That is, if this version of the seemingly ubiquitous little runaround – which has been around longer than I have – was JUST another Polo but of course, it isn't.

And this is the bit where a certain section of you WILL get excited – especially if you fall into the demographic that is sick to the back teeth of petrol prices going up every time you inhale.

You see, VeeDub have come with BlueMotion which, owing to its environmentally friendly aspirations should probably have been called GreenMotion.

Allow me to cut to the chase. The 1.4-litre TDi will, according to Volkswagen figures, return you 75mpg. That's seventy five miles per gallon.

No matter which way you say it it's swearingly astounding.

Think about it. You get 10 gallons per tank. You get 75 miles per gallon. Now, when I went to school that was 750 miles in every tank.

It's around 830 miles from Land's End to John O' Groats so for your £50 full tank and a splash 'n' dash on top, the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion will take you the entire length of this very island. If you drive like Mother Teresa.

It seems this veteran of the highways has become pant-squeakingly thrifty in its old age. But don't think that means it smells of mothballs and dawdles around creating havoc at every turn – it doesn't.

It's actually doing a very good job of ensuring some of the jumped up cheaper wannabes from the likes of Korea and Japan are as closely associated with ephemerality as it is longevity.

I think most people will agree that the Polo has become a bit of a Carol Vorderman. At one time drab and gawky looking with the dress sense of a long-sighted clown but as the years have gone by, a few subtle tweaks have got us all paying a subscription to MENSA.

It pains me to say it but the Polo, like the Countess of Countdown, has become strangely attractive and the numbers all make sense.

For example. If I were to use my car simply for driving to work, I would have to fill up, for my 10 mile each way commute, just SIX times a year.

Ok so the initial outlay of £11,995–£13,445 isn't cheap for a hatchback, but this really is going to start paying you back from the off – especially with the varying CO2 tax breaks for which the Polo qualifies thrown in.

The three-cylinder oil burner is not tuned for ear-splitting performance. Its 0–60mph time of 12.8 seconds is admittedly slow, there's no other way of saying it, but that isn't too high a price to pay for the frugality of the thing.

Top speed is a respectable 109mph but more impressively, you can sit on 2,000rpm at 70mph which means motorway cruising isn't as torturous as it can be in similarly small cars..

Inside, Volkswagen seem to have allowed the Polo to grow old gracefully because it has gone grey.

Everything is grey. Not just a whisp of the silver stuff at the temples, I'm talking a full-on Phillip Schofield.

Now, most other car manufacturers plump for said colour on the inside but there is just something uniform and monotonous about the Polo's cabin which fills you with a morbid depression.

That said, it is all bolted down with unrivalled precision and solidity.
Even the doors close with an executive saloon-esque thud which reassures you that you are in safe hands. One thing I did notice was that the engine noise intrudes somewhat and can be nothing short of annoying around town.

For a small car the Polo BlueMotion comes with its fair share of gizmos as standard.

ABS, remote locking and alarm, driver and passenger airbag, side impact protection, speed sensitive power steering, a trip computer - the list goes on.

To save weight the BlueMotion1 strips out the cumbersome refrigerator that is air-conditioning but ask for a BlueMotion2 and pay the premium and your back in coolville.

Unfortunately that may be the only cool thing about the Polo but with the money you save on running costs, you'll be able to afford to buy some affection.