Rejoice: The VW Polo GTI Has More Power And Now Comes With A Manual 'Box

With a healthy 178bhp on tap, the fifth-gen VW Polo GTI certainly wasn’t lacking in the power department, but there was one thing always missing: a manual gearbox. Until now, that is. The Polo’s 1.4-litre petrol engine - the same ‘twincharger’ unit found in the Audi A1 185 it shares a platform with - was only ever available with a semi-auto DSG gearbox, but the newly announced facelifted version has ditched the 1.4 for a 1.8-litre engine mated to a six-speed manual. Lovely.

It’s the same 1.8-litre TFSI Audi unit we’ve sampled before in the A3 cabriolet, and it’ll be a good fit for the hot Polo, with 189bhp and 236lb ft of torque on offer. Official performance figures are thus far absent, but with the extra poke you can expect a 0-62mph time of well under seven seconds.

A seven-speed DSG ‘box will be optional, if you feel the need, but just check out the interior picture above - it just looks right with a manual shifter, especially with the Golf-style tartan seats, don’t ya think?

As far as the facelift goes, it’s fairly minor. The GTI gets the new front and rear light clusters seen on the rest of the updated range, plus a sharper design for the front bumper compared to the outgoing version.

The car will make its debut at the Paris Motorshow next month.