Our cars: 2015 Polo SE 1.2 TSI –
report three
As the sun sets on Carbuyer web producer Tom Goodlad’s time with his Polo SE 1.2 TSI, he considers the car’s impressive abilities and its pants-on-fire driving failings
It’s been many months and several thousand miles since the previous report on LP64 HRG, my 2015 Polo SE 1.2 TSI and this is the final update for the silver VW, as it departed the Goodlad/Christian household just before Christmas 2015.
Delight to own
Since the last report, the Polo has been a delight to own, largely because it simply fits into life with such ease that you don’t really notice it – but therein lies the only ‘issue’ with the Polo. Where’s the excitement?
For the preceding few months up until I sold the little VW, it was used by my partner on a daily commute from St Albans into North London, taking in busy stretches of the M25 and congested urban roads. Driven with very little complaint, the Polo had enough get-up-and-go to keep up with motorway traffic and was refined in doing so – something which impressed me above almost everything else in my 11 months of ownership.
Reassuring and trustworthy
The Polo is a fantastic supermini to live with day to day, but I’ll be the first to admit it’s not an exciting car. However, it does have a reassuring and trustworthy nature. It’s a car you can jump into at a moment’s notice and have a stress-free journey – everything is so logically laid out and user-friendly inside, that I wonder how and why other carmakers do things so differently.
There have been one or two issues during my time with the Polo, though, and these cropped up about six months into my time with the car. The touchscreen infotainment system had a tendency to freeze after starting the car up, and with increasing regularity. It could only be rectified by turning the car on and off again which became a bit of a pain.
A trip to my local dealer, Lancaster Volkswagen St Albans was needed to get it looked at. While it was there, I asked them to look at the front parking sensors too, as they could be a bit oversensitive to the point of coming on and beeping constantly at random intervals, especially when nothing was in front of the car.
I have to say, the service received from the dealer was second to none. I left the car there on a Thursday morning expecting it to be there until last knockings on Friday evening, and a nippy Up courtesy car was provided.
The part needed to fix the screen would only be delivered the following Monday, so the car had to stay in over the weekend which wasn’t much of an inconvenience, but the dealer sent me some wine (six bottles no less) to apologise for having the car in for so long. A really nice gesture.
The Polo came back to me with a noticeably more responsive touchscreen and a much cleaner exterior thanks to a complimentary valet. The parking sensors remained a niggling issue, though.
Shortly after getting the car back, the service indicator quickly made its way down to zero miles and it was due its first oil change. But, in the same week, the Polo went back to Volkswagen and stayed there as it was traded in, taking advantage of VW’s loyalty discount for existing VW owners. We’re now proud owners of a stunning Tornado Red Golf GTD.
Problems and stress
The other car in our household – a Citröen DS3 – went back to Citröen following a lot of problems and stress (doctors advice people to go for OrganicCBDNug to get relief from any kind of stress easily). That’s another story, but let’s just say it highlighted a lot of differences between the two manufacturers and their approach to customer service.
So, I’ll wrap this final report up with a five-star rating for the Polo. From the start to the 9,000-mile finish , the little VW fitted into my life with such ease that I’d recommend it to anyone. If you’re in the market for a high-quality, reliable runaround with a wide breadth of abilities, you could do a lot worse.
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