As hinted at above, my son has just taken delivery of a new MQB Ibiza FR with the same 115PS engine as the up! GTI.
I've only sat in it as a passenger yesterday for around 110 miles to get it home but I'm pretty impressed.
The up! GTI being lighter should provide excellent fuel economy as the Ibiza did 42mpg on the journey home which was not bad for a tight as a drum brand new car but more impressive was later in the evening when the thing was showing 40mpg around town!
My Ed40 would be doing around 25% worse economy than that at least.
The engine itself, according to my son, pulls well enough but due to the high gearing you have to treat it a bit like a Diesel. For instance when you'd drive in fourth and fifth around town in a Golf GTI the 1.0 115PS engine prefers to be in third at town speeds (30mph stuff) if you want it in the turbo band.
On the motorway where my GTI would be turning over at 4000rpm give or take the little 1.0 TSI was just loping along at a little over 2500rpm.
The engine is very muted at speed and sounds quite gruff when accelerating in a sporty sort of way.
That's the bits it shares with the up! GTI so on to the similarities with the Polo GTI as remarked upon by Monkeyhanger.
The new MQB Polo/Ibiza chassis is much bigger than the outgoing model. The first thing you notice is the cars sit much squarer like a Golf. The previous gen Ibizas and Polos were quite tall but narrow but these are significantly wider with a long wheelbase.
This means ride and handling are excellent for the class of car.
The front and rear overhangs are minimal, almost Mini like in fact with a proper wheel at each corner that makes manoeuvring really easy, great turning circle and sharp steering. The longer wheelbase helps ride quality too. The Ibiza looks damn near as big as a Leon now, particularly in width.
I wanted to get a photo of the Ibiza with my Golf nose to nose to show how big the Ibiza/Polo class of car is now but there's roadworks just up the road from me which means parking is a nightmare which limits space so there's no room to get the cars in position.
Inside the Ibiza does have plastics deliberately made to look cheaper than Polo plastics in certain areas but when you actually feel them and pull on the fittings you can clearly see it's pretty much the same stuff, the same dash architecture underneath, the same seat frames etc etc.
It's clearly just internal politics at play, the same with pricing structures and PCP deals with overall very similar £££ costs on a PCP deal muddied by list prices and deposit contributions. Ibizas clearly being marketed at younger people with the tech spec of FR's and sharper styling, the Polos being aimed at old gits like me who like carpet in their door bins.
Interior styling seems to be heading towards harder plastics now and huge coloured lumps of plastic on the dashboards that started in the Beetle and up! and has filtered through the range with each model change.
I'd say the new Ibiza has an interior quality and plastic feel broadly similar to a mk5 Golf with some cheaper Polo class bits of plastic in places like door handles and door bins.
Both the Polo and Ibiza still have that inexplicable triangle of painted metal on display at the rear of the rear door windows. Why?!
The Ibiza has a natty little map holder in the passenger foot well similar to an Audi.
I've not examined an MQB Polo closely, merely had a nose around a few on the dealer forecourt whilst car hunting with my son. He wasn't impressed with the Polo. I agreed with him too despite being positively geriatric which should make me more of a Polo demographic. The GTI is the only sharp looking Polo in the range now, the others look frumpy and have the same look as the non sporty mk7 FL Golfs.
And here's the thing.
We know from the SUV thread that this is the growth sector and just turning on the TV sees every car advert being SUVs now.
The Tiguan is squarely aimed at the Golf and Passat type buyer who like the luxury interior fittings. The T-Roc is the lifestyle model with the cheaper Polo style interior and Polo seats that'll replace the Beetle and Scirocco.
The Polo is damn near as big as a Golf but made down to a price in key areas but offers much better value for money.
Where does that leave the future of our beloved Golf?
To be honest I don't really care about where it leaves the Golf as I'm sure VW will pull something out of the bag with the next Gen model being as it's such a huge worldwide seller and still their bread and butter model for the time being.
In my eyes the Golf is looking poorer value as each year goes by and every step the Polo GTI takes in the Golf GTI's direction is another step toward me getting a Polo GTI next time round if I don't keep my mk7 in the longer term.
On paper the engine is 30 or 45 (or 65/90 in my case) down but that's easy enough to change...
