Freshly Minted

We Say: a Sweet Proposition That’s Free of Holes and Doesn’t Cost a Packet... Sorry

- Paul Horrell

When I were a lad, lazy headline writers would label any new Polo version as “Freshly minted”. Or “Sweet”. A proposition “Free of holes” but that maybe “Cost a packet”. If those lame puns were ever OK, they certainly aren’t now, because the word association goes in the opposite direction: if you say Polo to someone, they will automatically think of a hatchback automobile, not a small white toroidal item of confectionery. Nor even mallet-wielding posh people charging about on horses. These days it’s mainstream, the evergreen best-selling passenger car in SA.

It is very fresh, having an all-new platform, chassis and set of electronics. It’s one of the roomiest and most comfortable superminis this side of a Honda Jazz, thanks to major increases in length and wheelbase. That’s without putting on any weight, which is good work. It’s available as a five-door only. Not even the GTI will be three-door. Yes, there will be a GTI soon, with a full-fat 144kW.

Visual trickery further emphasises the growth: the shallow grille’s outline runs around the headlights to add optical width. All the styling is busier, interrupted by several sharp creases including a complicated pressing that begins in the space behind the front wheel and runs aft through the door handles to the tail. The new Tiguan has the same sort of hectic crease-work. VW’s former measured simplicity seems now to be confined only to the Golf.