New Polo. Have VW lost the plot.

[skodaescapee]

Hi all,
I am frustrated. Yes - car of the year 2010. Apparently good build quality. Excellent residual value.

Hang on a minute. The petrol engines are not very economical, the CO2 emissions are nothing to write home about and my daughters 59 plated 1.2 moda has just been replaced by VW having had so many electrical problems they have finally given up and thrown in the towel. I can't speak more highly of the dealer in trying to sort the problems and negotiating the replacement new car. Thats why I like the brand. They are good to their customers. However, VW are not helping their dealers.

The point is I still want to downsize to a polo myself, but can't understand why there are no TSI engines other than those fitted to the top of the range SEL editions. The price is not far off the golf with the same engine in the S configuration.
Skoda and Seat are fitting the TSI engines in the base models. I looked at the new IBIZA ST estate 1.2 TSI today. NO VAT at present. £11900. What value cruise control, climate control, fogs, stop start technology, bags of extras. BUT ITS NOT A VW!! Why and when will VW wake up.

2011 is promising to be a very important year for new hybrids and other green vehicles. I predict the non turbo petrol cars, such as these POLOS are going to struggle in the residual value department in 12 months. I just wonder what is going to happen to the market in the new year after the VAT rise. Sales are plummeting at the moment. We were in the main SEAT dealership for an hour today. Just us and one salesman. NO VAT-but no customers either.

Dealers are hoping for a resurgence before the new year. Perhaps they will have a great Christmas. I hope they do. Come the new year they had better buy a few board games in.
Come on VW excite the market......and not with the special edition VW Golf twist, yawn yawn 1.4 petrol high emission petrol burner.........

[Silvergrey]

Fair point, but my 1.2 Polo has been faultless (so far) other than a minor rattle with the driver's door locking mechanism. As with any new model, there will be problems, and your daughter has obviously been very unlucky, but fair play to VW for replacing it.

I was originally going to buy a Golf, but the looks, equipment, build quality and price of the new Polo swayed me. The smaller engines are fine, providing you're not expecting the performance. I used to own a 3.0 BMW Z4 coupe (as a 2nd car) whilst I ran an '04 Polo as my daily drive. I was under no illusion as to the new 1.2's performance. I'm enjoying the 50+ mpg, low road tax and insurance. Whilst the emissions aren't in the £0 road tax category, they are still pretty low and a welcome alternative to £400+ I would have had to pay for the BMW.

As far as making the 1.2TSI available in the lower specced models, VW are unlikely to offer that as they clearly want to sell you the more expensive models. You have a choice! I also beleive there will be a market for smaller non-turbo engines as not everyone wants/needs the performance, but I believe the demand for bigger non-turbo engines will shrink, as the new TSI engines are designed to replace those.

With VAT increasing next year, there will be a 'rush' for new vehicles before the end of the year, and you're right, it will be even slower next year.

[Issac Hunt]

Skoda and Seat are fitting the TSI engines in the base models. I looked at the new IBIZA ST estate 1.2 TSI today. NO VAT at present. £11900. What value cruise control, climate control, fogs, stop start technology, bags of extras. BUT ITS NOT A VW!! Why and when will VW wake up.

Effectively it IS a VW though isnt it? All Seat/Skoda cars are built with VW technology/engines/electrics etc etc, Hence my defection from VW to Skoda. I've saved thousands and shall not look back at VW. My Skoda was 8k less than the same spec VW, same engine+DSG box but 8k less!

[vc-10]

I'm fairly sure they want to get rid of the old 1.4 and 1.2 engines, before replacing them with TSI versions. I've heard (on here maybe? Can't remember) that the 1.2 3-cyl engines are going to be replaced with a 0.9 TSI being developed for the UP!.

However, the lack of the 1.2 TSI in UK cars is purely VW UK's doing. In Germany, the basic 'Trendline' is available with the normal 2 1.2 petrols, the 1.2 TDI and a 1.6 TDI with Bluemotion Tech. The 'Comfortline' (roughly SE spec minus alloys I think) has the 1.2 TSI with both gearboxes, and the 1.6 TDI with 90 or 105 PS, and the 90 PS version can have BMT or a DSG gearbox. There is also the special edition 'TEAM' version which has every engine available.

I'd (money notwithstanding) jump at a 105ps TDI in our SE spec, or the BMT version of the 90PS TDI. It seems very odd to me that SEAT are giving BMT (effectively) on the 1.2 TSI Ibiza estate but VW aren't doing it on car apart from the Bluemotions. I'm sure people would pay for it (especially if the 1.6TDI Polo can be brought under 100g CO2/km- the German spec cars say 96g)