Volkswagen Polo GTI – Fun & Tech Upgrades

SCORE BREAKDOWN

It’s not a long bow to draw to suggest that on its arrival in Australia in 2003, the Volkswagen Polo GTI invigorated a niche that the French pretty much dominated. While VW was doing interesting things with the Golf like the endearingly wacky VR5 (with the R32 waiting in the wings), not much was happening in the hot hatch world, particularly in what we now call the light car segment.

In Europe, there was all sorts of stuff going on but here it was basically the Renault sport Clio and the Peugeot 206 GTI (you don’t see many of those anymore do you?). We missed out on the first Polo GTI due to it being left-hand drive only, so it was a long wait for the Germans to join the mostly French party.

Up until recently, the Polo had been punching on with the Ford Fiesta ST and the just-released Hyundai i20 N as the French have fallen away and the light hot hatch market has once again rationalised down to just three top contenders for less than forty grand (before on-road costs). But with the Polo’s MY22 update, the latest GTI has propelled itself away from the cheaper Ford and Hyundai, with an on-the-road price of over forty large. It’s a lot of money, but the GTI’s towering reputation might be able to withstand it.

Pricing and Features

The MY22 Volkswagen Polo GTI tops the now three model range at $38,750 before on-road costs are added. Volkswagen assures us that the extra $5000-odd you’ll be paying over the MY21 is only half the retail cost of the extra features you now get as standard. The company is also pretty sure there aren’t many small cars with this level of technology for the price.

That hefty outlay buys you a five-door Polo with 18-inch alloys, a six-speaker stereo, the 10.25-inch Digital Cockpit Pro alongside the Discover 8.0-inch touchscreen, sat-nav, travel assist, auto parking, auto LED Matrix headlights, adaptive high beam, dual-zone climate control, front fog lights, ambient interior lighting, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, GTI-specific front seats and a space-saver spare.

With an on-the-road price of over forty large … It’s a lot of money, but the GTI’s towering reputation might be able to withstand it

A further $1500 replaces the touchscreen with a big 9.2-inch unit and adds the Beats audio system with an upgraded amplifier pumping out 300 watts. Premium metallic paint is $300 and a panoramic sunroof another $1500.

Part of the price rise also goes to the safety package. For 2022, the Polo range has a refreshed five-star ANCAP rating (the older car’s rating was achieved in 2018), due to an additional centre airbag to prevent head clashes, taking the airbag count to seven. On top of that you have the usual stability and traction controls, forward auto emergency braking, distance warning display, fatigue detection, lane assist, lane departure warning system, manoeuvre braking, front and rear parking sensors, side assist, reverse cross-traffic alert and a reversing camera.

Comfort and Space

The GTI’s front seats are really comfortable and have a lot of support for cornering. You wouldn’t want to be too much a burgers-and-chips-every-day kind of person for a comfortable fit. They’re better positioned than the ridiculously high seats in the Fiesta ST, though. The Clark tartan inserts aren’t to my taste, but they’re part of the vaguely self-aware naff DNA of VW GTI products.

A pair of hexagonal cup holders sit low in the centre console next to the chunky handbrake (for…erm…reasons this is good) and the wireless charging mat is in a dark space under the climate control stack. The front doors have big pockets gouged out of the door card with nice big bottle holders. Joining the wireless charging mat are two USB-C ports and rather swimmingly, you can run CarPlay or Auto with either USB or wirelessly, which is a nice touch you see in other VWs.

The rear seats are pretty snug, but if you’re up to 180cm (as I am) and your legs aren’t pole-vaulter long, you can fit comfortably behind front-seat passengers of similar height. You’re not going to be swinging any sort of domestic animal back here without RSPCA involvement, no, but it’s not bad for quick jaunts. Quick jaunts might be for the best, as the lack of rear air vents, armrest and cup holders mean you’ll have to hold your drinks and sit up straight. At least the good headroom means you won’t bump your head on the roof, so that’s something. There are two USB-C ports in the back, though, so maybe you can find a USB-C powered fan.

The Clark tartan inserts aren’t to my taste, but they’re part of the vaguely self-aware naff DNA of VW GTI products

The large boot offers a pretty reasonable 305 litres (down on the 1.0-litre Polos), but it’s still a big boot for such a small car. Drop the 60:40 split-fold rear seats and you have 1125 litres to fill. The boot floor is also one of those clever two-position arrangements where you can sacrifice a flush loading lip for more depth.

There are a few less than desirable plastics in the cabin but for the most part, it’s pretty good and the cheap bits are made more obvious by the quality everywhere else.

On the Road

As ever, the Polo GTI comes fitted with VW’s venerable 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder known as EA888 by the nerds and “easy to tune” by everyone else. Here in the Polo it serves up a segment-standard 147kW of power and 320Nm of torque, which is pretty good for a 1305kg hatchback and, frankly, all it needs.

Stepping out of the Polo Style as I did and into the GTI, I straight away noticed how much stiffer the adaptive damping is when set to Sport. The car feels a lot tauter and body roll is tightly reined in by the change. I also noticed that the 18-inch wheels weren’t going to deliver the much smoother ride of the lesser car.

As ever, the Polo GTI comes fitted with VW’s 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder known as EA888 by the nerds and “easy to tune” by everyone else

Obviously, that’s the price you pay, but it’s not a dealbreaker. Retracing my steps up the same road I had just come down in the 1.0-litre version – thankfully drier than it had been twenty minutes previously – the big jump in grip was immediately apparent. That’s partly down to the sportier tyre choice and lower profile tyres, but the GTI traversed the section that was still wet with plenty of confidence and grip.

The immediate impression is of a car with a very stable platform from which to work, whether that’s bombing down a twisty road, droning along a motorway or tedious suburban running about. While there are only two modes in the adaptive damping, Comfort mode knocks the harder edges off without losing too much if you have a sudden red mist moment, while Sport mode is confidence-inspiring.

On the short, undulating Luddenham circuit, the GTI is right at home. There are a couple of tricky corners to negotiate but the Polo is very good at keeping surprises to a minimum. Going in too hot gets you gentle understeer while you sort yourself out. On the flip side, the chassis wills you on if you do as I did and keep coming in too slowly to the right-hander at the top of the hill, with the tyres talking back when you want too much.

Some cars can take time to learn on a track – like the Fiesta, which moves around a lot more – but the Polo’s much more planted feel makes it easier to pound out lap after lap. The brakes feel great on track or on the road, but will of course heat up in a track environment after a few laps.

The immediate impression is of a car with a very stable platform from which to work

It will also axle tramp on a damp road or track with an unsympathetic right foot or too much lock, but I think a set of expensive replacement tyres, such as Michelins, could go some way to sorting that out.

The downside of that stability is that the Polo is less playful than the other two in the class. Heading back to the upside, the Polo is a better everyday car than the Fiesta, with a much better interior and technology package.

Ownership

Volkswagen offers a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty that matches Hyundai and Ford’s offerings in this particular corner of the battlefield.

As with the other two, there’s a fixed-price servicing program, with a pre-paid three-year package clocking in at $1400 ($466 per service) or five years for $2750 ($550 per service). As with the standard Polos, it is absolutely worth considering this as you’ll save $158 over the three year period and a not-inconsiderable $765 on the five-year plan.

The Fiesta ST is $1556 for five years and the i20 N cheaper still at $1520. It’s a big gap, some of it explained by the fact that the other two have six-speed manuals whereas the Polo is a six-speed DSG. VW does claw back some deficit from the i20 by having a Ford-matching 12 months/15,000km service interval against the i20’s 12 months/10,000km.

VERDICT

The MY22 Polo GTI is comfortable, refined and handily quick. I don’t think it’s really a weekend plaything but far closer to the hot ideal: a useful upgrade to a very usable, everyday car for someone who wants something more than transport for their daily driver.

It might cost a lot more than before, but with a comprehensive safety package, a good ride/handling balance, and a long spec list full of stuff from much larger cars, the Polo GTI at least pays you back for the over forty grand you’ll be spending to put it on the road.

As times have changed and SUVs have dominated, the narrower market for this kind of car has meant that folks who buy them aren’t just happy with a tweaked chassis and more power. They want all the other stuff, too; stuff that makes the car safer and easier to live with.

It will be interesting to see if the pricing is testing the limits too far but, in this mad market, I suspect not.