ruinin
Established member
It seems that to review a car without comparing it with another one makes no sense. Only when I drove a brand new VW Polo yesterday, I found out what Panda is like, and for that matter, what Polo is like. Although in the same category and similarly priced, they are sooo different!
A brief review, ok?
It's a Polo 1.4, with about as much power as Panda 1.2. THe first impression is that it's a bigger car, more comfy to sit in and drive, but soon you find how lazy it is! If you don't rev it at least 4000 rpm, it almost refuses to move. And when you do rev it, how loud it is compared to Panda! Panda is quick enough at 2500 and not very loud, this Polo's engine sounds like a huge sports car engine rather than a city car. I don't know why that Polo engine sounds like a race car video game. Panda sounds like a real engine, even if you can hear that is is not a 1970s engine.
Another problem with Polo is that you have no idea how fast you are driving. In panda, when you are slow, you know it, when you accelerate you know it, you know when you break speed limits in Panda, but in Polo no matter how fast you drive, be it 10 mph or 100 mph, it feels the same. Not much fun at all. Oh, the gear shift lever is so far away from the steering wheel, unlike Panda's,. that it takes you about 5 minutes before you find it in the cabin. The steering wheel is strangely thin and awfully light. No resistance at all, another element that makes Polo feel like a video game rather than a real car.
Another strange thing about Polo is that in general, the suspension seems quiet and comfortable - until you hit a tiny little bump or a hole then it feels as if the car had no suspension at all. Arrgh. In Panda you kind of jump around all the time so when you hit something it makes no difference.
The only thing that seems kind of fun in that Polo is that when you drive it really hard. When you keep the revs at least at 4000, the car is as quick as Panda and loud like hell. It also feels more sure footed when you make quick turns through bends, it seems to grip with confidence, where Panda is kind of "catch me if you can".
As someone who loves to drive, I would not replace my Panda with that Polo. But it would be fun to have it for occasional spin and drive it really fast. I know it can't go fast, but the engine sounds like it is a ferrari and as you have no idea how fast you are driving in Polo anyway, you can imagine anything.
To sum up, Polo is two cars. One is for elderly ladies who drive slowly and like to drive it only to see their grandchildren who live around the corner. The other car is a kind of virtual race car for crazy people with a lot of imagination whose Xbox stopped working.
Panda? A real driver's car.
A brief review, ok?
It's a Polo 1.4, with about as much power as Panda 1.2. THe first impression is that it's a bigger car, more comfy to sit in and drive, but soon you find how lazy it is! If you don't rev it at least 4000 rpm, it almost refuses to move. And when you do rev it, how loud it is compared to Panda! Panda is quick enough at 2500 and not very loud, this Polo's engine sounds like a huge sports car engine rather than a city car. I don't know why that Polo engine sounds like a race car video game. Panda sounds like a real engine, even if you can hear that is is not a 1970s engine.
Another problem with Polo is that you have no idea how fast you are driving. In panda, when you are slow, you know it, when you accelerate you know it, you know when you break speed limits in Panda, but in Polo no matter how fast you drive, be it 10 mph or 100 mph, it feels the same. Not much fun at all. Oh, the gear shift lever is so far away from the steering wheel, unlike Panda's,. that it takes you about 5 minutes before you find it in the cabin. The steering wheel is strangely thin and awfully light. No resistance at all, another element that makes Polo feel like a video game rather than a real car.
Another strange thing about Polo is that in general, the suspension seems quiet and comfortable - until you hit a tiny little bump or a hole then it feels as if the car had no suspension at all. Arrgh. In Panda you kind of jump around all the time so when you hit something it makes no difference.
The only thing that seems kind of fun in that Polo is that when you drive it really hard. When you keep the revs at least at 4000, the car is as quick as Panda and loud like hell. It also feels more sure footed when you make quick turns through bends, it seems to grip with confidence, where Panda is kind of "catch me if you can".
As someone who loves to drive, I would not replace my Panda with that Polo. But it would be fun to have it for occasional spin and drive it really fast. I know it can't go fast, but the engine sounds like it is a ferrari and as you have no idea how fast you are driving in Polo anyway, you can imagine anything.
To sum up, Polo is two cars. One is for elderly ladies who drive slowly and like to drive it only to see their grandchildren who live around the corner. The other car is a kind of virtual race car for crazy people with a lot of imagination whose Xbox stopped working.
Panda? A real driver's car.
