The Volkswagen Polo Vivo has won many South African hearts since its market introduction over a decade ago.
It continues to sell in impressive units. For the first quarter of the year, the Wolfsburg-based marque registered a total sales of 6 643 and that clearly shows how much people love the Polo Vivo.
I recently spent some time at the helm of the Polo Vivo that carries the Mswenko insignia and retails for R246 900.
Based on the 1.4 Comfortline derivative, the updates are merely cosmetic, but it’s enough to imbue the Vivo Mswenko with some style. Thanks largely to Mswenko decals, privacy glass, a chrome exhaust tip plus a black painted roof. It also runs on a set of 16-inch Portago alloy wheels in Anthracite.
While the exterior might look somehow blunt, the interior is where things start to get a little bit exciting, with a host of standard features sprinkled around.
It features Ocean Blue seats, an Anthracite headliner, silver dashboard inserts, App-Connect, USB port, six speakers, and a leather package that sees the steering wheel, gearshift lever, and gear knob get the leather treatment.
My press unit came wearing the Reflex Silver that matched perfectly fine with the Ocean Blue seats.
The interior quality is what you’d get from a Polo Vivo. There are soft touches here and there, which is not a surprise in a B-segment vehicle. The infotainment system is easy to use yet it would get sluggish at times when connecting my iPhone.
The lack of electrically adjustable side mirrors as well as electric rear windows came as a disappointment. Why can’t a special edition Polo Vivo with style get all the thrills, hey VW?
A naturally aspirated 1.4-litre petrol engine powers the Volkswagen Polo Vivo Mswenko. The unit makes 63 kW and 113 Nm of torque channeled to the front axle via a five-speed manual transmission.
Road manners of the Polo Vivo are at an acceptable level, it’s comfortable, nippy and makes a viable everyday car. Although the engine feels underpowered at some stages, it got me navigating through the Johannesburg traffic with so much ease and there was nothing wrong at all.
In the fuel economy stakes, the Polo Vivo Mswenko shines and quite bright at that. I covered over 200km and the car was still on its full tank mark. A week with the car, I averaged slightly below 5.8l/100km without even trying to drive it efficiently, which is quite exemplary.
In conclusion, the Polo Vivo Mswenko is one of those cars you should have parked behind your garage door. You know it will always be available anytime you need it. After all, it’s a vehicle built by a reputable company with a charming history of reliability.
Yet I feel like Volkswagen missed an opportunity to make this a model worth bragging about because the show-off in me suffered, as other road users did not notice what a special vehicle am driving.
The Polo Vivo Mswenko comes standard with a 3 year/120 000km warranty and a 6-year anti-corrosion warranty.
A Volkswagen Maintenance Plan as well as a Volkswagen Service Plan are available as options. The service interval is 15 000km.
