Ticking all the right boxes

POLO SEDAN: EVEN IMPRESSES A NUMBERS NERD

No sweat, even with a small 45-litre fuel tank.

Iam somewhat of a numbers nerd when it comes to road trips – and, counter-intuitively, I find keeping track of elapsed time, distance, average speed and fuel consumption, not to mention counting down to the destination on the GPS, is relaxing and part of the allure of travelling long distances.

One thing I have always been acutely aware of is places to stop and refuel (and/or take a bathroom break).

As a newly minted boyfriend way back when, I remember being terrified, glancing over the shoulder of the man driving the big Nissan Laurel 2.8 through the endless vastness of the Karoo, worrying the car would run out of fuel.

The low fuel warning light had come on, unnoticed by him and un-remarked upon by me.

I suppose I had a sort of gut feeling that he’d become my father-in-law one day and that maybe I should just keep my peace. But that 80km was the longest of my life.

So, it was with some trepidation I started planning our recent trip to the coast in our long-term VW Polo Sedan.

This wasn’t because I know VWs to be economical, it was because I checked out the stats and found it had a fuel tank of only 45 litres. Most of the other cars I’ve taken on the trip to Knysna, via Colesberg had tanks big enough to manage the 600-plus kilometres to that Karro junction town without too much stress.

Frankly, I didn’t think the Polo would make it: averaging somewhere between six and seven litres per 100km, the Polo may well have run dry before Colesberg, I reckoned.

So, I chickened out and filled up in Bloemfontein, about 400km after leaving home.

In the end, I was more than pleasantly surprised.

As I pulled into the Engen OneStop on the N1 South, the trip meter was reading 5.3l/100km, having gone as low as 5.2 earlier.

We were able to push on to Graff Reinet – our stop on the way to Knysna – with similar parsimonious fuel consumption.

There were probably multiple reasons for the excellent fuel economy.

Firstly, I don’t drive like a maniac and will cruise happily at the indicated national speed limit of 120km/h. Also, I do not use the cruise control because that just opens the throttle on hills.

Also, the Polo’s simple 1.6-litre petrol engine, although it has 81kW of power, is optimised for economy and the combination of engine and five-speed manual gearbox combine well. There is enough power for overtaking and you seldom have to shift down to fourth, which also aids economy.

Finally, the sedan shape is more aerodynamically slippery than a hatchback or SUV.

For a total distance of 3 430km, the Polo Sedan consumed 209 litres of 95 unleaded petrol, which liberated R4 812 from my debit card. That’s R1.40 a kilometre, at an average of 6.1l/100km.

Not bad, considering the car carried two people, luggage, food and all the bits and pieces necessary for a December break, never mind the long haul back from the coast to the Highveld.

Had I taken our other longterm test car, a Ford Everest, I would have probably averaged around 9.7l/100km, which is not bad for a big 4x4.

However, the difference in fuel costs would have been an astounding R2 740. Make you think, doesn’t it?

While the Polo Sedan passed the road trip economy test with flying colours (and families with young kids know only too well that every rand needs to be stretched to its limit), it also proved to be a long-distance tourer in the mould of my old 1989 Jetta CSX and later diesel Jettas I took on similar jaunts to Knysna.

The Polo Sedan ticked all the boxes for our annual pilgrimage to the waves.

Given the overall performance of the Polo Sedan in most areas – including so-called “off-road” on the rough roads of the Eastern Cape – I think a young family would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn’t seriously consider this car instead of a poser mini-SUV.

The Polo Sedan passed the road trip economy test with flying colours