The interior of the Polo falls a long way short of the comfortable, even luxurious feel now on offer from some of its more modern rivals.
But it's not all bad. First, it’s a fairly timeless cabin that won’t date in the way that, say, a Peugeot 207 interior is already starting to. And while there may not be much pizzazz in here, there’s no mistaking the quality of the upholstery, dashboard and trim.
Which is perhaps just as well, because there are some serious deficiencies here. There’s no split rear seat, and when you push the three-door version’s front seats forward to allow someone into the back, the squabs don’t return to their original positions. They can, but you have to pay another £100 for the privilege.
At least there’s plenty of space. Four average-sized adults will fit with ease, and what space there is has been usefully arranged. Carrying space is impressive too, with a boot with near class-leading dimensions and a decent amount of on-board oddments stowage space.
The Polo BlueMotion should excel itself, both as a showroom proposition and an everyday, greener-than-green runabout. But it doesn’t.
First, while it is clearly very frugal, no owner is going to realise those headline-grabbing near 90mpg returns unless they drive impractically slowly. On our touring route, which is designed to extract the best possible fuel consumption while still driving in a real-world environment, the Polo gave just 51.8mpg – good, but not ground-breaking.
The other problem is the car’s price: for a fiver less than £12,000 you might think that air conditioning, rear speakers, remote central locking and an alarm would be part of the standard specification, but in fact, like ESP, all are unavailable even as options.
You get alloys, electric front windows and mirrors and very little else. Still, we’d expect this Polo to command strong residuals, so at least you should see a reasonable chunk of your money back when you sell.