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Volkswagen Polo GTI is bang for bucks champ

Volkswagen Polo GTI

Good news for the Volkswagen Polo GTI after its reputation was boosted with the Motor Magazine ‘Bang For Your Bucks’ title.

In a nice coup for the baby GTI, Motor compared the Pogo’s 2011 results against the scores from the previous five years and found the Polo GTI would have won the gong for six years in a row.

The Polo GTI’s success lies in its $27,900 list price (3 door model) where it is able to make the most of its relatively modest 132kW power against more fancied and more expensive rivals in the Motor comparison.

Volkswagen Polo GTI

Volkswagen Polo GTI

Polo GTI Claims MOTOR ‘Bang For Your Bucks’ Award

8 July 2011

Volkswagen’s mighty Polo GTI has crushed its opponents in MOTOR magazine’s annual ‘Bang For Your Bucks’ Award.

The Polo GTI was hands down the performance bargain of the year – and would have won the last five year as well ­should it have been amongst the previous years’ competitors.

“We pumped its Bang and Buck scores into our formula for the last five years and it won, every time,” the judges at MOTOR wrote.

“When we set up our formula, you were never supposed to be able to buy this much performance for just $27,990”.

The winner of the ‘Bang For Your Bucks’ Award is decided predominantly on the competitor’s ability over several categories such as speed, performance, dynamics and handling. The Polo GTI owns it success thanks to Volkswagen’s clever downsizing of the twincharged 1.4-litre TSI engine (turbo plus supercharging) and the extremely efficient 7-speed dual clutch gearbox (DSG).

“We are pleased the judges at MOTOR magazine appreciated the Polo GTI’s all-round­ potential and obviously its affordable performance,” said Anke Koeckler, Volkswagen Group Australia’s Managing Director.

“With the Golf GTI winning last year’s ‘Bang for Your Bucks Award’, the Polo GTI sure lives up to the legendary badge with its superior handling properties combined with uncompromising engine responsiveness and impressive safety and economy figures”.

24 replies on “Volkswagen Polo GTI is bang for bucks champ”

Yeh Matt, looks like it’s going for a squirt 😉 you know, marking it’s territory.

In this case, you get lots for what you pay.

I want to see how they managed to get the car so out of shape in the first pic. Crazy stuff. Vid footage would be great…

I’ve had mine for about a month and love it. Feels rock solid and is a pleasure to drive. Mine cost closer to $37K after I added comfort and audio packs, xenon’s and sunroof and took the 5 door option. Still represents great value compared to other offerings I could find on the market. A prerequisite for me was an auto transmission so my wife could drive it without any problems. This is the first auto I’ve ever had and I did have concerns, but have very easily adapted to the DSG transmission with its D and S options and always the ability to have a bit of fun using the paddles.

Will be doing a APR stage 1 tune on it towards the end of the year.

Can’t recommend this highly enough but share the concerns expressed re lead-time. Current wait from account I’ve heard is around 12 months which is a ridiculous amount of time to wait. Mind you it seems they’re selling as many as they can make, so I guess VW is happy.

@ Stephen, I’ve had mine for a month too and had to pay a premium (almost $36k) on a cancelled order – 3 door, xenon, comfort and audio pack. But at least I didn’t have to wait. I’ve done APR on mine and I can’t recommend it enough. I also have the H&R monotube coilovers which is going in tomorrow. What a great little city car it is!

@Cat, I have cars that are more than 10 times what the Polo GTI cost, and I can tell you that it far far far outshines it’s price. Put a Porsche badge on it (if Porsche was to start doing small hatch) and sell it for $75k and you will have people lining up for it as it is just that good!

Aww c’mon floody. I know I’ve had 5 years of fun out my 06 pgti… Admittedly it was much more fun after a reflash 🙂

@ Steve The crazy photo is at turn 3 at Wakefield which has a massive curb that you would never drive over unless you almost wanted to roll the car, or set up a good photo opportunity! Seems they set it up for just that kind of photo. That photo is definitely not from the fastest lap

I’m sure the photo, in this case, is pretty much genuine, but the Art Editor at Motor has been known to make heavy use of PhotoShop from time to time 🙁

It’s just the angle of the shot……you ride that bump which lifts the left side of the car as you slightly turn in to get a better line for the next right at the top of the hill…….makes more sense now that we know which corner it is.

So new price aside………does the PGTI stack up to the GGTI?……..just curious as a used GTI can be picked up for around $35K used.

my bad…….just looked at the shot again……..hahhaha definately over done riding the ripples strip……….hahhaha.

Great car had mine since January, paid $32,000 5 door metalic paint and RCD510, done 15000kms and still love it!

MM is wondering what would beat it next year? How about the Skoda Fabia VRS . Same mechanicals in a cheaper package (or maybe , like the Octavia, similar price to the VW equivalent with more fruit salad). Roll on 2012.

@SK, 15,000km in 6 months! Wow that is a lot of driving!

@Will, for $35k I would buy a base Pogo (assuming we live in a fantasy world where you can just walk into a VW dealership and buy one without waiting), bring it to APR for a tune and get a set of H&R monotube coilovers, like I did on my car. It will walk all over the Golf.

@John M, I looked at the Fabia at the motorshow recently. Unless they price it more than say 10% below the Pogo, I can’t see why anyone would buy it as it is THAT ugly! But yeah, from BBYB perspective, it may just win if it is cheaper than the VW. Also, Ford is close to releasing the new Fiesta ST (XR4) and surely the PoGo is the benchmark right there.

Will – there was a Motor magazine tuner shootout a couple of months ago including polo GTI, golf GTI, Mazda MPS, Focus RS and a few others. Polo was very quick with a small amount of work. Well worth a read if you’re considering one.

shet!!! r you guys serious!!! and holly crap you guys actually reply on this site too? ROFL……..

that scharger and turbo idea seems weird to me…………might give it a go.

How much are the APR reflashes? 1.5K?

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