Just collected my SEL, Review

[mike sel]

Picked up my Polo yesterday.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=662

Urano grey, SEL (highline) 116hp (the manual says) 85kw.

Options :-

Winter pack (no headlight washers). Adaptive cruise control, Active info (digital dash), Keyless, rear camera, occupant protection, blind spot, folding mirrors, driver mode, park assist.

Picking up the car.

on arrival at the dealer, I was sat down with a coffee, the Sales Manager then went through my old car details checked the service record, I had both keys etc etc. took that all away after giving me the change of ownership slip back for me to send off. the Marketing manger then tried to sell me GAP and dent insurances, without luck. I was then given a bottle of Moet and shown to the car. Unceremonious is one way to describe it. the car was parked outside and we walked around it checking body panels, I then checked the inside. All acceptable. I was shown the basic controls and hey presto I was left along in the car 30-45 mins most of which was me (to the annoyance of the SM, checking the car over). Not the greatest experience I have had picking a new car up, Lexus have a handover suite and its very dramatic, BMW have the car inside with a cover over and unveil the car with a flourish, even Nissan ad the car inside with a cover over for unveiling presenting a photo of you and the car. VW nothing at all...in some ways it was fine I just got the car and was on my way, I got the impression it was only a polo, but then to be fare I did see a hand over suit or room and any inside space for any grand handover of a potential £50k car, so maybe that VW Breeze hand over ..understated is another way of describing it. Still its all good the car is finally on my drive.

First impressions made on my drive home.

The digital dash is fun. I filled with fuel drove it home, the DSG is ok, I am used to manual so I am getting used to DSG again. its going to have to grow on me..put it that way. on the way home (all in town driving) I tried all the driver modes, yea..im struggling to tell the difference between them at the moment. we will see better when I drive it more. I played with the satnav and moving it across to the digi dash, that all works well and I do like having that. When I got home I linked phone then apple car ply that all looks goof sent a txt through voice control ..happy with that. Std radio and speakers are good as is the music on the iPhone when connected through the usb. ambient lighting all works well but it needs to be night time to benefit (I know that sounds odd to say because its obvious) but normally in day lime you can see some lighting or evidence of it, in this car you cant. I plugged in the app device into the car diagnostics and linked it to my phone, easy to do. I can now get real data on my car on my iPhone, We will see if this is any use or just a gimmick.

Quite to drive with no intruding wind noise ..or any other noise to be honest...big car feel there. Its only 116hp according to the manual. but it keeps up with traffic on town roads, when its run in i m sure it will loosen up.

I was a little disappointed with the tyres on it "falcons" ..never heard of them. I will look then up and get some reviews on them. I may change these out.

Have not tried the park assist yet, rear camera is clear and easy to use, folding mirrors make quite a woorring sound when the fold (standing outside the car) keyless works well. inside feels nice, yes there are a lot of harder plastics on doors and the centre pillar, but they seem solid enough, easy to get comfortable driving position. Im 6 foot tall , my son is 6-1 and he said head room in the back is nice, sitting position is nice, for short to med journeys he would feel ok. but long drives in that seat behind me would be cramped. He then set up the passenger seat for my wife, 5-3 and behind here he was happy to do a couple of hours. it wont happen often, only if we are all going the airport together.

Boot, this car has a full size spare..hats off to VW for that..love it. My sons full set of golf clubs fitted in there ok, tight but it was ok.

All in all my first impressions are its a nice car. I am away for a couple of weeks now and I cant figure out how to post a photo of the car on here, but I will when I get back. O the whole manual thing is a bit odd, I am used to some more pictures of the part of the car they are referring to.

[SRGTD]

Looks good Mike. It does look very shiny.

Personally, I prefer a low key hand over, with the opportunity to be left alone to check things over. I picked up my car from the dealer’s storage facility (large industrial warehouse unit) around the back of the dealership. I wouldn’t want the ‘big reveal’ in the showroom, where the grit laden cover is dragged off the car and dumped on the showroom floor, to gather more grit ready for the next customer’s big reveal.

I’m seriously considering DSG next time. I’ve always driven manuals up until now, but after many years of back-related problems (sciatica), DSG would probably be a sensible move. I’ve heard others say it can take a while to get used to DSG, as the gearbox needs to ‘learn’ your driving style. Many owners swear by it, and wouldn’t ever want to go back to a manual. Certainly a good choice if you do lots of town/city driving.

I’ve read on some of the Golf forums that the current generation of folding mirrors can be quite noisy, but it seems to be normal. The position of the reversing camera is so much better on the current Polo compared to where it is on my car (permanently exposed, just above the number plate). I wouldn’t have specced it, but it was available for just £25 when bundled together with other options I wanted, so for that price it was a no brainier!

A word of warning on using Park Assist when parallel parking. I understand the car uses the cars in front/behind the space you’re intending to parallel park between as reference points, so if they’ve badly parked (scrubbing up against the kerb, or mounted the pavement), there’s a risk your car might scrub the kerb and damage your alloy wheels as it gets too close to the kerb during the parking manoeuvre! Either be ready to manually intervene or choose an alternative parking space where cars either side of the space have left space between them and the kerbside.

Based on forum discussions, It doesn’t surprise me that you don’t have headlamp washers. It’s just a little disappointing that forum members seem to know more about VW’s products than VW themselves, and makes you wonder about the accuracy of other information being given to customers by VWCS and on live chat.

Yes, VW’s owner’s manuals aren’t the best, but with all the tech in their cars these days, it’s worth spending a bit of time going through it so you don’t miss any of the features your car has. A good bedtime read if you’re struggling to get to sleep!

Enjoy your car, and I look forward to your updates over the coming months.

[alandbess]

Picked up my Polo yesterday.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=662

Urano grey, SEL (highline) 116hp (the manual says) 85kw.

Options :-

Winter pack (no headlight washers). Adaptive cruise control, Active info (digital dash), Keyless, rear camera, occupant protection, blind spot, folding mirrors, driver mode, park assist.

Picking up the car.

on arrival at the dealer, I was sat down with a coffee, the Sales Manager then went through my old car details checked the service record, I had both keys etc etc. took that all away after giving me the change of ownership slip back for me to send off. the Marketing manger then tried to sell me GAP and dent insurances, without luck. I was then given a bottle of Moet and shown to the car. Unceremonious is one way to describe it. the car was parked outside and we walked around it checking body panels, I then checked the inside. All acceptable. I was shown the basic controls and hey presto I was left along in the car 30-45 mins most of which was me (to the annoyance of the SM, checking the car over). Not the greatest experience I have had picking a new car up, Lexus have a handover suite and its very dramatic, BMW have the car inside with a cover over and unveil the car with a flourish, even Nissan ad the car inside with a cover over for unveiling presenting a photo of you and the car. VW nothing at all...in some ways it was fine I just got the car and was on my way, I got the impression it was only a polo, but then to be fare I did see a hand over suit or room and any inside space for any grand handover of a potential £50k car, so maybe that VW Breeze hand over ..understated is another way of describing it. Still its all good the car is finally on my drive.

First impressions made on my drive home.

The digital dash is fun. I filled with fuel drove it home, the DSG is ok, I am used to manual so I am getting used to DSG again. its going to have to grow on me..put it that way. on the way home (all in town driving) I tried all the driver modes, yea..im struggling to tell the difference between them at the moment. we will see better when I drive it more. I played with the satnav and moving it across to the digi dash, that all works well and I do like having that. When I got home I linked phone then apple car ply that all looks goof sent a txt through voice control ..happy with that. Std radio and speakers are good as is the music on the iPhone when connected through the usb. ambient lighting all works well but it needs to be night time to benefit (I know that sounds odd to say because its obvious) but normally in day lime you can see some lighting or evidence of it, in this car you cant. I plugged in the app device into the car diagnostics and linked it to my phone, easy to do. I can now get real data on my car on my iPhone, We will see if this is any use or just a gimmick.

Quite to drive with no intruding wind noise ..or any other noise to be honest...big car feel there. Its only 116hp according to the manual. but it keeps up with traffic on town roads, when its run in i m sure it will loosen up.

I was a little disappointed with the tyres on it "falcons" ..never heard of them. I will look then up and get some reviews on them. I may change these out.

Have not tried the park assist yet, rear camera is clear and easy to use, folding mirrors make quite a woorring sound when the fold (standing outside the car) keyless works well. inside feels nice, yes there are a lot of harder plastics on doors and the centre pillar, but they seem solid enough, easy to get comfortable driving position. Im 6 foot tall , my son is 6-1 and he said head room in the back is nice, sitting position is nice, for short to med journeys he would feel ok. but long drives in that seat behind me would be cramped. He then set up the passenger seat for my wife, 5-3 and behind here he was happy to do a couple of hours. it wont happen often, only if we are all going the airport together.

Boot, this car has a full size spare..hats off to VW for that..love it. My sons full set of golf clubs fitted in there ok, tight but it was ok.

All in all my first impressions are its a nice car. I am away for a couple of weeks now and I cant figure out how to post a photo of the car on here, but I will when I get back. O the whole manual thing is a bit odd, I am used to some more pictures of the part of the car they are referring to.

Thanks for this Mike. Out of interest, did you go for LED headlamps?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[mike sel]

Hi Al

No I didn't. to be honest im not a bling kind of guy, thus the dark colour.

Plus if I am honest, I am a bit tight. £900 for LEDs and over 500 to change to colour of the car does not sit well with me. IF LEDs were thrown in I would not have moaned, I may even have paid up to £400 for them but they are a bit blingy for my taste and 900 quid is quite a hole in the piggy bank. so in my view I have a great little car, with all the spec I wanted and yes I do think for resale LEDs would have helped.

[RUM4MO]

WRT the type of lights, I had HIDs on my old Passat, they were very good and made night time driving a lot safer, I was very annoyed when VW issued prelaunch data/specs for the 2002 9N Polo as it was shown with HIDs fitted as an option, it turned out that they were never offered standard or as an option, which was one thing I would have spec'd on my wife's new Polo back in 2002 as she did drive a lot on country roads and in winter time up North that was still in the hours of darkness. When we came to replace that car in 2015 I was quite happy to see that LED head lights were standard (I think) on the SEL - and they work very well. One issue that is age dependant is your eyes, as you age it is said that they become less responsive/reactive to lighting levels, so HIDs or good LED headlights become handy.

Handover time, yes, you were only buying a VW Polo, I don't care for being given false honour treatment - it is the product that I'm buying and as you do admit to being a bit tight, and why not, you are not going to get treated as landed gentry, that stuff I can't stand when I need to go near my Audi dealership, some people thrive on it, but not me, I bought an Audi S4 only because I like what a car like that has been put together with and it keeps me happy, what others think about it does not bother me, put it this way, I drive an Audi, but I don't think that I am "an Audi driver".

I like your probably not intended miss spelling of the Marketing Manger - we had none of that when we picked up my wife's new Polo back in 2015 it was just a straight forward meeting with her sales person and they clearly got the point that GAP Wheel Insurance etc etc was not going to happen, then out for a once round the car, he coupled her iPhone to the car and away we went. When I collected my Audi I did get the "now the financial manager needs to talk to you" - car bought for cash so it was clearly all about trying to upsell other services which I declined though they did chase me up about these services a few days later, again I declined and made it clear that none of that was relevant to me, they did chase me up a few more times by phone but I ignored these calls.

Edit:- I read the other day on the Skoda forum (Fabia = Polo and more people technically involved with their cars), that someone, a new member was commenting on the amazing deal that he had got for GAP and other Insurance related products, like wheel cover etc, I just don't think that that rings true, GAP from dealer probably "only" costs £400 but the same product can be bought elsewhere for £40 - rough guess at premium costs by me, so from where I am standing, someone was happy to get ripped off nicely.

[WillWord]

Picked up my Polo yesterday.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=662

Urano grey, SEL (highline) 116hp (the manual says) 85kw.

Congatulations hope you take time to enjoy it, looks like we got the same tyres, to be honest not to impressed with them apparently they scored well for fuel efficiency, any chance of some interior pics.

[mike sel]

Picked up my Polo yesterday.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=662

Urano grey, SEL (highline) 116hp (the manual says) 85kw.

Congatulations hope you take time to enjoy it, looks like we got the same tyres, to be honest not to impressed with them apparently they scored well for fuel efficiency, any chance of some interior pics.

Ill give it a go.
Internal photos. best I can do with my rubbish photography skills. I don't know why they go the wrong way up.lol

[matthew.bicknell]

Hi Mike SEL,

How are you finding the handbrake on the left side? In my Polo SEL 2015 it is in the middle due to there being no cup holders.

Seems like a cheap move from VW not to move it to the right side for RHD cars

Thanks,

Matt

[mike sel]

Hi Mike SEL,

How are you finding the handbrake on the left side? In my Polo SEL 2015 it is in the middle due to there being no cup holders.

Seems like a cheap move from VW not to move it to the right side for RHD cars

Thanks,

Matt

That's funny, I had not noticed that, I will say the arm rest gets in the way. Maybe that's why then?

[matthew.bicknell]

Does the armrest slide forwards to open it? I saw something like that on a Youtube reviewer having to slide it forward before he could lift it.

It does look like it may get in the way of the handbrake though.

My armrest in the 2015 SEL can be folded completely up which is nice as its out of the way.

[WillWord]

Picked up my Polo yesterday.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=662

Urano grey, SEL (highline) 116hp (the manual says) 85kw.

Congatulations hope you take time to enjoy it, looks like we got the same tyres, to be honest not to impressed with them apparently they scored well for fuel efficiency, any chance of some interior pics.

Ill give it a go.
Internal photos. best I can do with my rubbish photography skills. I don't know why they go the wrong way up.lol

Looks good,first digital dash I've seen in a R/H drive Polo.

[mike sel]

Congatulations hope you take time to enjoy it, looks like we got the same tyres, to be honest not to impressed with them apparently they scored well for fuel efficiency, any chance of some interior pics.

Ill give it a go.
Internal photos. best I can do with my rubbish photography skills. I don't know why they go the wrong way up.lol

Looks good,first digital dash I've seen in a R/H drive Polo.

Yes its fun, but I cant find the overall miles the car has done anywhere. I tried car then settings, all I can get up is trip. would love to find it to know what the delivery miles were. etc. also hand as I get near the first service etc.

any ideas?

[stevereeves]

A bottle of Moet ?! I was offered a cup of coffee which the nice lady receptionist only filled 1/3 full. On 3rd VW, all Golfs, and the handover was identical to mine; no "ta-da !" moment of whipping off the cover, which I'd have kept anyway.

Folding mirrors do make a bit of noise when folding but are a good choice and lessen the chance one getting wiped off by clumsy idiots, "that'll be £300, sir".

One point re: Park Assist, apart from the fact it rules, in addition to it 'looking' via sound at badly parked cars, it will happily slot the car into the smallest of "no way will it fit" gaps - a lot smaller than I would feel safe parking. Like with an inch so clearence, way too risky, but PP is still a useful if not essential feature.

But an interesting review, I too would be looking at an Polo SEL. Enjoy your car, not difficult....

[WillWord]

Yes its fun, but I cant find the overall miles the car has done anywhere. I tried car then settings, all I can get up is trip. would love to find it to know what the delivery miles were. etc. also hand as I get near the first service etc.

any ideas?

Try via 8" Media main sreen .
Car,
Driving Data
Scroll through choices should be Long term.

[WillWord]

Mike, just thinking about your Digital display, when you see any mileage data what happens when you press the OK button on your steering wheel, does it scroll through with other info, long term/since start etc.