result, you’ll easily be able to fit a buggy or a decent weekly shop below the parcel shelf. For a bigger boot in a small car, take a look at the Skoda Fabia.

“If you specify the optional Beats audio system, the boot floor is permanently set in its highest setting to accommodate a speaker beneath, meaning you have less room for luggage. It's too much of a compromise for me.” – Steve Huntingford, Editor

As a cash purchase, the VW Polo will cost you less than the Audi A1, Honda Jazz and Toyota Yaris but more than most rivals, including the Renault Clio, Seat Ibiza and Skoda Fabia. The Dacia Sandero undercuts all of them.

The Polo is predicted to depreciate slower than most of its rivals, helping to keep PCP finance rates competitive. You can check the latest prices on our New Car Deals pages.

Officially, our favourite Polo engine – the 1.0 TSI 95 – will manage 53mpg and 55mpg (depending on which gearbox you go for). However, if fuel efficiency is a priority, it's worth bearing in mind that the Jazz and Yaris will both return much better MPG figures thanks to their hybrid tech.

We’d go for the Polo's entry-level Life trim because it keeps costs down but still gets you a respectable amount of standard equipment. That includes 15in alloy wheels, air conditioning, automatic windscreen wipers, heated and power-folding door mirrors, and an 8in infotainment touchscreen. 

Upgrading to the mid-spec Match trim won’t cost you much more so we wouldn’t blame you for making the jump. That trim gets you 16in wheels, tinted rear windows, wireless phone-charging and a reversing camera.

At the top of the range, you have two trims – Style and R-Line. They cost the same and come with 16in alloys, adjustable lumbar support, dual-zone climate control and a 10.3in digital driver's display. Style adds matrix LED headlights while R-Line gets sportier styling.

The Polo did well in our 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey, finishing third out of 15 small car models. Only the Toyota Aygo X and Kia Picanto did better. As a brand, Volkswagen did less well, finishing 18th out of 31 brands ranked.

You get a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty as standard with every Polo, as well as the option of extending it to four or five years for a reasonable price.

That’s fairly par for the course, but Kia gives you a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty, while Toyota gives a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty if you service your car each year at an authorised centre.

The Polo was awarded the full five stars for safety by Euro NCAP when it was tested in 2022. Diving deeper into the results shows that it scored a fair bit better than the Seat Ibiza for protecting adults in the front.

You get a decent amount of standard safety equipment on the Polo, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-keeping assistance, speed-limit recognition and a system that monitors driver drowsiness.

“In our real-world tests, the five-speed manual version of the 1.0 TSI 95 Polo averaged 46mpg, which is slightly better than the figures posted by the equivalent Ibiza and Fabia. I reckon that's pretty impressive.” – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

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