Call it rental-car phobia, I could not shake off that rental-car feeling, for no other reason except the fact that the Polo on test here had a boot.
Maybe it's because four-door Polos are so popular with rental company fleets; maybe it's that the look of the Polo hatch is so different to the sedan - either way I felt like I should be in a different city, booted-up with luggage, passengers in every seat, and off to check into a hotel on the beach.
I guess when it comes to cars such as VW's Polo and the Ford Fiesta, you're either a hatch or sedan kind of person. The sedan is obviously the more practical, family-man choice, but the boot does the car no favours in the aesthetics department - rather like those old men you see who wear their trousers too high up their waists.
VW has not simply slapped a boot on to the back of the hatch - it extended the wheelbase by 82mm for more interior space, and added 414mm to the overall length of the vehicle. As a result the Polo sedan claims a generous 454 litres of boot space (174 more than the hatch) which is competitive with rivals such as the Ford Fiesta sedan (430 litres), Toyota Yaris sedan (475 litres), Mazda2 sedan (450 litres) and Nissan Tiida sedan (467 litres).
Loading differences aside, the Polo has taken on a more mature look than the previous-generation model (which is still on our roads in Polo Vivo form) with sharper, more precise lines and the new VW nose already seen in other VW model ranges.
Powering our sedan test unit was VW's familiar 1.6-litre petrol engine, good for 77kW and 155Nm, which doesn't sound like much but feels surprisingly perky through the gears. The claimed 0-100km/h sprint is 11.1 seconds, but our seat-of-the-pants impression was that it felt slightly quicker. The Polo sedan is perfect as a day-in, day-out runabout, offering superb levels of ride comfort and that uncanny ability to get in and just gel with the car.
The seats are comfortable, the high-class build quality and finish are typical of new VW cars, and everything falls easily to hand. If I have to be pedantic I felt the clutch had a slight flat spot when released, but changing my driving style seemed to help this.
Consumption, at 7.3litres per 100km, was also a little high (VW claims six litres per 100km), but I suspect this was largely due to the lack of a sixth gear and the amount of open road driving I did. The gearbox was butter smooth, the steering not overly assisted, with good feedback, and in the daily commute the sedan felt no bigger than the hatch.
From a practicality point of view it wasn't the cavernous boot that surprised me but the airy and spacious interior. Rear passengers get treated with generous legroom, and three reasonably sized adults should have nothing to complain about back there.
We had the larnier Comfortline spec, meaning we had a fancier radio, cruise control, electric and heated mirrors, multifunction steering wheel, alloy rims and colour-coded mirrors.
Trendline buyers get standard equipment in the form of aircon, remote central locking and electric windows, but strangely have to shell out extra for a radio.
And as far as safety goes, all Polo sedans are fitted with dual front and side airbags as well as ABS brakes (only the TDI in the range gets an ESP stability system).
VERDICT
That the new Polo is a very good car was underlined by the 1.6 TDI hatch derivative winning South Africa's 2011 Car of the Year title.
At R195 000 for the Polo sedan Comfortline you're spending just five grand more versus the Polo hatch Comfortline at R189 900, which from an additional space point of view does seem well worth the moolah.
The Polo sedan is also very good at what it does. It accommodates a larger family in real comfort, offers all the necessary amenities and good build quality, matches this with great ride quality, and is reasonably fun to drive. The hatch is prettier though.