Volkswagen Polo Beats 1.6 TDI 2018 first drive

Volkswagen's trendiest special edition tasked with bringing down the average age of the Polo buyer. With the under-30s flooding to other VW Group brands, such as Seat, the tie-in with Dr Dre’s (now Apple-owned) sound system company is an attempt at adding personality to one of the supermini class’s more conservative offerings. 

The treatment proved such a success when it arrived late in the last Polo’s life cycle that it’s gone on sale almost from launch this time around. Essentially, VW takes the standard SE-spec Polo and replaces the rather limp stereo with a Beats seven-speaker, 300W sound system, an eight-channel amplifier and a subwoofer hidden in the boot. Sick, etc…

That’s not the full extent of the down-with-the-kids treatment, though, since the Beats edition also receives a two-tone stripe running along the bonnet and roof, Beats logos throughout, funkier seat trim and rear tinted windows, while 16in diamond-turned alloy wheels complete the look. 

Standard kit includes the Composition Media System with an 8.0in touchscreen, auto headlights, electric windows all round and a leather-wrapped steering wheel. 

While we get what VW is trying to achieve, the Beats treatment seems a little at odds with what is otherwise a commendably grown-up and fuss-free small car. The double bonnet stripe certainly won’t be to all tastes and, for some strange reason, the larger of the two stripes takes the Polo’s existing body colour and is therefore barely visible unless you look from an angle in bright sunlight. 

Yet, personal views on the looks aside, there’s more appeal to be found inside. The Beats system offers plenty of punch and is bass-heavy even before you’ve fiddled with the equaliser, so that's certain to please the car’s target audience. It pairs nicely with VW’s excellent touchscreen infotainment system, offering all the connectivity a twentysomething user is likely to need.

The rest of the cabin still sets the standard for both fit and finish and ergonomics among the Polo’s mainstream competitors. There’s plenty of space for four adults and a useful boot, but other than the more appealing seat trim and lighter plastics there’s little internally to distinguish it from a regular SE model. 

VW is only offering the Polo Beats with the smallest engines in the range — again, reflective of the young, insurance-conscious buyers it's hoping to attract. The lion’s share of sales will come from the 1.0-litre petrol, available in 64bhp, 74bhp and (turbocharged) 94bhp forms. But we’re testing what’s likely to be a niche seller in the UK, the 79bhp 1.6-litre diesel variant. 

It’ll be a rare sight, not least because diesel is hardly flavour of the month, and oil-burning superminis haven’t historically sold in great numbers. It deserves to be, too — there’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but the peppy petrols fit in best with the Polo’s town-biased identity. 

The four-pot 1.6 TDI replaces the ageing three-pot 1.4 version used in the previous Polo and fares considerably better in matters of refinement. There’s much less vibration through the controls, while the traditional diesel grumble is only noticeable when you extend it beyond 3000rpm.