Scirocco Central

These are the first pictures of the new VW Polo GTi, which will be unveiled at next month’s Geneva motor show ahead of UK sales starting in August.

The new hot hatch comes with the VW Group’s 1.4-litre TSI engine, delivering 177bhp, connected to a seven-speed DSG transmission. It also comes with a version of VW’s XDS electronic differential, as used in the Seat Ibiza Cupra.

Suspension is lower than the standard Polo by 15mm all round, and the car gets its own spring and damper settings.

Like the last Polo GTi, this one’s also been styled to look like a mini Golf GTi. So it gets the similar five-spoke polished 17-inch alloys, and the same style of honeycomb grille with a red frame. Inside the seats are trimmed in a similar checked cloth material to the Golf GTi, and there’s a flat-bottomed wheel, too.

The GTi will be available as a three and five-door, with prices starting at around £18,000 for the three door.

Looks awesome! Interior is definately better than the previous GTI.

Pricing is pretty strong though, quite an increase over the previous one. List on mine in 2006 when released was £15k

I like that a lot. Much nicer/aggresive front styling than previous models.

i think a few of us thought there was potential and its not disappointed

Sub 7 sec 0-62, yet 47mpg & 139 co2 without being a diesel or hybrid. That's pretty good going. Looks pretty good too...

Looks good, is that a pano roof option too by the looks of it? Can't help thinking there will be an R round the corner though...

May highly reduce sales of scirocco :/ What do you guys thinks ? It's powered by a 1.4 TSI 180hp engine, with approx the same 0-62 as a 2.0 tsi 200hp DSG Scirocco

Not worried cause maybe from 0-100km/h might be the same but afterwards how fast can it go? Thats the question. I raced against the new clio 200. His car is faster from 0 to 100 but i still beat it. Also you cant compare this to a scirocco. You can compare it to an alfa mito t-jet. They both have the same concept aka shape. One thing I am liking in all new vw's are the way the rear lights are done (ie these and golf r).....

candyrocco wrote:May highly reduce sales of scirocco :/ What do you guys thinks ? It's powered by a 1.4 TSI 180hp engine, with approx the same 0-62 as a 2.0 tsi 200hp DSG Scirocco

thats not a serious question surely...
do i want a baby golf or a sports coupe? hmmm

It's a Polo. End of.

I think they've done a good job of this new Polo & thats some impressive stats. However, I really cant see it taking any orders away from the Scirocco, totally different markets.

ONtheROCs wrote:It's a Polo. End of.

Ditto

pat15312 wrote:

candyrocco wrote:May highly reduce sales of scirocco :/ What do you guys thinks ? It's powered by a 1.4 TSI 180hp engine, with approx the same 0-62 as a 2.0 tsi 200hp DSG Scirocco

thats not a serious question surely...
do i want a baby golf or a sports coupe? hmmm

Ha, one of lifes difficult decisions..

To be honest I'd like it if loads of people bought polos instead. There aren't many rocs round where I am. So it makes it stand out more..

Well it might beat the Roc for acceleration, within the confines of the legal speed limit, but as far as I'm concerned there are more things to owning a car than screaming off from the lights like fury.

I would have considered it if it was available last August , but I wouldn't swap my Roc for one , I love it too much

I've just merged the two topics together....

Not for me thanks. Anybody who says they prefer a polo to a roc are deluding themselves.......it's a polo for pete's sake!

candyrocco wrote:May highly reduce sales of scirocco :/ What do you guys thinks ? It's powered by a 1.4 TSI 180hp engine, with approx the same 0-62 as a 2.0 tsi 200hp DSG Scirocco

Hmmm, nah I dont think it will. I guess it might be ultimately quicker 0-60mph but as others have said that's not the only way to guage performance. I suspect in handling terms there's no way any polo, no matter how much you tweak it, will be able to match a Scirocco due to the Polo's inherently smaller wheels, higher narrower stance and lack of multi-link suspension.

In fact to be honest I think that rather than seeing the Polo GTi as a "Scirocco Killer" I suspect most people buying it in 3-door form will be asking the question why dont I buy a Scirrocco instead of the Polo when they're more or less the same price and the Scirocco's the better looking, better handling, more spacious car with a nicer interior, better exterior finish and likely better residuals!

There may be a market for the 5-door version but having owned a Polo GTi previously (2001 1.6 125bhp model) I'm not so sure. I was a lovely car but in hindsight if I'd had the extra 3-4k to buy a Golf GTi instead it would have made much more sense to be honest and I suspect that'll be the same situation with this Polo GTi aswell

On the plus side the Polo GTi does look fantastic (especially in white) and the fuel economy from the 1.4 turbo engine in a small light Polo is outstanding given the performance on offer.

I think that only offering it with automatic DSG is a mistake though. Strikes me that VW are making some unusual choices with the standard spec option on cars at the moment such as not offering the Scirocco without ACC. Why make options like these which most people dont want standard spec kit?

That and, without wanting to sound snobby!, there is no way in this world that I would pay £18k for a Polo!

To echo others' comments, they're aimed at completely different markets.

And what's going on with the tarten seats!?

ashley1407 wrote:And what's going on with the tarten seats!?

Same cloth as the MK6 Golf GTI, and its absolutely superb, even better than the awesome Interlagos cloth in the MK5 GTI and previous 9N3 GTI Polo.