Volkswagen Polo 2006 Review

These days, you almost have to take your cheque with you, the cost of fuel has risen so much.

With prices set to go even higher, motorists are starting to get cheesed off and they are beginning to look at the alternatives - vehicles that use less fuel but still deliver acceptable performance.

Hybrid petrol-electric cars have been hog- ging the spotlight and we have been able to put both Toyota's Prius and Honda's Civic Hybrid to the test over the past few months.

The hybrid technology is certainly impress- ive, along with the excellent economy figures that these cars produce.

But then so too are the gains that have been made in diesel technology over the last couple of years, especially by companies such as Volkswagen.

The modern diesel is nothing like the smokey, smelly old oil burners of the past that people remember.

For the most part, it's amazingly quiet, supremely powerful and extraordinarily fuel efficient.

In fact, in most cases, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between petrol and diesel- engined cars.

But the proof is in the pudding and cars like Volkswagen's recently released Polo TDI are set to change the way Aussies think about diesel.

At $22,990, the Polo has the distinction of being the cheapest diesel-powered passenger car currently available.

With claimed fuel consumption of just 5.0 litres per 100km, it's the perfect commuter, as safe as it is fuel efficient with an impressive four-star star safety rating.

Volkswagen has lent us one of the little oil burners for a closer look over the next few weeks.

The equipment list includes two airbags, three point seatbelts for all occupants and four- wheel ABS disc brakes with electronic brake- pressure distribution (EBD).

Polo TDI is powered by a 1.9-litre turbo diesel that delivers 74kW of power at 4000rpm and 240Nm of torque from a low 1800rpm.

The engine is mated to a five-speed manual transmission.

That's the same power output as the top- rated 1.4-litre petrol model, but it is the second figure in which we are more interested.

At 240Nm the TDI produces almost twice as much torque as the petrol model (126Nm) and it is this that makes driving the car a breeze, with very strong performance from low in the rev range.

The one blot in the TDI's copy book is that at this stage, there's no auto available and this is likely to cost the company valuable sales.

Polo TDI is rated at a claimed 5.0 litres per 100km, compared to Prius at 4.4L/100km and Civic at 5.2L./100km.

We've only had to fill her up once so far.

The 45-litre tank too just under 40 litres of diesel at $1.32 a litre after clocking up 588km.

That's a rate of about 6.7 litres per 100km, or about the same as the Civic Hybrid gets in real life.

Many people point to the cost of diesel, but this is more than offset by the extra mileage you get - at least 30 per cent as a rule of thumb.

We're expecting to get much better economy from the Polo as the engine begins to loosen up.

With just 4000km on the clock, it's hardly run in yet.

Standard equipment includes climate air, cruise control, power windows and mirrors, height and reach adjustable steering wheel, remote central locking, tinted glass and four- speaker CD sound system.