After months of deliberating, cogitating, considering, reviewing the options, reading the reports, scouring manufacturers websites, joining various forums, etc., etc., etc., today I ordered the replacement for my 4 year old Octavia vRS CR Combi . . . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

and it is . . . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a VW Polo Blue GT, so there!!

 

As we already have a large car (A6 Allroad) and with the daughter (hopefully) off to uni in September and the son living away from home, I came to the conclusion we simply didn't need another large or medium size car and this thought process coincided with VW running a marketing campaign for the face-lifted Polo (you know the one with the picture of a nice blue Polo, the colour of which doesn't look anything like it does in the flesh).

 

Once I'd decided that a small car was perfectly adequate (size wise), I had a quick scour around and realising that I'm too old for a Fiesta ST (unlike BossFox), Mini's simply aren't cool (daughters words) and the new Mazda 2 is not out 'til next year, the Polo came out on top.

 

The 1.4TSi engine has cylinder deactivation (runs on 2 cylinders on part throttle) and delivers 55mpg with only £20 / year car tax, yet has 150 hp, does 60mph in 7.8 seconds and top speed of 137 mph. With a fair sprinkling of options it's come out at £17.7K from DtD, which to me seemed much more sensible than spending £27K on a Golf GTD (which is what I'd decided on before having a Polo epiphany!).

 

Waiting for the dealer to confirm delivery, but it's looking like October.

 

Although that will mean we are Skoda-less for the first time in 7 years, hopefully you won't mind if I hang around Briskoda, being that it's by far and away the best car forum around with (generally) well balanced members happy to offer reasoned advice and opinions 

 

Wow, that's a reasonable spec. It amazes me how much power manufacturers are getting from such small engines these days, and still delivering really good fuel consumption! (christ, I sound boring)

Just had a google and a smart looking car. Must admit the blue in the TV ad looks ace, so now i'm disappointed it's not what it is!

 

Good choice with the car, be interesting to see whether the real life figures are anywhere near what VW are quoting, in terms of fuel efficiency

Good choice with the car, be interesting to see whether the real life figures are anywhere near what VW are quoting, in terms of fuel efficiency

 

That's one of the things about the progress in vehicle design that's annoying. Real world fuel consumption figures seem to get further and further away from those published.

 

The official combined cycle consumption (they haven't released the urban and extra urban figures yet) for the manual is 58.9 mpg (60.1 for the dsg), so hopefully we'll get somewhere around 50 mpg in normal use. Which given that it runs on petrol (6% cheaper than diesel) and against the 45mpg we generally get out of the vRS, should mean it's cheaper to run, yet has more performance than the car it's replacing (not as much space though!).