Facelifting automobiles became so complex because the very car design did the same. During the 1970s and the 1980s, most vehicles were sculpted like folding paper. The connections between front, rear, sides and roof used to be well-defined edges, which created the interesting possibility of “isolating” each section from the others: if you look an Opel Ascona C from a side, for instance, you’ll see almost nothing of the front or the rear. In other words, if a given section’s “borders” were respected, it was possible to redesign it pretty much in any way and it wouldn’t be needed to work on the others – the result looking good or not is another subject, as Ascona proves with its project siblings Cadillac Cimarron and Holden Camira, among others.
In nowadays, in turn, the situation is entirely different. Car design became much more “integrated”, working with surfaces that flow into the others and elements that use the three dimensions. Not to mention all the attempts of creating visual connections between front and rear. Most facelifts also have to deal with cutting costs as much as possible, which only makes everything even harder. This entire context must be why Volkswagen decided Polo’s biggest visual difference for this year would be slightly-refreshed bumpers, besides of new colors and wheels. The front received bigger air inlets and the rear new creases, but you’ll need to be a VW fan to notice that in the street, even with the car stopped. Where Polo makes up, definitely, is inside.
Interesting fact is that the hatchback looked both up and down for this refreshing. Up when it comes to the items, because the cabin brought some equipments that where only seen in upscale categories. Some examples are LED headlights, automatic city braking, radar-guided cruise control, a new electric assisted steering (claimed to save energy) and even adaptive dampers. Besides, Polo now follows VW’s latest trend: now the infotainment systems will have four interface options for all its vehicles, ranging from a monochrome 5” screen to a full-color 8.5” set capable of displaying the reverse camera’s images. Given that these cars already use the same engine list and the common MQB platform, this is another step towards turning Volkswagen almost into a chain store.
On the other side, Polo decided to look down when it comes to powertrain. The gasoline options start with up!’s 1.0L three-cylinder with 60 cv or 75 cv, TSI 1.2L with 90 cv or 110 cv, TSI ACT 1.4L, which features cylinder deactivation and reaches 150 cv, and the new GTI’s engine, which will offer 192 cv. The latter will arrive months laters, just like the first BlueMotion variation to use a gasoline engine. Going to the diesel lineup reveals three versions of the TDI 1.4L propeller, producing 75, 90 and 105 cv. Volkswagen also mentioned that Polo’s special variations will return gradually, such as BlueGT, CrossPolo and the aforementioned GTI. There isn’t too much pricing information yet, but it was confirmed that Polo’s entry-level trim will cost exactly the same.