PoloDriver

We thought we’d heard the end of the story, but the Polo R rumour book has opened again, although once more, it’s not good news. Recent reports state that the road-going Polo R was to be based on the limited edition, 252bhp left-hand drive-only Audi A1 quattro. That car costs £41,020, which would certainly price a similarly-expensive Polo out of the market. Volkswagen has reportedly realised this, admitting that the number of potential buyers for the car would be very limited. The Polo GTI only makes up 1 per cent of Polo sales in the UK.

‘Producing a Polo R road car is one possibility, but we need customers for such a car. Maybe it is easier for Audi than VW to market a powerful, all-wheel-drive city car,’ Volkswagen’s board member for development, Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, has reportedly stated. ‘If we make a Polo for WRC homologation, then that makes sense. But in the basic Polo, we don’t have the customers to make a R version of the car,’ he continued. A Polo R road car would make sense from a WRC marketing point of view, but for now it appears as unlikely as ever.

Following success in India, Russia and South Africa, the latest market to launch a traditional booted version of the fifth-generation Polo is Malaysia. On sale yesterday at RM99,888 (excluding registration and insurance charges), the notchback is taking the lead from the Russian and South African markets and is named Polo Sedan. Made in India and exported to Malaysia, only one version is available, ‘Polo Sedan’, with a 1.6-litre, 104bhp petrol engine, once again borrowed from other markets. A six-speed Tiptronic traditional torque-converter gearbox is the only transmission available.

Marked out from the Polo hatchback by chrome external trim finishes and of course that elegantly-styled luggage boot, the Polo Sedan comes in six colours and with 15-inch alloy wheels. Leather-trimmed interior fixtures help the luxury feel, while equipment includes four electric windows, multifunction display, music system, four airbags and an ‘Intelligent Crash Response System’, which automatically unlocks the doors and switches on the hazard lights when an accident is detected. Local CKD (complete knock-down) production would depend on the new Polo Sedan’s success in Malaysia.

[Source: Indian Autos Blog and Paul Tan]

Reports are coming in that the latest Polo GTI 6R is to be produced in China, but with one major difference – its 178bhp engine will be replaced with a lower output 131bhp unit. The engine – still a turbocharged 1.4-litre TSI from the locally-produced Lavida – is thought to be cheaper to import than the higher output ‘twincharged’ unit, meaning lower retail prices of each completed car, therefore potentially appealing to more prospective customers.

The Chinese Polo GTI is expected to take a public bow in May, after having debuted at the upcoming Beijing Motor Show. It will be the first time the model has appeared in China, and also marks the first time the GTI has been made outside of Germany, manufactured by the Shanghai-Volkswagen joint venture. The good news is that there are no visual changes to the Chinese-produced car compared to its more expensive European counterpart.

The Volkswagen Polo has jumped one place up the UK top 10 best-sellers list. According to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) for March 2012, the small Volkswagen was the seventh best-selling car last month with 7748 sales, three places behind its larger Golf relative. March was a bumper month for supermini sales, with half the cars in the best-sellers list of a smaller persuasion. Even the misguided youth-orientated advertising campaign for the new Toyota Yaris seems to have worked positively, with the model chasing the Polo’s tyre tracks in eighth.

March’s 372,835 units bettered the SMMT’s forecast for the month by some 20,000 units or almost 6 per cent, and looks set to beat the 18 per cent share of total annual volumes by 1.4 per cent. Supermini registrations rose in both March and Q1, to account for 39.1 per cent and 37.7 per cent respectively of the market. ‘The important March new car market performed above expectations rising 1.8 per cent to 372,835 units. Domestic demand for new cars is showing signs of recovery with private buyers increasingly returning to take advantage of a wide range of excellent products and, this month, the new 12-plate,’ said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive. The top 10 UK best-selling cars in March 2012 and for the year overall (sales figure and position in brackets) are as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 22,667 (33,390, 1st)
2 Vauxhall Corsa: 17,271 (23,750, 3rd)
3 Ford Focus: 15,086 (24,442, 2nd)
4 Volkswagen Golf: 11,945 (18,794, 4th)
5 Vauxhall Astra: 9965 (14,894, 5th)
6 Nissan Qashqai: 8487 (12,491, 6th)
7 Volkswagen Polo: 7748 (12,164, 7th)
8 Toyota Yaris: 6973
9 Peugeot 207: 6948 (10,221, 8th)
10 BMW 3 Series: 6472 (9948, 9th)

(The 2012 year-to-date top 10 best-selling car absent from March’s sales figures is the Mercedes-Benz C Class selling 9485 units in tenth place.)

The latest in a line of interactive advertising campaigns for the current fifth-generation Polo, Volkswagen Denmark has launched ‘The Polo Principle’. What is it? The company says: ‘We take the newest technology, the highest quality – the innovations that were made for the elite – and make them available to everyone. Each and every part of the Polo works to give the power of innovation and quality to all.’ That’s all very well, but what’s more impressive is that way in which the campaign is being marketed.

Users are invited to create their own Polo ‘prototype’, either by downloading a template to illustrate in Adobe software, or by using the online 3D designer. Using preset tools and icons, users can layer on designs and graphics or even upload their own. The realistic, fully interactive online modeller gives many views of the car, and can be rotated and spun, so all the car is decorated. When complete, the user clicks the ‘Make It Real’ button and the finished Polo prototype is shown on the next page.

By submitting a design, the user is effectively entered into a prize draw. Volkswagen Denmark will select the 40 most creative cars for clever plaster-based 3D printing, as shown in the video above. The successful creators will then receive a physical 3D prototype models of their design after they’ve been exhibited in Copenhagen in May. Finally, one lucky winner will have their Polo prototype turned into a real Polo (by way of a film wrap of their design we imagine), and will get to drive it for two months this summer.