VW Polo

At a glance

Für wen ist dieses Auto geeignet?

Two travellers with carry-on bags — perfect for Kotor Old Town parking and the narrow lanes of Perast.

• Couples
• Solo travellers
• City breaks

The VW Polo on Montenegro roads

Behind the wheel

The current Polo is the sensible end of the Volkswagen small-car range, and the 1.0 TSI 95 hp three-cylinder suits it well. The engine has just enough turbo behind it to stop feeling breathless on an incline, and the five-speed manual is light and accurate rather than rewarding. Around town it behaves like a slightly tighter Golf: firm over tramlines, quiet at 50, and happy to sit in traffic without overheating the clutch. Push it on an open road and you hit the limits of a 95 hp hatch honestly enough, but the chassis stays composed and the brakes never feel undersized for the 1,200 kg it has to stop.

On Montenegro roads

Montenegro is where a Polo earns its keep. The 25 hairpins from Kotor up the old Austrian road to Lovćen reward a narrow car with a small turning circle — you can actually place the front wheels without leaning out of the window, and the 1.0 engine is light enough that the nose tucks in instead of understeering wide. The Tivat–Ulcinj coastal strip is its other natural habitat: long cruises at 80 km/h where the three-cylinder thrum becomes easy company. It is less suited to sustained hill-climbs on the Piva or upper Morača canyon roads, where fifth gear runs out of puff and you end up working third hard.

Space and load

The 351-litre boot swallows two cabin-size wheelie cases and a couple of soft bags, which covers most couples doing a week between Herceg Novi and Bar. Fold the rear seats and it will take a folded beach tent, two sets of snorkels and a cool-box for a Plavi Horizonti day, or a modest grocery run from Voli in Budva. It is not the car for a family heading to Žabljak with ski gear, nor for a group carrying scuba tanks out to Žanjice. Think two people plus luggage, or three adults with cabin bags only.

Best journeys for this car

The Polo belongs to the couple basing themselves in Kotor Old Town for four nights and wanting a car that tucks into the narrow angled parking outside the south gate without stress. It also suits the cruise passenger hiring for a day out of the Port of Kotor terminal — small enough to thread Perast’s single waterfront lane, economical enough that a half-tank covers the Kotor–Lovćen–Cetinje–Njeguši loop and back. Solo travellers on longer stays like it for the same reasons: parkable, cheap to run, unintimidating on unfamiliar roads.

Practical notes

Fuel consumption sits around 5.5 L/100 km on mixed roads, which in a country where 95 octane hovers near €1.55 means a full tank takes you from Herceg Novi to Ulcinj and most of the way back. Parking in Budva’s Stari Grad perimeter and Kotor’s bastion-gate bays genuinely favours sub-4-metre cars; the Polo at 4,074 mm slips in where a Passat cannot. Winter buyers should note it is front-wheel-drive on summer tyres as delivered — if your plan includes Kolašin or Durmitor between November and March, ask about chains. Summer AC is adequate rather than arctic; on a 35°C day in Podgorica you will notice the compressor load on the small engine.

The verdict

Pick the Polo if your Montenegro is mostly coastal, mostly two people, and mostly about parking somewhere tight at the end of each drive. Skip it if you have three-plus passengers, plan serious mountain mileage, or want a relaxed motorway cruiser for the Bar–Podgorica highway.

Vollständige Spezifikation

Inside the car

• Air Conditioning
• Bluetooth Audio
• USB Charging
• Central Locking