VW Polo: ‘Virtually every component is new’

Even after 40 years and 14m cars manufactured, the latest model of this great little car still manages to surprise and impress

VW Polo
Price 14,235
0-62mph 10.8 seconds
Top speed 116mph
MPG 62.8
CO2 103g/km

After a sorry litany of rusting, incompetent and comically unreliable runabouts, our first proper car was a maroon-coloured VW Polo with hardwearing "salt and pepper" fabric seats. We bought it as a hand-me-down from a distant aunt and its first journey was a heroic stint from England to Scotland to show off our first-born to my much-loved grandparents (living proof that a fruitless diet of mince and tatties will give you at least 90 years on this planet). Sitting on our mantelpiece to this day is a picture of my wife changing the baby's nappy on the rear parcel shelf as the rain lashes down" We remember our early cars with the same nettle-sting clarity as when we recall teenage summers of stolen cider and stolen kisses.