Cool kid of the class

Surrounded by do-goody conformists, the Vivo GT offers flair and personality for not a lot of money

Remember high school? I do. It was a total blast. Not the work and constant studying, but the whole socialising thing. You know, hanging out on the big concrete quad during break; shooting the breeze with friends. Talking about this party on Friday night. Or that new exchange student who just turned up in art class. Maybe even plotting to bunk PE.

Stuff like that. It was a five-year social experiment; a teenage colony bristling with more ins, outs, ups and downs than a goddam CBS soap opera.

Yeah, I remember it was all about standing out and making a statement; proving that you were marginally cooler than the next person. And this was a pretty hard thing to do in a world governed by strict conformity: a place where image was restricted by the same pair of regulation viscose slacks, non-iron shirt and ill-fitting nylon blazer.

But we somehow found a way. Slipping past the watchful eye of that teacher who'd supposedly seen it all, our teenage minds embraced the art of subtlety and devised cunning ways of broadcasting that one thing that mattered most in life: personal identity. In retrospect it all seems pretty lame, but at the time this quiet form of peacocking was revolutionary. A metal pin badge emblazoned with the logo of your favourite rock band. Swapping those pleather school shoes for your black weekend Caterpillars. Wearing a designer belt festooned with the initials of some revered fashion house. Maybe even tying one of those Rastafari bracelets around your wrist.

Insignificant? Perhaps. Childish? No doubt. But in the banal corridors of Greenside High - a tertiary institution in which everybody looked the same in their static grey polyester pants - it was trinkets like this that helped give you an edge. There was a sense of triumph over the ordinary. A reason to feel cool.

So why am I telling you all about this? Because it's a phenomenon that Volkswagen is aping with their all-new Polo Vivo GT. Let me explain.

Viewed in the cold light of day, a regular Polo Vivo is not a car you'd normally get excited about. It is small. It is functional. It exists purely as a means to get from A to B. It also resides in a segment of the automotive marketplace in which the words "mundane" and "motoring" get along like two old drunks at a happy-hour bar.

On the plus side, though, the Polo Vivo is a relatively inexpensive thing to buy. Which means you won't have to spend 20 years in debt for the privilege of private mobility. Now this is all well and good if you are a faceless lemming working at a call centre but what if, like those Model C heroes, you want to rise from the ranks of the prosaic?

Well this is where the new Vivo GT steps in. From a distance this little hatchback might look much the same as its rental-car brethren. But get up close, right up in its grille, and you'll notice a couple of visual clues that give a discreet nod to the sporting life.

Indeed, like some quietly rebellious teenager, this Polo makes its ever-so-devious intentions known with a set of double chrome tailpipes, 15-inch alloys and a tailgate spoiler. Sure, not a great deal to brag about, but when matched to that sleek two-door body shell, it's just enough to pepper the driver with a vague sense of self-importance.

Then there's the interior. Again, VW haven't done much to disguise this Polo's blue-collar roots. What they have done, however, is bolt in a small leather-wrapped steering wheel. Light and tactile, it's a simple modification that tricks your brain into believing that you're piloting a much dearer piece of driving equipment.

There's also lots of red stitching borrowed from the Golf GTI, scarlet seat belts and body-hugging sports seats covered in upholstery that reminds one of those original hot-hatch upstarts that ruled the world way back in the 1980s.

And just like its forefathers, which emerged out of that great era of synth-pop and neon, the Vivo GT is equally as fun to drive. It's not blisteringly fast, but there's enough power to have fun with on an empty midnight street. And being equipped with lowered sports suspension means that it now handles about the same as a Ford Fiesta. And that, in case you don't know, is very high praise.

So you see, mixing it up in a bland, sub-R160k world of comparatively dull shopping trolleys, the Polo Vivo GT is the undisputed cool kid of its class: the one who'd probably nip around the bike shed during second break and spark-up a Camel plain. Maybe listen to a little Slipknot or Chevelle between fevered puffs. The complete antithesis of do-goody conformists such as the Toyota Yaris, this VW offers a modicum of flair and personality for not a lot of money. And that's why it gets a big thumbs-up.