The Polo GTI is completely in the shadow of the Golf GTI as far as the wider public are concerned and I think that’s a crying shame.
The trouble is that as far as Polo vs mk7 goes the feeling you get with the Polo is “it’s just not a Golf” when it comes to certain things.
A good friend of mine had a Polo GTI (not a plus model) for a very short time as he works in the trade and putting it next to my GTI it was very evident where the savings were made, but the Polo GTI+ makes a far better case for itself against a non Performance Pack Golf GTI.
With the likely lower quality interior with loads of shiny ‘piano’ black plastics in a mk8 GTI, the Polo will make an even better case for itself and it’ll be interesting to see if the Polo quietly hikes up in price between the mk7 dying and the mk8 coming on stream.
If the up! GTI can go up £2k because it has a cheaper looking VW roundel and a forward facing camera then God knows what they might ‘justify’ with the Polo GTI in the coming months.
Just like the Fiesta ST is probably both a better looking and more mature looking car (unlike the previous gen chav-chariots) than its bigger ST sibling now, the Polo might be the more discerning choice against a mk8 Golf. Both of the cheaper slightly smaller hot hatches probably have just as quick real world performance and handling if you’re not absolutely ‘on it’ a lot of the time.
What I find a shame is that the Polo isn’t offered with a good old fashioned manual gearbox for £1k less.
The Polo doesn’t have the slight snob value of the Golf (which Golf buyers are happy to pay a huge premium for), so hot hatch enthusiasts could be more attracted to a manual Polo GTI+ as a cheaper more fun GTI that’s not a Ford.
Another crying shame is that (SEAT) Cupra still don’t have a 200 PS version of the Ibiza.
Once dipping below a Golf and therefore eschewing those nice little Golf touches I’d rather be in a current generation Ibiza than a Polo as quality is almost identical and the Ibiza looks much sharper.
(Shame about many SEAT dealers though)
Completely agree with all of that. The Polo GTI without the "+" makes for a very sparse car. The + adds £2830 worth of options for about £1650, giving it pretty much everything that the 7.5GTI has, with the exception of dual zone climate. Apart from an easy £1450 profit, not sure why VW wouldn't do a manual box - you could get the Polo GTI with a manual box in Germany and Czech republic for a short while, initially and post WLTP compliance period, you either love DSG or you learn to live with it - i'm definitely in the latter group.
There are very few areas the Polo has obvious cost savings vs the 7.5 Golf, and pretty much all of those savings will be reflected in the MK8 Golf - harder door card plastics on the tops and lack of cloth trim on the rear door cards, bonnet stay rather than gas strut. It has better infotainment than the 7.5, which will almost certainly feature in the MK8.
Hopefully VW won't get greedy and jack the price up without giving something in return (there's not much more equipment you would want as standard, without potentially treading all over the toes of the MK8 Golf when it arrives.
As it stands, the Polo GTI+ is an absolute bargain next to the current lowest denominator MK7.5 Golf GTI, one of the main reasons it is so much cheaper is it is built in South Africa where wages are far lower than those of their Wolfsburg comrades. Will VW ever hive out the Golf production to somewhere cheap like SA or Turkey? Not sure how protectionist the Germans are for domestic jobs, or whether it is all about Euros saved. The French wouldn't stand for it if Peugeot or Renault sent all the jobs elsewhere for the sake of profit.
We looked at an Ibiza for the wife, and I was shocked at how cheap some aspects were - the rear doors still had wind up windows!
Seat seemed to be completely crippled by WLTP requirements at the time we were looking (mid-2018, just after we'd ordered my GTI+), and you couldn't order anything. I couldn't see anything else comparable to the GTI+ for performance, economy, standard equipment and good residuals, so we ordered a second. The wife loves hers, but mine does feel and sound far superior to drive, without the GPF bottleneck.
