Volkswagen Polo Vivo Review - 1.4 Comfortline

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Volkswagen? More like WOKE-swagen, as the Wolfsburg firm continues their strongest trend, recycling. Admittedly I don't mean this in the environmentally woke sense, although I'm sure being able to reuse existing metal stamping and crafting tools for more than a decade must elicit a hell of a payoff in that respect as well. No, if you haven't figured it out yet I'm referring to the manner in which Volkswagen famously proliferate vehicles for the bottom end of the market, the affordable segment. This is why we saw the original Golf being sold with a Citi badge alongside four of its successors, and refers to how the previous Polo was eventually distilled for cheap into the original Vivo while the car it was cut from was replaced with a new, chiselled Polo. This then, the new Vivo is essentially last year's Polo, itself being replaced with a sexy new model. Confused yet? Well, let's focus instead on the appliance white Vivo you see on this page.

Why do I feel like I’ve seen this before?

Easy. Because you have, and for many years as there’s little to discern the Vivo with the donor Polo. We’re talking minor details such as slightly different headlamp internals, somewhat altered grilles and a blink-and-you’ll-miss it transferral of the side repeaters from the mirrors to the fenders. You get different wheels – here it’s the 15 inch Estrada alloy, stickers for badges on the hatch, and a mild change inside the rear clusters. So in terms of aesthetics it feels like little more than a facelift. I can only assume the Vivo logo is now a sticker so that it could be easily ripped off and passed off as a genuine Polo to anyone other than hardcore VW pundits but I strongly advise trying that at a dealership. I’m only partially joking. The end result is as handsome as it is familiar, and provides a clue as to what it is to come in the interior and the driving experience.

Life inside the good ship Vivo

Settle into the driver’s seat 1.4L Comfortline and you’ll encounter a City Cloth trimmed interior, a five speed manual shifter and a dashboard arrangement identical in geometry to the old Polo. Ours has electric windows upfront, multimedia and cruise controls on the steering wheel. The seats are appreciably comfy and the helm and ergonomics as pleasing as you’d expect from a car that’s had almost a decade to perfect it. All in all, the Polo Vivo cabin feels as accomplished as the Polo its based on but more importantly superior to the old Polo Vivo, which is a more relevant comparison really.

Punt or shunt?

Look, let’s just all manage our expectations here shall we? This, the 1.4 litre Comfortline at just R192,000 is powered by a lowly inline 4-cyl 1398cc engine, which translates to 63kW and 132Nm. That means it’s capable of a sprint to 100kph in 12.2 seconds and if you’re that way inclined a top speed of 177kph. More importantly are its green credentials we reckon, enviable at 5.9l/100km and 140g/km. So it’s hardly going to light your pants on fire and that’s perfectly fine since it is really meant to do battle in the urban streets, on the commute to work and school and to the mall and such. Here it provided more than enough ‘go’ to match that conservative ‘show’. Thankfully being painted in the same colour as your refrigerator and stove means that nobody is going to be challenging you at the lights. Although I do worry about losing it in the parking lots it calls its domain. Then there’s the fact that your chances of being a hijacking statistic rises substantially and depressingly with something this anonymous.

How about around the bends?

Handling is predictably tame for a small economy hatchback out of Wolfsburg. You can have a bit of fun with it sure, but that’s like painting a wall with an ear bud. The helm is fairly precise, a good communicator overall but when you’re drawing forward motion from a tiny thimble you’re not exactly fighting daunting levels of physics at the front wheels. Everywhere else the ride quality is impressively smooth, compliant when it needs to be and confidence-inspiring on the very odd occasion you require it. Again, this is evidence of a platform that has had time to be mastered.

Okay, let’s wrap this up

I’ve never been a fan of VW’s policy of dredging up old models for the sake of sales, but this is South Africa where affordable transport is needed. That, and the fact that VW do these cars so well. I refer to great overall build quality, proven mechanicals, and genuine desirability at a price point that it has no right competing at. I predict a resounding sales success in the new Polo Vivo. And that, absolutely nobody should be surprised.

VW New Polo Vivo 1.4 Comfortline Specs:

*The Polo Vivo is sold with a 3-year or 120 000km warranty
*VW Automotion Maintenance Plan plus Service Plan are optional
*Service intervals are 15 000km