• No diesel or hybrid on offer
• Polo should offer low insurance and high residuals
• Servicing for 1.0-litre models should also be cheap

What are the running costs?

During our testing, the 95hp 1.0-litre manual averaged more than 50mpg, which is spot on for its claimed MPG. We suspect that with a little more town driving than what we did, the mpg would fall.

The 95hp version is slower, therefore needs to be worked harder. This reduces its MPG and makes it a bit more of a pain to drive.

View detailed MPG and CO2 figures on the Volkswagen Polo specs pages

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The most powerful 1.0-litre is more economical to run because you don’t need to work it as hard as the lower powered models. These cars also come with a six-speed manual instead of a five. This increases MPG at motorway speeds

The GTI has a WLTP-backed 41.5mpg rating. This is pretty good for something with 207hp, but we’re yet to test this on a long run.

VW promises excellent insurance rates while, as with all Volkswagens, the Polo should hold its value better than average thanks to strong residual values, meaning it should be worth more than rivals when you come to sell it.

Servicing and warranty

The Polo comes with a standard three-year warranty from Volkswagen in case anything goes wrong with the car.

Although it can depend on which model, generally Polos will need a first service at 9,300 miles or 12 months old, whichever comes first. The second service is at 18,600 miles, or 24 months old, while the third is 27,900 miles or 36 months old.

VW has servicing packages that can be bundled into your monthly finance payment.

Reliability

• Not typically a troublesome model
• Lots of shared parts with other VW models
• Time will tell whether this is good or bad

Volkswagen is far from blemish-free in this area, but the Polo isn’t typically known for being a troublesome model. As of 2022, there have been three recalls for the Polo. One is for the handbrake lever that can travel more than necessary, one is to do with the towing eye, while the other is to do with a rear seatbelt issue – a recall that’s affected cars across the VW Group.

You can look at the VW Polo recalls yourself on the government website.

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