Solid paint options in the UK cost more on Polo than any other VW car model!

[SRGTD]

Interesting to see that in the UK VW charge more for the optional solid / flat paint colours on a Polo than they do on any other Car / SUV / MPV in the VW vehicle range.

The cost of metallic / pearlescent paint - although IMO quite expensive - follows a fairly logical price structure across the different vehicle models; up! is cheapest and Touareg the most expensive. But the Polo doesn’t fit in the same logical price structure for solid / flat paint options. How can VW justify charging more for one of the optional solid / flat paint colours on the Polo than they do on a Sharan people carrier (£30 more) or a Touareg 4x4 (£45 more) which are much larger vehicles and will use more paint when the bodyshell is painted in the factory? Are VW taking the pee?

Prices below. The first price is for solid / flat paint options and the second is for metallic / pearlescent. Prices for signature / special colours such as Lapiz Blue (unique to the Golf R), Pure Grey (unique to the Golf TCR) or Oryx White haven’t been included;

Polo; £345 / £570

Up!; £280 / £525
Golf; £290 / £580
T-Roc; £290 / £580
Tiguan; £290 / £580
Touran; £290 / £630
Passat; £315 / £605
Sharan; £315 / £655
Arteon; £315 / £605
Touareg; £300 / £850

[Andy Beats]

Blimey, that is weird.
One can only assume they're milking the fact the car itself is cheaper.
If you're on twitter, send them that list of costs and ask them.

[monkeyhanger]

That's not the worst of it. How much for metallic paint on an Audi A1 do you think? When I bought the wife's 2015 A1, Floret Silver metallic paint (and the other metallics) was £390, the Polo's metallic paint was £565, pretty much the same car for the purposes of surface area/paint needed.

On the Golf, white paint is free and red is chargeable. They do what they like. In Germany, for the Polo GTI, both red and white are free colours.

Should be an honest pricing structure across the range.

[RUM4MO]

We have VW UK who are the sole importers of VW products to UK to thank for that, but unfortunately for us, VW UK is 100% owned by VW AG.

I have moaned on about this many times in the past and that and other option costs were what made me not initially buy a VW spec'd up to what I wanted from a UK based VW dealer, most of the factory fitted optional extras prices are obscene when compared with what NL and German customers are changed and no doubt many other countries where a private company owns the rights to import VWs, pure greed by VW.

[monkeyhanger]

Prices below. The first price is for solid / flat paint options and the second is for metallic / pearlescent. Prices for signature / special colours such as Lapiz Blue (unique to the Golf R), Pure Grey (unique to the Golf TCR) or Oryx White haven’t been included;

Lapiz used to be regular metallic price - they stared charging more at facelift time for the MK7 Golf.

Oryx white was always expensive because it's a 2 colour + lacquer process, not a 1 colour + lacquer process.

[vc-10]

And yet, Seat UK have made all colours 'free'. Desire Red, which I have specced on my Ibiza which I'll be picking up in a few weeks, used to be quite a costly extra. It now costs exactly the same as the Mediterranean Blue flat colour.

The option prices and a poor basic spec are why I've bought a Seat not a VW. Add ACC, folding mirrors, and metallic paint to a Polo SEL and you're well over the price of the Ibiza Xcellence Lux 115PS. And the Seat also has alcantara seats, digital cockpit, LED lights, keyless entry, and a reversing camera. My requirements were the 115PS engine, ACC, parking sensors, and folding mirrors, and in a decent colour. I wanted but didn't require the other extras the Seat has. The Seat just destroyed the Polo on the value proposition. I'd have been prepared to pay more for a specced out Polo than Ibiza, but not £4k more for the same spec!

Regarding getting shafted by VW UK- why does it cost £600 for ACC on a new Polo, when it was £400 on the previous generation, and that car didn't even have the Front Assist sensor already installed? Madness. In the Leon FR, Seat offer a 'Safety Pack' which includes ACC and lane keep/auto highbeams for £680, and ACC is £380 on the Fabia SE (which doesn't have standard cruise, just like the Polo). The higher-spec Polos should at least have cruise as standard.

[Andy Beats]

And yet, Seat UK have made all colours 'free'. Desire Red, which I have specced on my Ibiza which I'll be picking up in a few weeks, used to be quite a costly extra. It now costs exactly the same as the Mediterranean Blue flat colour.

The option prices and a poor basic spec are why I've bought a Seat not a VW. Add ACC, folding mirrors, and metallic paint to a Polo SEL and you're well over the price of the Ibiza Xcellence Lux 115PS. And the Seat also has alcantara seats, digital cockpit, LED lights, keyless entry, and a reversing camera. My requirements were the 115PS engine, ACC, parking sensors, and folding mirrors, and in a decent colour. I wanted but didn't require the other extras the Seat has. The Seat just destroyed the Polo on the value proposition. I'd have been prepared to pay more for a specced out Polo than Ibiza, but not £4k more for the same spec!

Regarding getting shafted by VW UK- why does it cost £600 for ACC on a new Polo, when it was £400 on the previous generation, and that car didn't even have the Front Assist sensor already installed? Madness. In the Leon FR, Seat offer a 'Safety Pack' which includes ACC and lane keep/auto highbeams for £680, and ACC is £380 on the Fabia SE (which doesn't have standard cruise, just like the Polo). The higher-spec Polos should at least have cruise as standard.

I wish I'd looked at the Seat now.
Do their models come with the same anti-collision crap as the Polos?
Same system?

[vc-10]

Yup. It's basically the same car from a mechanical and electrical point of view- just different styling and tuning to the suspension, with the Seat being a touch firmer and more 'sporty'. I've had a Fabia with the Front Assist system for nearly 3 years now, and it's never actually braked when it shouldn't. It's alerted a few times though.

[Andy Beats]

Yup. It's basically the same car from a mechanical and electrical point of view-

Damn.

[monkeyhanger]

Yup. It's basically the same car from a mechanical and electrical point of view- just different styling and tuning to the suspension, with the Seat being a touch firmer and more 'sporty'. I've had a Fabia with the Front Assist system for nearly 3 years now, and it's never actually braked when it shouldn't. It's alerted a few times though.

We actually considered an Ibiza FR 1.5Evo instead of the Polo GTI+ last May, but the dealerships weren't allowed to order them and couldn't tell us when they were able to (WLTP).

[vc-10]

They've dropped the 1.5 from the Ibiza, at least for now. Partly due to WLTP, but also due to availability. The 1.5 is a very popular engine across the VW Group, I wouldn't be surprised if they're prioritising it in other vehicles.

[Adam_013]

Only issue on the Ibiza is that unless you have the xcellence you get windy down windows in the back, I know we don't sit in the back, but come on...

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[monkeyhanger]

Only issue on the Ibiza is that unless you have the xcellence you get windy down windows in the back, I know we don't sit in the back, but come on...

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Yep - I was shocked by that when I saw a 115ps Ibiza last year - I haven't had a car with windy down windows that was built after 1996

[Adam_013]

Only issue on the Ibiza is that unless you have the xcellence you get windy down windows in the back, I know we don't sit in the back, but come on...

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Yep - I was shocked by that when I saw a 115ps Ibiza last year - I haven't had a car with windy down windows that was built after 1996

We wherr shocked when we took our Volvo for a service and got an Ibiza FR as a courtesy car (Dealer does seat as well) and found it had windy dowm windows in the back. When I looked at one before the polo, the dashboard seemed a bit more icky in terms of the plastics; they weren't the squishy ones like you find in the polo.

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[blackertracker]

They've dropped the 1.5 from the Ibiza, at least for now. Partly due to WLTP, but also due to availability. The 1.5 is a very popular engine across the VW Group, I wouldn't be surprised if they're prioritising it in other vehicles.

The 1.5 EVO engine has a design fault which can cause loss of engine power. VW are supposed to be fixing it but lots of upset customers have been left with faulty cars so far.

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/ownin ... vo-engine/