Which Volkswagen Polo is better Petrol or Diesel?

By Stuart Johnston

 

The Volkswagen Polo, along with its Polo Vivo sibling, has topped the sales charts since 2010. When it was launched some eight years ago the Polo hatch was available with a choice of diesel or petrol engines. That is no longer the case.

The Volkswagen Polo, and its cheaper sibling, the Polo Vivo, remains South Africa’s most popular car.

When the sales figures for 2018 were totted up, the Polo hatch sold a total of 25 502 units. That made the Polo far and away the market leader in its segment and the second most popular selling car in the country. The only car that pipped it was the cheaper Polo Vivo, selling 25 641 units.

Those sales figures are astounding. For the Polo that represents a monthly sales average of 2 125 cars, and for the Vivo, slightly more. The Vivo, as most people know, is based on the previous-generation Polo.

Diesel engines were initially a big part of the mix

When the previous-generation Polo was launched in 2010, the car was available with a 1,4-litre petrol engine, a 1,6-litre petrol engine, a 1,6-litre turbo diesel, and a three-cylinder 1,2-litre turbo diesel. The GTi model, launched a bit later as the performance model, came only with a 1,4-litre petrol engine that used both a supercharger and a turbocharger.

Diesels phased out in modern Polo hatch line-up.

In the entire new-generation model line-up there are no diesel engines available. All the Polo hatch models are petrol-fuelled, and the majority of the range uses the excellent turbocharged 1,0-litre three-cylinder TSI engine. This is available in 70 kW form in the basic models, while in the Highline model the motor is tuned to produce 85 kW.

The Polo GTi, however, uses a more conventional four-cylinder 2,0-litre turbo engine, which produces 147 kW. Read a review on the latest Polo GTI here .

The current Polo Vivo range, too, is all petrol

The Polo Vivo, which is essentially the previous-generation Polo, produced between 2010 and 2017, now also only uses petrol engines. You can get normally-aspirated 1,4-litre and 1,6-litre engines in the Trendline, Comfortline and Highline models, while the Vivo GTi uses the 81 kW three-cylinder TSI engine.

But there is one exception to the no-diesel rule!

However, if you simply must have a diesel engine in a brand-new Polo, there is a solution. The Polo Sedan, which is now a marginal range and produced mainly as a government fleet model, still features an 81 kW, 1,5-litre turbo-diesel in the model line-up. The Polo Sedan is a bit of an anomaly in the new Volkswagen Polo and Polo Vivo line-up, as it is based on the previous-generation Polo (like the Vivo hatch), but is badged as a Polo Sedan. For excellent background information on the Volkswagen Polo in South Africa, click here.

So which engine is better?

It appears as if the market has decided strongly in favour of the petrol engine, regarding new-generation Polos, Polo Vivos and even the Polo Sedan (where there is just the one diesel model). Whether buying new or used, our advice is to stick to a petrol-engined small Volkswagen. We have had lots of feedback that the diesel models in the Polo range are troublesome, with regards turbochargers and turbo-related exhaust and engine management issues. It seems as if a particular problem regarding some of these engines is that they need to be driven fairly regularly at higher revs, and if the diesel Polos (previous-generation) are used daily for stop-start commutes they tend to give problems.

For a vast selection of new and used model Polos and Polo Vivos for sale click here.

So, used or new, stick to petrol-engined Polos.