2008 Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion
By Bob Hume, 03rd August 2008
The Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion is just like all of its little Polo friends; small and manoeuvrable, cheap to insure and reliable, however the quality which gives the BlueMotion variant the edge, is its 'green' credentials. Looks like it's time for me to go off on one again.... (sigh)
I'm as environmentally conscious as the next man (as long as the next man doesn't own a petrochemicals company) but I'm also as sick to the back teeth of all the whingeing about how we should all be more responsible. The news companies seem to recycle Green issues to fill a bit of space every couple of months and you have to admit that the threat of a sudden demise of all life on the planet is a pretty lucrative cash cow for them.
Not that I'm ignoring the issue, trying to belittle it in any way or even trying to deny that a problem exists; I'm simply whingeing back. It would be perfectly simple for each nation to limit the amount of resources that it uses and nasty by-products that it emits and that's by simply not doing it. This sounds a bit glib but the more cynical among us believe that this could be done virtually overnight if it wasn't so profitable to pollute.
The Environmental Crisis seems to be the most relaxed 'crisis' in history. If it's a crisis, why the Hell are we all still allowed to make it worse? We could have done something about it years ago; I was 17 when the hole in the Ozone layer became news and that was 1987 - at that time we all panicked for a month then forgot about it until the media machine ressurected the story to sell more news.
It has repeated this cycle ad nauseum for over twenty years and now we're all sick of it. The 'Carbon Footprint' buzzword game is unhelpfull too - it only serves to make the situation even more ridiculous.There are several very simple things we could do to reduce the damage; recycle waste wherever possible, reduce the number of times you fly, use renewable energy and drive a smaller car.
Yes a smaller car - not a hopelessly complicated, disgracefully expensive luxury car with a 'hybrid' badge on it. It seems to have escaped the attention of virtually everyone that it takes more energy to develop and build the car and insert the species-decimating poison into the batteries than the unit will ever actually save in a reasonable lifetime.
So while we're on the subject of cars - lets talk about one...
The Polo BlueMotion went on sale some time ago, after being previewed at the Eden Project in Cornwall in 2007. This event featured a selection of environmentally friendly vehicles among which was the new 'green' member of the Polo stable. The Bluemotion features revised aerodynamics, an advanced three cylinder TDi diesel engine, paired with a highly efficient gearbox, weight reduction measures and harder compound tyres to reduce road friction. The net result is a highly fuel efficient and environmentally friendly small car capable of an incredible combined figure of 72 MPG.
The power and speed of this car has not been badly affected by its green-ness; it can still achieve a top speed of 109 MPH and produces 80 BHP, despite having a theoretical range of 700 miles on one tank of fuel.
This variant of the Polo is not only cheap to run and kind to the planet but also pretty good value. The standard equipment shoe-horned into this car is impressive too; air conditioning, electric mirrors, centrally controlled electric windows all round, auto-dimming rear view mirror and quite a bit besides. The cabin is well trimmed and all the materials used are of the high quality synonymous with Volkswagen standards. Build quality is reassuringly good and the entire car feels solid and well crafted.
On the road, the little Volkswagen is surprisingly nippy and feels completely stable, especially on 'B' roads and cruises along nicely at 60 MPH. I used the car for a few days for several types of journey; commuting, shopping and running errands and was amazed at the versatility and practicality - easily enough room for four passengers, a driver and a boot-full of shopping. Driving through Belfast city centre on a number of occasions was relatively stress free and I'm convinced that them anoeuvrability of the Polo got me through the rush hour traffic in less time than a bigger car could have. It's a piece of cake to park too, the small size and power steering made it seem like you could park it anywhere. I'm a big boke and I didn't too feel silly driving it either.
So the Polo BlueMotion is not just easy on whatever's left of our environment and our consciences, it's also easy to buy, drive, park and fuel. All of my driving over the few days that I had the car (about 150 miles in total) was done on less than a third of a tank, helping to considerably reduce my 'carbon footprint'. Or whatever....
If I was to make some sort of sweeping statement about this being "the only type of car most of us will ever need", I would probably get laughed at and called ridiculous but I'd be right and you know it; you see the emphasis is on the word "need". The Polo BlueMotion carries the same amount of people in possibly slightly less comfort than my environmentally-ignorant luxury German saloon. It isn't very often that my car actually contains 5 people and it's the same thing with virtually every other car on the road. Driver and passengers are just as safe and just as likely to get where they're going at the same time as they would if they were in any other car.
Volkswagen has produced a car that's at least in the same postcode as 'green' and the'r'e not insulting me by asking me to spend an insane amount of money on a complicated, poison-containing, semi-electric 2 ton SUV. It's just a smaller, more efficient car - how simple can it be?
