2019 Volkswagen Polo vs Mazda 2

What's the difference?

The Beats adds a certain stylish but restrained appeal to the already very smart Polo, but with the ‘Sound and Vision Package’ adding most of the good bits to other Polo variants like the branded 300w sound system for $1100 less, you have to ask yourself if you want to stand out from the crowd a little with the extra aesthetic touches.

As for the car part of the equation it’s a well-priced, practical and slick German small hatch, complete with one of the best multimedia offerings in the segment. However, it is let down slightly by an over-complicated drivetrain and a lacklustre ownership proposition.

My advice is this: If you love the Mazda2 aesthetically, which is totally understandable, spend the extra money on a Maxx.

The Neo might have the Mazda hallmarks - a decent engine, good handling, killer looks and standard safety gear - but it's the extra multimedia and better-quality trim in the Maxx that make it more sense for your dollar.

If you're aiming for under $20,000, also consider a Suzuki Swift GL Navi, which can be optioned with better safety or a Hyundai Accent, which has a bigger boot.

Subtlety is VW’s strong point and, as I mentioned earlier, the Beats has plenty of it. At least on the outside. Preserved is all the panache of the Polo’s design with its angular sides and nicely rounded edges. The 17-inch wheels on the Beats suit the car well, with the black highlights complimenting the angular black bits in the front grille.

Outside of the wheels, the Beats kit is limited to just a simple decal across the bonnet and roof, as well as a few logos strewn about. Thankfully (or, perhaps not for the Beats target audience…), you’d be hard-pressed to spot them unless you knew it was a Beats edition.

Inside is a different story. It strays from VW’s normally grey-on-black aesthetic, introducing off-whites, vibrant reds and even mild blues in the seat trim, dash insert and doors. Some will see this as a bit of fun. Many will see this as a bit too much.

Regardless, the 10.25-inch multimedia system - which is class leading in a car this size - looks amazing. It really classes up an already slick interior, and seamlessly blends in with the piano-black inner segment of the dash.

As with most VW products, the Polo’s switchgear is excellent. It’s the small things like the feel of the dials and buttons which elevate it above Japanese, Korean or even other European rivals. The placement of everything is also just about perfect ergonomically. If I have one complaint, it’s that the volume knob is a bit of a reach for the driver, who has volume controls on the steering wheel anyway.

For all the nice trim bits across the dash, the Polo does have some average feeling hard plastics in the doors and down the centre console. The analogue handbrake also seems at odds with the otherwise slick design, but that’s not unusual for a car in this class.

What draws most people to the Mazda2 in the first place is its great looks. Mazda don't patronize entry-level buyers with a sub-par econobox that doesn't reflect the rest of its range. It shares all the 'Kodo' design language that has become so prevalent on Australia's roads.

That consists of a tastefully executed exterior, with a sophisticated grille, classy chrome touches and strategically placed smatterings of black plastic. Around the side, there's the brand's signature swooping lines, making for a sporty silhouette, toward a slick and resolved rear end. Few cars in this segment or price point can compete. Too bad about those steel wheels.

Inside, the design is just as good, but it's the materials which unfortunately take a dive. Good stuff includes the multi-textured surfaces, with tastefully applied contrast surfaces of chrome and carbon texture.

The dot-matrix multimedia control panel is a bit of a sore spot and is hardly ergonomic to reach across and use.

There's great switchgear, with a tasteful but simple dash cluster. The wheel is one of the better ones in this class in terms of its look, but the acrylic finish is truly nasty. The same goes for the functional but sub-par touchpoints across the doors and rear seats. A centre-console box for resting your elbow on is a $479.35 option.

One personal gripe, which I've heard from other folks in the office as well as private Mazda2 owners, is the odd placement of the wing-mirrors. They're too close to the driver and seem to give a narrow angle of view, leading to a significant blind spot.

It’s not really Beats specific, but the Polo’s voluminous interior betrays its small dimensions. It’s easy to forget you're actually inside a small car, as the interior basically feels as spacious as a Golf did a generation ago.

It starts with the seating position. You can sit super close to the floor in the Polo. It’s a sporty seating arrangement and doesn’t detract from the car’s great visibility.

Front passengers also benefit from generous storage areas in the doors, smallish cupholders in the centre console and a small centre console box. Pride of place is the Qi wireless phone charger under the air conditioning controls, in a little bay which also houses two USB ports.

In the back, the magic dimensions of the Polo continue. Despite all the room afforded to forward passengers, rear passengers still have more than decent leg, arm and headroom. There are well-sized storage areas in the doors, as well as pockets on the back of the front seats, but there’s no air conditioning vents or drop-down arm rest.

In terms of interior room, only the Kia Rio or Hyundai Accent come close in this class, but the Korean hatches aren’t as nice to be in as the Polo.

Boot space is also a strong point. The Polo’s boot is so large it outplays competitors in a segment up.

VW posts the boot size at 351 litres which is decidedly larger than European competitors like the Renault Clio (300L) and Peugeot 208 (311L). It is put in its place by the Hyundai Accent with its gigantic 370L boot, however.

With the rear seats down space maxes out at 1125L, which is actually smaller than many competitors, plus the extra features of the Beats variant deletes the variable boot floor feature. 

The simple fact is, there are far more practical options in this segment. The Mazda2 has a small boot, zero amenities for rear-seat passengers, and limited on-board space.

Front passengers are treated to bottle holders in the doors, a conveniently phone-sized trench under the connectivity ports, a wallet-sized trench next to the analog handbrake and... well that's about it. The seat grants a nice low seating position, but is a bit flimsy, even for this segment.

Back-seat passengers get... not much. The seats have decent contouring to them, but there's only just enough leg and headroom for someone my size (182cm tall). There are no cupholders, no air vents and only a strange square trench atop the transmission tunnel for your loose objects.

Boot space is a rather limited 250-litres in the hatch. It's much smaller than competitors like the Kia Rio and Hyundai Accent, while landing on-par with its arch-nemesis Suzuki Swift.

If you're in love with the 2 and want a larger storage space, you can do so by choosing the sedan at no extra cost. Doing so will grant 440L of space.

The Mazda2 Neo is incredibly cheap.

Not only is it the cheapest Mazda on sale, but it's also one of the cheapest mainstream cars in this class. Arriving at $17,320 (MSRP) for the auto as tested here it seems to be a pretty good value proposition, no matter which way you cut it.

Only, Thera are a few rather glaring issues. The first is the Neo's media screen. It doesn't have one.

You get this lovely, clearly tacked-on, single-line dot-matrix display, controlled through some clumsy buttons and a single dial.

Obviously, it comes with rudimentary connectivity (forget fancy stuff like Apple CarPlay) and is so difficult to use I actually couldn't figure out how to change the clock when daylight saving ticked over.

You won't get alloy wheels, LED lights, automatic high beams, automatic anything (like folding mirrors or headlamps) or leather-bound anything. The idea is you'll immediately notice a difference jumping into a $20,080 automatic Maxx, with its media screen and much better materials.

Thankfully, the Neo does come with some important quality-of-life items that are missing on some competitors, like cruise control and auto-off lights.

You also get city-speed auto emergency braking, which is an important value add at this price. More on that in the safety section.

The Beats shares the same 85kW/200Nm 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine with the 85TSI Comfortline. 

Power-wise it is about on par with the competition, most of which hover around the 80-90kW mark, and our car was the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic version (there is also a six-speed manual available).

It doesn’t feel as willing as many of its competitors however, possibly due to a decent amount of turbo-lag. Once it gets up and going, however, it’s quick in a straight line.

All Polos are also fitted with a stop-start system which turns off too quickly and is slow to start up again. I almost always turned it off as I found it at best irritating, and at worst dangerous at some intersections where a few extra seconds make all the distance.

Powering the Mazda2 is just one engine, a 1.5-litre non-turbo four cylinder, although the Neo is the only one in the range with the lower-compression de-specified version. It produces 79kW/139Nm.

These power figures are on-par with much of the competition, but in reality (and perhaps as a sad testament to many of the cars in this segment) it feels relatively good.

Part of this is thanks to the six-speed automatic transmission, which is better than a CVT or four-speed auto.

Volkswagen claims all those complicated engine parts help the Polo achieve a 4.9L/100km fuel usage number for combined city and highway driving. 

Over my week of switching off the stop-start system and putting my foot to the floor in some scenarios to get the Polo up to speed I scored 7.0L/100km. I honestly believe with more time to get used to the nuances of the engine and transmission that number could be reduced, but for the week it was a solid miss for me.

The Polo asks for a minimum of 95RON unleaded.

Mazda's claimed combined fuel usage figure for the Neo hatch is 7.2L/100km,and I recorded around 7.6L/100km over a week of testing. That's not far off the claimed figure, but it's a high number to begin with, many larger, turbocharged engines in heavier cars will produce better, or even lower figures.

The 2 drinks standard 91 RON unleaded fuel and has a 44-litre tank.

It’s a mixed bag with the Polo. I’ll start with the good. 

The suspension is incredible. It rides low and sporty, but it’s never harsh. On multiple occasions I found myself cringing when spotting a pothole too late, but then coming out the other side pleasantly surprised that it barely had an affect in the cabin. It rides super flat and sticky in the corners as well. You can really feel the wheels all the way at the edge of the chassis.

Then, there’s the steering. It’s light, but purposeful. It could use perhaps a little more feedback, feeling slightly over (electrically) assisted, but the small three-spoke wheel gives it a fun, and genuinely sporty feel.

Sadly, the great feel of the car is let down by the drivetrain. The 1.0-litre turbo is prone to lag, forcing you to wait a second or two before the peak torque arrives at 2000rpm. It’s especially irritating having to wait a full second for power when you’re trying to overtake or slip into a gap in traffic at a T-junction.

The delay encourages you to push your foot further into the floor, which results in a sudden shunt of power when all the moving parts figure out how to work together. 

Most competitors are much smoother when it comes to taking off from a standstill. The stop-start system adds even more of a delay to this equation. I honestly tried to embrace it but ended up just turning it off at the first opportunity.

Once up and running though, the seven-speed 'DSG' dual-clutch auto is a slick-shifter, gear changes are imperceptible.

Ironically for a ‘Beats’ model, the Polo is incredibly quiet. Aside from a distant gruff rumble under heavy acceleration, you’d be hard pressed to pick the three-cylinder’s engine note out from background noise. The cabin is well insulated as well, helping you make the most of that audio system.

The drive experience all feels very refined, I just wish it were a little more responsive to inputs…

The Mazda2's more traditional engine and transmission, combined with its small footprint and lightweight body, give it a spritely and agile feel on the road.

For better or worse, it's very mechanical, you still feel each gear change, and you're fairly connected to the road.

It beats most competitor set-ups in terms of feel and real-world power application, and has fast, accurate steering, making it easy to dart down alleyways, and park in tight spots in congested cities.

It does so in decent comfort, but this is one noisy little car. Road noise and engine roar (from as little as 2500rpm) reach the cabin easily, and its lightweight bodywork gives it a bit of a tinny feeling.

The 2 is fun to drive, thanks to a low seating position and a suspension setup lets you feel closer to the road than something like a Kia Rio or Toyota Yaris, but the stiffness of the ride can also cause it to become unsettled over bumps.

As a driver's car, it's one of the better ones in this segment, alongside the Suzuki Swift. You're left with few options, though – given the Yaris, Rio and Accent are all more comfortable, but feel rather lethargic in comparison.

It's really up to personal taste whether you prefer refinement over fun, as you'll have to spend much more to get both.

One big drawcard of the Mazda2 is its inclusion of city-speed auto emergency braking (AEB) across the range, even here in the Neo.

Few competitors bother to pack this one key active safety item into their kit.

Regular safety refinements on the 2 include six airbags and the standard suite of electronic stability controls. There are two ISOFIX child seat mounting points on the rear outer seats. Sorry, long-range drivers, a space-saver spare resides under the boot floor.

All variants of the 2 carry a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating since 2015.

The Mazda2 is facing increasingly stiff competition on this front from the Suzuki Swift, which now comes with a suite of active safety items on the GL Navi with safety pack ($18,990). For only $1670 more than the Neo, you'll get freeway-speed AEB, active cruise control, lane-departure warning (LDW), and lane-keep assist. Not bad.

Volkswagen has recently updated its capped price servicing plans which are sold up-front as a package to new buyers. 

A three-year servicing plan for the Polo is $1152 ($384 a year) while a five-year plan is $2164 ($432.80 a year). Still expensive.

The company also isn’t budging on its outdated three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty. Almost all its competitors and even fully-owned subsidiary, Skoda, have moved to five-year/unlimited kilometre cover.

If it’s a long warranty you’re after the Kia Rio’s seven-year/unlimited kilometre one is the bar to beat in this segment.

Mazda offers a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty across its range, which is on par for most manufacturers. The Kia Rio leads this segment with its seven-year, unlimited kilometre promise.

Mazda matches its five-year warranty with five years of capped price servicing. Service intervals occur at 10,000km or 12 months, whichever occurs first. The program has a not-unreasonable average yearly cost of $305.60 and has reasonably priced extras like brake fluid and cabin air filters.