Intro - and new Polo on the way

[The Cardinal]

Hi everyone

I found this forum a few months ago via Pistonheads and, ultimately, it's what led me to press the button on a Life spec Polo today.

The new Polo will be run alongside a semi-retied VW Transporter camper and custom spec Audi RS3, which are respectively nearly 10 and 7 years old.

The brief for the Polo is replace our 2017 Fabia as a family runabout (and most-used car). It's meant to be fuss-free; the one that can just be relied upon - but it'll be nice to get into a car that offers a little more sparkle than the current Skoda. It will live on our terraced Victorian street and will inevitably attract minor battle scars due to city living.

Options are: DSG auto, sunroof, parking sensors, phone charging pad, floor mats, spare wheel. Ordered in metallic silver for longevity’s sake.



Drivethedeal were offering 13% off for this spec, with about a third of the discount being conditional on taking PCP. The offer technically applied to orders received by yesterday, so I’ll have to wait and see if it’s honoured.

There are some good deals on the Polo and Ibiza (in today's market at least), less so for the Fabia and A1. Let’s hope I can still sell our old Fabia for a good price once the Polo arrives.

Ideally I’d have liked the 110hp rather than 95hp 1.0 engine, but that combination is unavailable here with the Life spec. Otherwise it looks like a cracking package.

[SRGTD]

@The Cardinal; welcome to the forum. Hopefully not too long to wait; Polos certainly seem to have much shorter lead times than the Golf.

13% is a good discount in the current market - I managed to get 15-16% discount off my GTI+ in 2020 and that was also conditional on having VW’s PCP.

I think 95 bhp in a Polo-sized car will be fine. You’ve not said what engine your Fabia has but performance-wise I’d guess the Polo is probably on a par with your Fabia. To put 95 bhp into some form of context, I bought my first brand new hot hatch back in 1982; a Ford Escort XR3 (the earlier carburettor, non-fuel injection version). The engine in that car was also rated at 95 bhp (96ps) and in its day it felt pretty quick!

Please keep the forum updated with the build progress of your car when you get updates (you might need to ask the dealer for updates, as some don’t seem to be too good at giving these voluntarily).

[The Cardinal]

Thanks for the welcome.

The order has now been honoured at 13% discount and I'm being given a provisional delivery time of 28 weeks, mid-April. No doubt the options add to that, but I'm in no hurry.

My gurgling RS3 gives me more than enough horses when needed, so even though the current Fabia is more powerful than the Polo it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

[lancslad1985]

Welcome the cardinal and I hope your polo lives up to your expectations.

[The Cardinal]

I cleaned up our current Fabia last week. It's a simple car, doing the job well and kept in the same condition as all my vehicles.

What you can't see from the picture is that urban life has gifted it scuffs, dings and a worn driver's seat bolster that belie its 22,500 miles. I've been trying to work out whether to remedy these ahead of a sale, and the timing - with the new Polo likely 5 months off. If I can achieve £9k come next spring then it'll have been 2 years of depreciation-free motoring - current valuations are about 10% higher than that.

Incidentally, it works out about £1k per year more to buy, run and then sell the new Polo rather than this 2017 Fabia. That's not an insignificant amount of money, but unexpected bills would eat into the advantage - and the Polo will undoubtedly be an upgrade for the family.



I decided to make some changes to the Polo order, which substitute the metallic paint for "free" Ascot Grey and some added goodies. Confirmed spec is now:

- Polo Life 95hp
- DSG 7-speed gearbox, inc. Hill hold control
- Panoramic sunroof, tilting & sliding
- Parking sensors, front & rear
- Mobile phone prep with inductive function
- Digital Cockpit Pro with 10.25" Display
- Front fog lights with static cornering function
- Full size spare wheel (inc. tool set & jack)
- Lumbar adjustment for front seats

I think the flat Ascot Grey paint is probably a better bet for hiding minor imperfections than a metallic. It'll look like this:







What I'd really like is a Style spec, which hasn't been available with DSG in the UK so far. I did think about changing to an R-Line as this also comes with some of the above, but that would have meant a whole new order, a bit of extra cost and I have an RS3 for the whole sport thing anyway.

Staying with Life spec and the changes above keeps the cash price the same as before, which is important to me as this is an old-fashioned purchase using saved-up money.

Incidentally, I see that VW's deposit contributions have now gone down again and the APR on finance is up above 9%. Quite some jump and something that will inevitably cause some people to put off a purchase.