- VW and Suzuki are two of South Africa’s favourite passenger car brands.
- The compact sedan market might be small, but Suzuki and VW both offer interesting 4-door models for family car buyers.
- Suzuki’s Ciaz is on runout. And VW’s Polo sedan was recently updated. Which is the better buy?
The compact sedan market still offers significant value to South African private and fleet buyers. If you know that the tailgate of a hatchback or crossover is too much theft risk for you, with that large window being easy to break, then a sedan is for you.
Design trends might favour crossovers, which are now the most popular cross-segment passenger car body style in South Africa. But the 4-door family sedan still offers tremendous versatility and luggage safety.
Whether it is your kids’ sports kit or your work laptop, a lockable metal boot is the safest place to stow those items when you are parked. But what are the best compact sedan options for buyers in South Africa?
Suzuki has announced that its Ciaz is on runout, which means there could be great deals to be had on inventory still in dealerships and the distribution system. But how does VW’s Polo sedan compare? Our buyer’s guide is here to help you decide.
Suzuki Ciaz
Uber and fleet mobiles, which are rarely owned privately. That’s the Ciaz.
Proven Suzuki mechanical bits and build quality, which means very low risk long-term ownership, regarding maintenance costs.
Vanilla design, but it’s all about space utilisation. Ciaz is a compact sedan, but it has a huge 480-litre boot. That’s luggage space to rival most large crossovers and SUVs.
Safety spec is average. No ESP on any variant, and only dual front airbags, without the option for side or curtain airbags. An amazing spec factoid is that the GL base models have a CD player, if you are into 1990s retro music formats.
The Ciaz GLX features Suzuki’s very usable 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Buy a used Suzuki Ciaz on ChangeCars
Loses power at altitude
Engines and drivetrains aren’t amazing, but reliable. Suzuki’s proven 1.5-litre petrol engine makes 77kW and 138Nm, and is hugely durable, but loses a lot of power on the Highveld. Prepared to slow highway overtaking performance, if you are driving a fully-laden Ciaz on an incline around Gauteng.
The Ciaz gearboxes are very old-school, too. The 5-speed manual lacks that 6th highway overdrive gear to reduce fuel consumption at higher cruising speeds. Ciaz’s automatic transmission option has only 4 gears, which is very old-school. Still, it is a proper automatic converter, which should make it less of a maintenance issue over the long term.
If highway overtaking confidence when driving at altitude matters to you, and that is a driving reality for most South Africans who live inland of the coast, the Ciaz’s lack of engine power at altitude could be an issue. But the engine and drivetrains are very simple mechanically, which reduces long-term maintenance risk.
Buy a used Suzuki Ciaz on ChangeCars
VW Polo sedan
More expensive and sparsely equipped, but built on the very capable Polo platform. The Polo sedan has more powerful engines and a bigger boot than the Ciaz.
For decades, a VW 4-door was what many first-car and family buyers aspired to for their sedans. Think Passat, Jetta, Fox…
The most important feature for most compact family sedan buyers is boot space, and the Polo really delivers. Its boot capacity is 521-litres, which is nearly 10% more luggage space than you get in a Ciaz. And as everyone who has ever packed for a long weekend away knows: you never know how much luggage space you are missing, until there are unpacked items next to the car, in the driveway, with family members staring at you, with expectation.
Upper trim Polo sedans have a 10-inch infotainment system, which is a 30% larger screen size than the upper GLX trim Ciaz’s screen. And that standard Polo sedan cream cabin finish, on the seats and some other trims bits, is a terrible idea, because it shows-up dirt, wear and scuffing much quicker than a darker grey or charcoal seat trim. You need to pay more, for a Style trim interior, which has darker leatherette seats, which make a lot more sense, especially for a family car.
Buy a new or used VW Polo Vivo sedan on ChangeCars
More power and performance
Where the Polo sedan has a significant advantage over the Ciaz, is its engines. VW offers two engine options with the 4-door Polo, compared to the single engine choice you get with Ciaz. And one of those Polo engines is turbocharged, which means it loses no power or performance at altitude.
The 1.6-litre naturally aspirated Polo sedan has more power than a 1.5 Ciaz, with the VW rated at 81kW. For coastal buyers, this is the ideal engine option, with constant fuel consumption and low mechanical risk.
If you live in Gauteng, the Polo sedan’s smaller engine is the better, more potent option. VW’s 1.0 TSI is a 3-cylinder turbo petrol powertrain, which makes 85kW and 178Nm, and is remarkably more confidence-inspiring to drive long distances when you need to overtake slower heavy-duty truck traffic.
Interestingly, of the two transmission options that VW offers with the Polo sedan, the manual has fewer gears than the automatic. With the Polo 1.6, you can choose a 5-speed manual or a 6-speed torque-converter automatic. While on the 1.0 TSI, there’s only the option of that 6-speed auto.
Buy a new or used VW Polo Vivo sedan on ChangeCars
Better safety spec
Like the Ciaz, the Polo sedan has rear drum brakes, but it does have ESC, which is an invaluable dynamic driver assistance safety feature that the Suzuki doesn’t have.
A deeply annoying feature of the VW Polo sedan, and something VW South Africa should know better, is that it only comes with a space-saver spare wheel.
For drivers who need their family sedan to cover long distances, the additional power, performance, luggage space, and safety features of standard ESC make the Polo sedan a superior choice to the Ciaz.
But you do pay a premium for the VW's highway driving performance. Not just at the purchase price, but also for insurance, because, like anything related to the VW Polo, these sedans are a significantly higher theft risk than the Suzuki 4-door Ciaz.
Buying Guide insights by Lance Branquinho
