PoloDriver

While most of Europe was asleep last night, Volkswagen unveiled more variants of the refreshed Polo range which was seen for the first time last month. Due to take world premiere starring roles on the Volkswagen stand at the Geneva motor show next week, the New Polo BlueMotion, BlueGT and CrossPolo have all now broken cover. Let’s take the new variants one by one.

New Polo BlueMotion
The big news here is the new petrol-powered Polo TSI BlueMotion. A new 1.0-litre 89bhp three-cylinder turbocharged engine carries the new car onto a claimed official fuel consumption figure of 68.9mpg and emissions of 94g/km. The new petrol version of the BlueMotion will be launched later in the year and will be the only BlueMotion model sold in the UK.

Europe on the other hand will receive a TDI BlueMotion with a new 1.4-litre three-cylinder TDI engine. With 91.1mpg mooted, Volkswagen claims makes it the most fuel-efficient five-seater car in the world. Emissions are equally impressive at 82g/km, while power is the same as the outgoing model at 74bhp. Range is said to be 900 miles from its 45-litre fuel tank – enough for a drive from Flensburg near Denmark to Venice!

Both TSI and TDI BlueMotion models gain a revised aerodynamic body kit and underbody panels. A burnished radiator grille insert and newly-optimised front and rear spoilers feature, with the rear spoiler swapping its trademark Mk 2 Polo appearance for a much more subtle affair. New 15-inch ‘Buenos Aires’ alloy wheels are fitted to the BlueMotions, while the new ‘Clearwater Blue Metallic’ colour is an exclusive BlueMotion shade. As before, chrome accents and special upholstery feature inside.

New Polo BlueGT
Looking largely similar as the outgoing model, the New Polo BlueGT boasts 10bhp more than before, so the lightly revised 1.4-litre engine now develops 148bhp. Sitting below the forthcoming GTI, the BlueGT has active cylinder management (ACT) which shuts off two cylinders during light engine loads and speeds. Six-speed manual and seven-speed DSG gearboxes are as before, while 58.8mpg and 110g/km of CO2 are said to be achievable.

Styling tweaks include a 15mm suspension drop, smoked tail lights, 17-inch alloy wheels, refreshed bumpers and side sills and a new rear spoiler. The interior features a multifunction display with ACT indication, cruise control and sports seats.

New CrossPolo
As before, the New CrossPolo will only be sold in selected markets, and won’t come to the UK. Gently restyled front and rear bumpers over the old car mark out the new model, and silver door mirrors now come with every version. Two new colours, ‘Honey Orange’ and ‘Titanium Beige’, smoked rear lights and new 17-inch “Canyon’ alloy wheels add the finishing touches.

Inside, the New CrossPolo features exclusive, more hardwiring and rugged fabrics on its sport seats, a new steering wheel as well as the new instruments and centre console featured on all New Polos. H7 headlights with optional bi-xenons also mark out the rejuvenated faux-SUV Polo. Initial engine choice will be made up from three petrols and three diesel units with power outputs from 74bhp to 108bhp. All feature a stop-start system and battery regeneration and all meet EU-6 emission standards.

As detailed at the international launch, standard on all versions of the New Polo is a revised electro-mechanical power steering system which, Volkswagen says, increases performance and comfort perceptibly. The Sport Select chassis with electrically-adjustable dampers is also new making its Polo debut, but is not available with BlueMotion or CrossPolo models.

Other New Polo highlights include an Automatic Post-Collision Braking System as standard and optional Front Assist with City Emergency Braking. New touchscreen infotainment systems also feature and the New Polo is the first Volkswagen with MirrorLink.

New Polo R-Line
As well as distinctive and separate mode lines, the European New Polo Comfortline and Highline are available with sporty customisation, courtesy of the new R-Line programme. Much as before, exterior and interior customisation is key here, with sports-styled front and rear bumpers, 16-inch ‘Salvador’ alloy wheels (with another 16-inch and three 17-inch designs available), sports seats and steering wheels all being part of the R-Line package. The R-Line is conspicuous by its absence in that it played no part in the newly-released New Polo family portraits.

Prices for the New Polo in Germany start at €12.450 for the three-door 59bhp Trendline model, while a limited-edition ‘Fresh’ model with the same number of doors and power retails at €16.075. Featuring special equipment and ‘Cornflower Blue’ paintwork, the Polo ‘Fresh’ is available for a limited time. UK prices and specifications will be announced when the New Polo is released for ordering in April. First deliveries are expected in July.

A new year, a new sales chart. Latest sales figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) state that despite a new model on the way, the current Polo is still selling well.

The small Volkswagen was a prominent presence in the UK sales charts for 2013, and sits in fifth place when volumes for January 2014 are added up. Volkswagen UK sold 3875 Polos last month.

Sitting one place higher is the Polo’s larger sibling, the Golf, with 4390 new registrations. Once again, the Ford Fiesta sits atop the sales chart tree with the ever-popular Focus behind it.

The SMMT reports that the new car market is up 7.6 percent with 154,562 new cars registered in January, with a typical new vehicle 27 per cent more fuel-efficient than one seven years ago.

The UK’s top 10 best-selling passenger cars during January 2014 and the year so far (sales figure and position in brackets) are as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 9072 (9072, 1st)
2 Ford Focus: 5333 (5333, 2nd)

3 Vauxhall Corsa: 4470 (4470, 3rd)

4 Volkswagen Golf: 4390 (4390, 4th)

5 Volkswagen Polo: 3875 (3875, 5th)

6 Vauxhall Astra: 3399 (3399, 6th)

7 Audi A3: 3130 (3130, 7th)

8 Nissan Qashqai: 3028 (3028, 8th)

9 Nissan Juke: 2704 (2704, 9th)

10 Fiat 500: 2595 (2595, 10th)

A year into ownership, John Redfern looks back over 8000 miles and 12 months with his Polo R-Line TSI. Is it everything he hoped for?

The past 12 months have seemed somewhat of a blur, and it’s hard to believe that I’m already a full year into ownership of my Polo R-Line. With 2013 proving to be quite tumultuous and challenging in many ways, the R-Line was at least an icon of dependability throughout.

Travelling to Devon for a weekend break chucked the R-Line in at the deep end, having to contend with an 800-mile motorway round trip. Despite its relatively, small stature the Polo coped extremely well and was happy mixing it with the big boys in the outside lane. Comfort from the sport seats meant no aching backs at the end, and the DAB radio kept us entertained.

A trip to Rockingham race circuit in August for the Guild of Motoring Writers’ ‘Big Day Out’ gave the chance for the R-Line to meet up with Rich Gooding’s 6N2 GTI and Alex Grant’s rather special G40. It was also an opportunity to investigate just how deserving of the ‘R’ badge the Polo actually is.

Despite being one of the lowest powered cars there, the R-Line didn’t feel completely out of its depth on track despite a fair degree of body roll! In fact, the morning session with its damp, slippery track even allowed the R-Line to hustle BMW M3s, although this all changed once the tarmac dried out!

Performance from the 105PS (104bhp) 1.2-litre TSI unit continues to prove just about sufficient to satisfy my inner petrolhead, but there are times where I really do wish for an extra 25-20bhp and accompanying torque boost.

While generally fine with just me on board, extra passengers or luggage do make a dent in acceleration that is slightly too noticeable. This is the trade off for low emissions and fuel consumption I suppose. Fuel economy has improved in my time with the R-Line; possibly due to a combination of the engine being more run in, and a commute with less stop-start traffic.

Regardless of the cause, I’m very happy to be averaging 45mpg on a daily basis, with the potential for this to creep even higher on longer runs. A full tank offers a range of around 300 miles before the DIS screen starts to panic and suggests refuelling is needed.

Over the year I’ve tended to stick to regular 95-octane unleaded, as this is all the R-Line claims to need. Experiments with Tesco Momentum99 proved fairly fruitless, making the throttle response seem jerky as if the engine knock sensor was kicking in. Shell V-Power delivered better results, but without a large enough benefit that justified the ridiculous price.

The only trip needed to Pulman Volkswagen in Durham was for the R-Line’s first 12-month service. With the car having the 3-year service package included from new, the oil change and inspection cost me nothing and took less than 90 minutes. The inspection report notes that front and rear brake wear is only around 10% – clearly I need to try braking harder!

As I write, nothing noticeable has gone wrong or fallen off the R-Line yet. A couple of small rattles from the dashboard kick in when the outside temperature drops, and the Bluetooth phone connection continues to frustrate when it comes to streaming music.

The Deep Black Pearlescent paintwork is, predictably, a nightmare to keep clean and has shown up a couple of small annoying scratches that would be undetectable on a different coloured car.

Modifications have been limited to nothing more than the addition of a TSI badge to the Polo’s rump. With Volkswagen now offering ‘R-Line Style’ models on even the 60PS 1.2 model, I felt it was needed to add a subtle reminder that mine was the real deal underneath.

Carbon fibre wrap for the wing mirrors is still being considered, mainly to cover the damage to the nearside one caused by my other half!

Overall, the R-Line has been a nigh-on faultless performer throughout the past year. It’s been dependable, practical and just the right amount of fun to be enjoyable without breaking the bank. Volkswagen’s success in the World Rally Championship has also given it a pleasing, if rather tenuous, degree of motorsport pedigree too!

In short, the R-Line easily keeps fulfilling the brief I asked of it, and I’m looking forward to another year behind the wheel of EngageSportMode.com’s flagship.

Want to know more? Follow John on Twitter at @EngageSportMode or visit www.engagesportmode.com

On 29 January, PoloDriver.com was privileged to attend the press presentation of the new Polo, a revised and refreshed version of the fifth-generation 6R model.

Unveiled at the home of Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, the new model may appear the same as the outgoing car, but has many technological features and innovations under the skin.

With many driver assistance systems first pioneered on the larger Golf, the new Polo is the safest and most technologically advanced in the model’s 39-year history. It’s also an important car for Volkswagen.

The second best-selling model in its range, Volkswagen UK sold over 42,000 examples in 2013.

The new Polo arrives in the spring, after a world debut at the Geneva motor show in March, with a UK on-sale date of July 2014.

Order books open in April, and with prices expected to be the same as the outgoing car, expect a base-model Polo S to start at around £11,000, but be better equipped for the money.

UK trim levels are expected to be S, SE (forecast to be the most popular version), and SEL as upon introduction of the soon-to-be-discontinued car, with BlueMotion, R-Line and GTI models to follow before the end of the year.

The biggest change for the UK is the switch of the BlueMotion to petrol power with the arrival of a new 1.0-litre 89bhp TSI engine, capable of 68.9mpg.

A raft of EU6-compliant new petrol and diesel engines replace the ageing units which currently serve the 6R, with efficiency and emissions improvements for almost all.

Optional driver aids include Adaptive Cruise Control, a driver alert system, City Emergency Braking, Sport Select adaptable damper suspension, and Front Assist ambient traffic monitoring system.

All new Polos will be fitted with the Automatic Post-Collision Braking System as standard, while new touchscreen infotainment displays feature in the revised interior. There’s also a new steering wheel, instruments and fabrics.

Full LED headlights are also an option on certain models.

Make no mistake, it’s a thorough going-over. While the exterior hints at the mildest Polo ‘facelift’ in history, the engineering innovations suggest otherwise. In fact, so thorough are the changes, we’ve created a new section of pages for the new car.

Individual pages pinpoint the major aspects of the refresh: exterior, interior, engines, and technology, as well as giving the key facts about the new model. Finally there’s an image gallery, displaying all the new pictures of the incoming car.

Head here for a section overview – focusing primarily on UK models (with the full UK press release) – and click on the menu drop-down links on the ‘Polo 6R (F)’ tab above to visit an individual section page in our all-you-need-to-know guide.

It may have been unveiled only last week, but Volkswagen’s factory in Spain has already started the build of revised Polo 6Rs (6R2?). The new generation of Polo will co-exist with the outgoing model until late April when the pre-facelift car is phased out at the Navarra plant.

Incorporating many advanced driving technologies and driver assistance systems, the new Polo is the most advanced yet in the model’s 39-year history. The Navarra factory currently builds 1524 Polos daily.

Volkswagen Navarra is located in the industrial area of Landaben, within the municipality of Arazuri, on the western edge of Pamplona, Spain. It has been building Polos since 1984, and has assembled four generations of Volkswagen’s second best-selling car.

Eighty-nine per cent of the 6,514,573 Spanish-made Polos have been exported, making the plant the leading exporter of the model. Last year 289,589 Polos were manufactured, with 93.2 per cent of those exported to over 70 countries in five continents. Most of those exported cars end up in Germany, France and Italy.

Right-hand drive models are exported from Pamplona, in addition to South Africa. The Spanish factory has over 4900 staff, while Polo production alone has generated almost 4000 jobs in the Pamplona region.

Integrated into Volkswagen’s ‘Think Blue.’ factory programme, the Navarra facility is an example of how sustainability and respect for the environment begins with the manufacturing process. The Pamplona factory aims to reduce energy and water consumption, waste generation and C02 and other emissions.

Spanish marketing activities for the revised Polo will start in May 2014.