Thread: New Polo GTI - some thoughts for prospective purchasers

Hi All - we took delivery of a new Polo GTI through Discountnewcars.com - really no accessories except it had the paint and interior protection package and tinted windows (it was a cancelled pre-order). Colour is black and it is a 5 door. Price was $32890 drive away.

Still only done 800 km but the initial thoughts are that it is a really great car - my wife likens driving it to playing a game, she's japanese and calls it an 'overaction car' which is how she describes the fantastic take off requiring quite a bit of attention and steering wheel input (especially when accelerating and turning) - this is all very controllable and fun but quite a different exerience than doing the same thing in an AUIII Falcon (my car.... )

It has a nice sound (engine note) and is easy to park - it does still creep with no accelerator which makes parking easy - I have to say that if you do need to appply some accelerator (say when parking on a hill) then you should have one foot on the brake because it does take off...

This also affects driving in stop-go traffic - when it's just fast enough to be faster than the 'creep' and you need to accellerate you do need to be careful and of course if it's in full auto it will quickly change up to 3rd or 4th -(sure, you can make it stay in 1st or 2nd or use sport mode/padddles etc) - it's a lot more work than in the Falcon, put it that way..

One other thing that you will notice is that it actually does have engine braking and going downhill the auto will let it stay in a lower gear for a bit - nice!

The Polo GTI is a fast car but even a fairly inexperienced driver like my wife enjoys driving it - not using much of it's potential of course but it does make it fun for me when I get to drive it! Even then I don't think many people will get to drive it to it's full potential except on a track!

Seats etc are comfortable - having to lift the centre armrest to do the seatbelts is a bit weird but getting used to that now.

Overall very happy with the purchase and don't have any 'I wish we'd bought..." thoughts.

Hope this helps.

ps Thinking about putting in an aftermarket GPS unit - have read how 'easy' it is to pull off the facia surround but would love to see a photo of smeone actually doing it... I'd hate to break it or mark the dash

Hi LionRed,

I'm also married to a Japanese and she has similar comments but she absolutely babies it.
I can't let her drive it when I'm in the car, it sends me crazy!!

Re: Aftermarket unit

To be honest, when you can get the genuine unit and install it yourself for about 1k, is it worth it?
Check out my thread for how easy it is