UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi every one.
I',m new to the Forum.
Just sold a 310 PS 18 reg Golf R. Decided to become a one car family as the R was just sitting in the garage depreciating.

So wife is trading her Mini Copper in for a new Polo Gti +.
We were luck in being able to take up a cancelled order and hope to take delivery late March. Would have preferred white but Flash Red will do.

Steve

steeve wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 2:20 pm Hi every one.
I',m new to the Forum.
Just sold a 310 PS 18 reg Golf R. Decided to become a one car family as the R was just sitting in the garage depreciating.

So wife is trading her Mini Copper in for a new Polo Gti +.
We were luck in being able to take up a cancelled order and hope to take delivery late March. Would have preferred white but Flash Red will do.

Steve

Similarly to me...we're about to swap a Golf R for a second GTI+. Having both cars on the go right now, I can give you a fair comparison of the 2 cars.

Externally The Golf is about 10" longer, but the length of the interior space is almost identical. The Golf's bonnet is about 7" longer and it's boot is 3" longer internally.

The passenger space is almost identical, in terms of legroom, although I do find myself sitting more upright in the Polo.

Performance wise, there's no getting away from the R's 4WD traction and the Polo's tendancy to tramp with more than 1/3 throttle from a standstill, but once on the move, in gear acceleration in the Polo isn't far behind. The Polo feels lighter, sharper and quicker (the R feels like a fast tank, and doesn't feel as quick as it is).

I'm giving serious consideration to swapping out my tyres for some Michelin PS4 to improve the tramping and tyre feel/noise.

I do prefer a manual box to DSG, but had no choice for the Polo. Might be a blessing in disguise - my R has had by far the worst feeling manual gearbox I have suffered on any car (and i've had 9 VWs from new, so know what a good VW box should feel like). From the GTI forum, it seems that GTIs and Rs made in 2015 generally had poor boxes.

There are a few things that annoy me about the Polo:-

1. You can turn off park assist (So the front sensors don't fire up automatically in slow traffic, needing you to press the P))) button by the gear stick or to have engaged reverse), but it turns itself back on for every ignition cycle.

2. Stop-Start automatically fires up when the traffic ahead moves. Sounds ok, except usually when you're stuck in traffic before a major junction with traffic lights, that inevitable "bunching up" when the cars shuffle 18" forwards causes the car's engine to fire up again.

3. If you're at a standstill in rain, you can really hear the click at the start and end of the wiper sweep that yhe controlling relay makes. On the move you'll hardly hear it.

Fuel economy comparison - for cold weather journeys less than 8.miles long, the R is as efficient as the Polo. Over longer distances, the Polo is about 10% better. On the motorway the Polo is 25% better. If you have a 7 speed DSG on your R, the differences will not be so big as they are for my manual R.

The active info dash and infotainment screen are a slight improvement over your 2018 R and a huge jump over my 2015 pre-facelift R. The Polo has a newer generation of active info dash.

My Polo doesn't have the rattles my Golf has (The main one being driver's sun visor.

I enjoy driving the Polo more than the R (if only it had better traction.

monkeyhanger wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 4:05 pm .......

Can't really compare 4wd to fwd car I had quattros for few years 2.5tdi 132 kw and later 3.0tdi 176kw they were winter beasts Polo gti is great and with manual box it really nice to drive but traction on fwd cars are bit worser when front of the car goes up than traction goes down next time I will go for quattro even with automatic just because of winters (my town services are joke and they dont plow snow that often and sometimes not at all)

Dark_cze wrote: Tue Feb 12, 2019 5:22 pm

monkeyhanger wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 4:05 pm .......

Can't really compare 4wd to fwd car I had quattros for few years 2.5tdi 132 kw and later 3.0tdi 176kw they were winter beasts Polo gti is great and with manual box it really nice to drive but traction on fwd cars are bit worser when front of the car goes up than traction goes down next time I will go for quattro even with automatic just because of winters (my town services are joke and they dont plow snow that often and sometimes not at all)

We've had some unseasonably warm weather today (for February), and the Bridgestone Turanzas on my Brescia wheels have been offering very poor traction. They had far better traction this morning at 6C than this afternoon at 12C (dry conditions all day) - it's like these tyres are meant to be winter tyres. They were good at -4C last week. I took a bend at very low speed and low throttle and the car wanted to go straight. I feel that a change of tyres is imminent.

Dark_cze wrote: Tue Feb 12, 2019 5:22 pm Can't really compare 4wd to fwd car I had quattros for few years 2.5tdi 132 kw and later 3.0tdi 176kw they were winter beasts Polo gti is great and with manual box it really nice to drive but traction on fwd cars are bit worser when front of the car goes up than traction goes down next time I will go for quattro even with automatic just because of winters (my town services are joke and they dont plow snow that often and sometimes not at all)

If you fit winter tyres to the Polo, it will be better than the quattro with summer tyres.
Even 4x4 gets stuck in snow on summer tyres.
Of course, if you fit winter tyres to the quattro then it will be very good in snow.
Many people here (Scotland) buy quattro cars for winter when all they really need to do is fit winter tyres.

Andy Beats wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:03 am

Dark_cze wrote: Tue Feb 12, 2019 5:22 pm Can't really compare 4wd to fwd car I had quattros for few years 2.5tdi 132 kw and later 3.0tdi 176kw they were winter beasts Polo gti is great and with manual box it really nice to drive but traction on fwd cars are bit worser when front of the car goes up than traction goes down next time I will go for quattro even with automatic just because of winters (my town services are joke and they dont plow snow that often and sometimes not at all)

If you fit winter tyres to the Polo, it will be better than the quattro with summer tyres.
Even 4x4 gets stuck in snow on summer tyres.
Of course, if you fit winter tyres to the quattro then it will be very good in snow.
Many people here (Scotland) buy quattro cars for winter when all they really need to do is fit winter tyres.

it is not even possible to drive here on summer tyres in winter law forbids it quietly strictly

Dark_cze wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 3:48 pm it is not even possible to drive here on summer tyres in winter law forbids it quietly strictly

I'm beginning to think it should be the same here, the recent TV pictures of people in England slithering around on summer tyres have been awful.

After living in Sweden with seasonal tyre laws and coming back to see the mess people get into with comparatively less snow, I'm inclined to agree.

Perhaps these relatively new all-season tyres will help, as people can just put them on and forget them all year.
I'm running Michelin cross-climate on the front of my Polo, have done since new, and they were very good in the snow we've had so far.
Need some serious snow to see if they are as good as full-blown winters.

Andy Beats wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 3:51 pm

Dark_cze wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 3:48 pm it is not even possible to drive here on summer tyres in winter law forbids it quietly strictly

I'm beginning to think it should be the same here, the recent TV pictures of people in England slithering around on summer tyres have been awful.

For most of the UK being affected a few days a year by snow or really bad ice and those living in the back of beyond maybe affected for a week of the year, I'd rather it remain discretionary here in the UK. I had no bother getting into work on the worst of the recent "bad" weather, I wasn't even late in. Well salted roads and relatively flat roads for me, as far north as Tyneside. If you live up a steep bank or are on rural roads that don't routinely get gritted then choose to have yourself a set of Winters. Middle of February today and 13C on the way to work, 11C coming home.

The middle of Continental Europe is a different matter - they got much colder winters than the UK.

With both of us being retired we do not have to go out in the bad weather, if we do it's not likely to be far. So we don't really need a 4wd car.

If it does get bad then I'll buy a set of spare wheels and have winter tyres fitted.


But hey thanks for the comments.

I should be more specific about our law. Law says that from november to mach everyone should have winter tyres if there is snow or ice on roads or it is expected to snow. We can use summer tyres in winter but if anything happens it is theis fault, insurance company will want them to pay for damages and police will add a pricey fine

Sweden is October to March, I believe.
I had a second set of wheels fitted with winter mittens that I would pop on when the time was right.
It's quite good for tyre wear life.
Lots used studded tyres and if there was not much snow, I imagine that the road surfaces took a pounding.
You could hear them grinding on the road surfaces.

In my country we are forbiden to use studded tyres only medics, police etc can use them but we are way more to the east then sweden

Dark_cze wrote: Thu Feb 14, 2019 6:20 am In my country we are forbiden to use studded tyres only medics, police etc can use them but we are way more to the east then sweden

Not really, but you're way more to the South.