Polo: the real 5-year cost
The Volkswagen Polo costs £1,000 more than a Corsa to buy — £20,000 — and that premium shows up in its five-year true cost of £23,475, or about £391 a month. You get 53.0 mpg combined, so annual fuel is roughly £995, with insurance at £560, maintenance at £430 and road tax at £190. So what does the extra money buy? A better-built interior, a more grown-up motorway manner and — crucially — a VW badge that holds value better than most rivals. The Polo is the Corsa's running-cost recipe with a coat of respectability.
For many buyers, nine extra pounds a month over the Corsa is money happily spent, and the resale figures below explain why. We have totalled five years of real ownership costs so you can see the full picture.
| Purchase price | £20,000 |
| Fuel (5 yrs) | £4,975 |
| Insurance (5 yrs) | £2,800 |
| Maintenance (5 yrs) | £2,150 |
| Road tax (5 yrs) | £950 |
| Minus estimated resale value | −£7,400 |
The Polo's residuals are among the strongest in the supermini class, which is precisely the point of paying the VW premium. Depreciation still bites hardest in year one, so a nearly-new Polo is the smart buy. Cost trimmers: use VW's fixed-price servicing menus and compare them against independents; avoid big-wheel options that ruin both the ride and the tyre bills; and resist dealer-sold GAP insurance — buy it standalone for a fraction of the price.
Our verdict: the Polo is the thinking person's supermini purchase. It costs barely more than a Corsa to run, feels a class up inside, and hands the premium back at resale time. The extra outlay is real, but so is the payoff. Few superminis blend prestige, practicality and predictable costs quite like it.