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In terms of general ergonomics, the Polo Classic is all about looking and feeling like you're inside a cube. The dash, the vent designs are all minimalist and cubist in design-quite okay when executed properly, but not when some buttons can be pushed unintentionally, and others, like the power window switches, difficult to find and press. The seats also feel as cubic as Picasso's paintings, as they don't seem to contour to my body that well, and I felt like sliding off the driver's seat when cornering the car along G Araneta Avenue plus they are freakin' hard and too illogical to adjust too. The knob for adjusting seat back rake may seem like a cool idea since it allows infinitely small adjustments, but takes quite a while to twist and twist that knob until the seat back is where you want it. It seems that the only thing lacking in this car's cubic design are square gauges and a square steering wheel (oh…the horror…the horror!) The interior of the car looks like it was lifted straight out of an early 90s Volkswagen model (well, in fact, the car is a Seat Ibiza…a Spanish brand owned by Volkswagen). It's made of hard plastic with enough stiffness to beat Mike Tyson's butt. Aside from the most noticeable, hard to operate, Blaupunkt stereo system (which sounds awful) there have been no additional touches to make the car live up to the Volkswagen name: the switch gear range from 'hard to push' to 'rubbery'. The wiper and light controls for instance click hard when flicked left and right, too hard in fact to the point that they sound as if you just snapped off a wooden chopstick. In the same way, the aircon and window switches feel as if they as hard as antique kitchen appliances. However, the handbrake and the gearshift, two of many things that should have more feel, are actually like a video game machine's. On the note of the gearshift, the Polo Classic is traditional European with its reverse gear located adjacent to the first gear. Now, unlike the BMW 328Ci that we tested some months ago, the Polo Classic's is hard to engage and thus can be engaged by accident. This of course, comes to no surprise as an owner reported to us that he had his first accident driving his Polo Classic when he accidentally engaged reverse instead of first in a stoplight incident. This was the only accident he had in this car, too, because he promptly sold it afterward. The rubbery feel of the shifter is felt even more when cruising in highway conditions. Sometimes, there'll be times where you thought you engaged third, but actually engaged first and so-forth. The most important part of the interior, the steering wheel is actually a bit more radical that what we have expected-perforated plastic! I mean, give me a break here, I've seen perforated leather MOMO steering wheels, but not plastic. The car may be European, but that doesn't give Volkswagen the excuse to include this rather cheesy innovation. |
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