Vivo update – a big safety gain

Polo Vivo has been South Africa’s most popular passenger car for many years. Like its progenitor, the Citi Golf, it’s a case of very clever continuation engineering and product planning by VW.

Conventional marketing wisdom wouldn’t advise recycling an older model and retailing it in parallel with a newer version. But that’s what VW does with Polo and Polo Vivo, the latter being a previous-generation version of the former. And it works.

Polo Vivo sales remain very robust, even as many buyers prefer vehicles that aren’t hatchbacks. With the pricing benefits of being locally built in the Eastern Cape, the Polo Vivo is essentially unrivalled as a category product in the compact car market.

Its latest range of upgrades includes some mild styling changes, slightly enhanced infotainment options, and a valuable standard safety feature upgrade.

Safer and smarter

In the affordable end of the new car market, it’s a challenging reality for product planners to decide which features to include and which to make optional.

The truth is that many buyers, on a budget, would choose infotainment and screen features above safety systems. And it’s not an illogical outcome.

Bigger, better infotainment screens are something you engage with all the time you are in the car. A safety system? It’s stealth. Embedded within the car’s mechanical packaging, unseen and guarding – only used in emergency situations.

More value with Vivo

Modern cars built their primary collision avoidance on the capability and technology of their braking systems. Although ABS brakes are broadly standardised on new vehicles, electronic stability control (ESP), isn’t. Especially at budget price segments.

Having ABS is significant: it prevents wheel lock-up and skidding during an emergency braking event. However, ABS works best when paired with ESP, which varies the forces and available traction between all four wheels while calculating steering angle to help prevent inexperienced or incautious drivers from losing control.

ESP matters – a lot

From the most affordable derivative, the Polo Vivo range now has ESP as a standard feature. That’s a big deal for South Africa’s most popular car range.

Why? Because when you’re driving at night, on a poorly lit rural road, and need to brake and swerve to avoid wildlife or cattle which has wondered into the road, it’s the combination of ABS and ESP that helps a driver retain control instead of becoming an accident statistic.

Core powertrain specifications for Vivo remain broadly familiar, with 1.4- and 1.6-litre four-cylinder engines, and the smaller 1-litre triple. Outputs range from 55- to 81kW, with most owners possibly opting for the proven 1.6-litre version, rated at 77kW.

The revised Polo Vivo range starts at R266 600, for the 55kW 1.4, and peaks at R356 000, with the 1.0 TSI GT, which is good for 81kW.