In places like the US and Europe, people usually associate the name Volkswagen with cars that are as fun to drive as they are to own. In fact, their line-up pretty much suggests that quality and performance are the top priority. Case in point: the new Volkswagen Beetle with a 1.8-turbo engine or perhaps the Golf 4Motion with the famous VR6 engine. No one would ever think that Volkswagen makes cars that can be barely called acceptable. However, sad to say, the car that re-introduced the Volkswagen nameplate here in the Philippines, the Polo Classic does suffer from that big problem-downright awfulness.
According to the press release given to us by the now defunct DMG Motors Inc., the Volkswagen Polo Classic was actually marketed as the ‘woman’s car for the nineties’. Though the proportions and the general shape of the car do suggest that this is one compact car to drive around and to park, everything else from its handling and ride say something else.
Ok, let’s start from the basics, shall we-the general shape. The shape of the Polo is that of a hatch with a vestigial trunk…hmm…this is somewhat accurate because the trunk is short in length and width but quite deep. This suggests that golf clubs may not fit easily into the Polo Classic, but ‘women stuff’ like groceries and school bags would.
The rather chunky and angular shape of the Polo Classic tries to make this subcompact car look bigger, a great styling concept, which, unfortunately isn’t greatly executed. You see, from the inside, the forward and rear visibility of the Polo Classic is reminiscent of a typical passenger van: it’s almost impossible to see anything from the car’s tiny windows and steep hood and short trunk! This means that maneuvering in tight spaces, Manila traffic and parking will make you want to increase your insurance for accident damage.
The three-spoke alloy wheels do give the Polo Classic a rather sporty appearance, but it’s about a decade behind, as three-spoke mags were the “in-thing” in the 80s. The standard rear spoiler, though may look like a real nice bargain, but in fact it looks funny (has anyone seen a spoiler that’s sloping downward?!) The only strong point of the Polo Classic’s design is their treatment of the windows: the addition of rear quarter windows makes the car look a bit more solid and sporty.
In terms of general ergonomics, the Polo Classic is all about looking and feeling like you’re inside a cube. The dash, the vent designs are all minimalist and cubist in design-quite okay when executed properly, but not when some buttons can be pushed unintentionally, and others, like the power window switches, difficult to find and press.
The seats also feel as cubic as Picasso’s paintings, as they don’t seem to contour to my body that well, and I felt like sliding off the driver’s seat when cornering the car along G Araneta Avenue plus they are freakin’ hard and too illogical to adjust too. The knob for adjusting seat back rake may seem like a cool idea since it allows infinitely small adjustments, but takes quite a while to twist and twist that knob until the seat back is where you want it. It seems that the only thing lacking in this car’s cubic design are square gauges and a square steering wheel (oh…the horror…the horror!)
The interior of the car looks like it was lifted straight out of an early 90s Volkswagen model (well, in fact, the car is a Seat Ibiza…a Spanish brand owned by Volkswagen). It’s made of hard plastic with enough stiffness to beat Mike Tyson’s butt.
Aside from the most noticeable, hard to operate, Blaupunkt stereo system (which sounds awful) there have been no additional touches to make the car live up to the Volkswagen name: the switch gear range from ‘hard to push’ to ‘rubbery’. The wiper and light controls for instance click hard when flicked left and right, too hard in fact to the point that they sound as if you just snapped off a wooden chopstick.
In the same way, the aircon and window switches feel as if they as hard as antique kitchen appliances. However, the handbrake and the gearshift, two of many things that should have more feel, are actually like a video game machine’s.
On the note of the gearshift, the Polo Classic is traditional European with its reverse gear located adjacent to the first gear. Now, unlike the BMW 328Ci that we tested some months ago, the Polo Classic’s is hard to engage and thus can be engaged by accident. This of course, comes to no surprise as an owner reported to us that he had his first accident driving his Polo Classic when he accidentally engaged reverse instead of first in a stoplight incident.
This was the only accident he had in this car, too, because he promptly sold it afterward. The rubbery feel of the shifter is felt even more when cruising in highway conditions. Sometimes, there’ll be times where you thought you engaged third, but actually engaged first and so-forth. The most important part of the interior, the steering wheel is actually a bit more radical that what we have expected-perforated plastic! I mean, give me a break here, I’ve seen perforated leather MOMO steering wheels, but not plastic. The car may be European, but that doesn’t give Volkswagen the excuse to include this rather cheesy innovation.
Driving the Polo Classic isn’t a classic experience in any level either. The first thing I noticed with this car is the high engagement of the clutch pedal compared to the typical Japanese. This means that starting from standstill and shifting is a chore that takes some getting used to especially when you have to deal with Manila traffic.
The next thing I’ve quickly noticed was when we had to do an emergency brake near an intersection: the brakes are practically non-existent! They are so weak, so pathetic that even that a circa 1989 Toyota Corolla could out brake this so-called product of German engineering! The steering is rather sluggish, mundane and weak in response. In fact, I was so surprised that the small looking Polo Classic even had a harder time parking than the almost one-fourth larger Nissan Cefiro.
The ride, despite its European tuning, isn’t fit for a queen…in fact, let me re-phrase that, it isn’t fit for a human being! The Polo Classic felt terrible when going over small potholes, uneven roads and open manholes. I may want to pin the blame on the Quezon City government for providing us with poor road conditions for this, but Volkswagen should have done something to improve the ride a bit.
Ironically, the stiffness in ride did not translate to better handling. In fact, the Polo Classic had considerable body roll especially when doing quick left-right manoeuvres to avoid any potholes. Of course, the body roll would also be felt when doing quick changing manoeuvres to avoid cars you didn’t see courtesy of the Polo’s small and highly magnified rear view mirrors. All in all, the driving experience of the Polo Classic does not even bring out a degree of confidence with it. In driving this car, caution and full alertness must be present at all times.
The weak selling Volkswagen Polo Classic is now pegged at 495,000 smackers, a relatively inexpensive 1.6-liter car or so you think. For one, it should be priced even lower because this car is disappointing overall. Case in point: the deep-throat sounding engine drives and feels as if it’s a museum piece already. Looking into the Polo’s manual makes it even worse: 100-bhp from a 1.6-liter SOHC 8V inline-4. No Japanese car manufacturer makes an engine quite like this nowadays! Why should the Germans (or should I say the Spanish)? If you question the Polo Classic’s safety feature, I can summarize it in three words: front seatbelts only. The Polo Classic lacks modern safety equipment such as rear safety belts, airbags and ABS. However, the Polo has such less useful devices like headlight adjusters and rear defogger.
Ok…now comes the biggest question that I have to answer: how does the Polo Classic slot in with the rest of the 1.6-liter cars? Well, I have to say that the Polo Classic failed miserably in this category. In fact, I should think that the Polo Classic should be a considered alternative to such cars as the Honda City Type Z LXi or perhaps the Toyota Corolla XL. All in all, the Polo Classic is a car below its class (in fact, in sheer interior room alone, the Polo Classic can only handle four grown-ups in a rather sardine can environment).
Volkswagen should be ashamed of themselves for making this the first car to be released on the Philippine market. They should consider fighting out the Japanese big guns with their great cars such as the Golf, Jetta or even Lupo. But if they will stick with the Polo Classic, the Volkswagen brand name would only be remembered for the company that brought us the 1960s Beetle and who re-surfaced in the 90s with a car whose name people easily forgot.
By Ulysses Ang | Photos By Jason Ang & Ulysses Ang
Originally Published in the November 1999 Issue
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