PoloDriver

It’s a story of continuing success for the South African-only Polo Vivo. Once again Volkswagen Group South Africa’s entry-level model sat atop the passenger car sales charts during November 2012, with 2697 units sold. Nestling alongside its lower-priced sibling, the Polo 6R was again a top-seller, too, coming in second with 2376 cars finding homes. Overall, Volkswagen Group South Africa delivered a total of 8300 units to its customers and achieved a passenger car market share of 22.6 per cent, making it the top-selling manufacturer.

The Polo Vivo was launched in March 2010 as an entry-level model for the South African market, replacing the Series 1 Golf-based CitiGolf, and is available as a three or five-door hatchback and four-door booted saloon with 74bhp/84bhp 1.4-litre and 103bhp 1.6-litre petrol engines. Costing from R108,300 for the base-model 1.4 hatchback to R154,700 for the top 1.6 Trendline Sedan, the 2012 Polo Vivo is based on the revised version of the Series 4 Polo (9N3), built from 2005 to 2009. The fifth-generation Polo (6R) is available as both a three and five-door hatchback, in addition to the more traditionally-styled four-door Polo Sedan.

Ameya Walavalkar was crowned the Volkswagen Polo R Cup 2012 champion last weekend, at the series’ final rounds at the Buddh International Circuit in Noida. Fighting a difficult first race, Walavalkar only made the break on the final lap, passing Jeffrey John Kruger. The second race saw Prashanth Tharani Singh take a perfect lights-to-flag victory from his pole position – his first win in the championship. In the final results, Walavalkar won the twelve-race, six-weekend series on 476 points, with A Sandeep Kumar second with 381, and Avdumber Hede third on 355. Volkswagen India Motorsport runs the Volkswagen Polo R Cup India series in conjunction with JK Tyres. The field of 20 young Indian racers drive identical and centrally prepared 1.4-litre TSI-engined, 178bhp Polo R Cup cars.

India could possibly be the latest market to receive the rugged-looking but two-wheel drive CrossPolo reports Autocar India. Expanding on the already popular Polo hatchback range and its saloon sister, the Vento, the CrossPolo would build on their success. With the non-built-up nature of the roads in the country, the CrossPolo with its 15mm raised suspension and 17-inch alloy wheels would appear to suit India well.

In line with South American versions of the smaller CrossFox, the Indian CrossPolo could even differ from European and South African versions by having a spare wheel mounted in the tailgate, adding to the go-anywhere looks. It’s not all visual tricks, though – Autocar India states that a CNG tank could be installed in the resulting empty spare wheel well. As well as a possible economic gas option, the CrossPolo is also likely to receive Volkswagen’s new 1.5-litre TDI engine, developed solely for India.

[Source: Autocar India]

Ahead of the Rally Monte Carlo, the first round of the 2013 World Rally Championship, Volkswagen Motorsport is to officially unveil the Polo R WRC in all its livery glory this weekend in Monaco. The glitzy ceremonial unveiling will finally peel away the layers of ‘disguise’ of the testing cars and is expected to include ‘many motorsport celebrities’ such as Carlos Sainz, Juha Kankkunen, Markku Alén, Jacky Ickx and Hans-Joachim Stuck. The German outfit will also unveil the driver pairings, which are expected to be number one signings Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, as well as number two Jari-Matti Latvala and a possible third car ‘junior’ squad headed by Andreas Mikkelsen. We’ll bring you news of the biggest Volkswagen Motorsport launch for years as we get it.

UPDATE: Volkswagen Motorsport has revealed that the Polo R WRC Street road car first seen earlier in the year will be unveiled via a live website feed on Saturday 8 December at 16h30, with the Polo R WRC car following at 19h30.

With fuel costs seemingly continuing to soar, economy cars are the darlings of any car manufacturer’s model range. The Polo BlueMotion has been around since 2008, with the latest model hitting the roads two years later. With a combined cycle mpg figure of 80.7, it’s also one of the most economical small cars you can buy, so we reacquainted ourselves with Volkswagen’s smallest BlueMotion model by taking one to the Scottish Highlands to see just how green-spirited we could be. Would we get to Scotland on one tank of fuel? Read how we got on here, or click on the magazine graphic below. The eighth of our special digital mini-magazines, we’ve redesigned the layout so that it can be read on a tablet device. Check out the PoloDriver bookshelf on issuu.com for our previous seven titles.

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