Volkswagen Polo GT V Hyundai i20

Now with a turbo-petrol engine and a dual-clutch transmission, can the i20 thrill the enthusiast much like the Polo GT does?

- Aatish Mishra

Test location: Pune

DESPITE ITS AGE, THE Volkswagen Polo GT tops our list for enthusiast cars on a budget and for good reason. For the longest time, it championed the turbo-petrol-DCT drivetrain combination with the TSI engine and DSG gearbox. Come 2020 though, Volkswagen saw sense in replacing the DSG with a torque convertor (and a mighty fine one at that) which incidentally coincides with the rise of Hyundai’s turbo-petrol-DCT drivetrain.

Can the Hyundai i20, a car that has traditionally found favour amongst an audience looking for comfort and value, wriggle its way in to the hearts and garages of enthusiasts?

Let me get the obvious bit out of the way right at the start. The Hyundai i20 comes packing so much more than the Polo GT does in terms of creature comforts. It is, after all, a properly new car while the decade-old Polo keeps soldiering on. Walk up to the i20 with the key in your pocket and the wing mirrors unfold unprompted, a sign of things to come. On the inside, the infotainment screen is larger with much better resolution, and it's far easier to poke at it when you’re driving. There’s a digital cluster, an air purifier, a sunroof. The Polo doesn’t even come close. The backseat is so much more spacious — the i20 can seat four people comfortably over a whole day while the Polo will have two passengers with sore legs. On the face of it, you don’t just feel like you’re looking at cars from different segments but you also feel like you’re looking at cars from different generations. Which, despite them being contemporaries, is actually the case here.