PoloDriver

Following last month’s successful outing at Rally GB, the Volkswagen Motorsport team once again had put in a strong showing at Rally France on 4-7 October. Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia took another Super 2000 (S2000) class win, while team mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene scored fastest times on six of the rally’s stages. The pair of Škoda Fabias took positions 11 and 12 in the overall finishing classifications.

The Volkswagen drivers fought fiercely close battles on Thursday’s tarmac stages in Strasbourg, where a wet surface made choosing the right tyres tricky. By the end of the seven stages, Ogier and Mikkelsen were just five seconds apart. They continued their close duel on Saturday’s dry stages until the young Norwegian struggled with an engine misfire due to a defective injector, losing more than two minutes to Ogier.

Last year’s winner and Frenchman Ogier assessed the event positively: ‘It was a good home rally for us. This year, we weren’t able to battle for overall victory because it was about gathering as much experience as possible. The conditions were changeable but good to drive on the whole,’ commented the 29 year-old. More than 300,000 spectators lined the roads in Alsace, to watch the Volkswagen Motorsport team gather crucial data for the 2013 season, when the concern will be fielding the newly-developed 300bhp Polo R WRC rally car.

‘I’m very happy with the entire squad. We finished this rally with a strong performance in class and smooth operations in service as planned. The changeable weather was probably anything but inviting for the large crowd of enthusiastic spectators but good practice for us,’ said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Jost Capito. ‘Congratulations to Sébastien Loeb and the Citroën team on winning the World Champion’s title for a record ninth time. We’re very much looking forward to competing against this strong squad next year with the Polo R WRC.’

The Polo once again held onto its place in the UK’s top 10 best-selling cars during September. In ninth place last month, the Polo sold 7291 units according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). An 8.2 per cent rise on figures published for the same month last year, 359,612 ‘62’-plate cars were registered in September. The month is traditionally the second busiest of the month after March. Once again, the Ford Fiesta was the best-selling car of the month, and the year-to-date.

‘The important September plate change market outperformed expectations with new car registrations increasing on last year,’ said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive. ‘Although the economic outlook remains challenging, we are starting to see a tentative return of consumer confidence as motorists explore new products and the latest fuel-efficient technologies.’ The UK’s top 10 best-selling passenger cars during September 2012 and for the year-to-date (unit sales figure and position in brackets) are as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 18,651 (88,747, 1st)
2 Vauxhall Corsa: 17,089 (72,475, 2nd)
3 Ford Focus: 13,837 (64,251, 3rd)
4 Vauxhall Astra: 9864 (47,125, 5th)
5 Volkswagen Golf: 9270 (50,142, 4th)
6 Mercedes C-Class: 7948 (29,772 9th)
7 BMW 3 Series: 7726 (34,340, 7th)
8 Nissan Qashqai: 7471 (35,865 6th)
9 Volkswagen Polo: 7291 (33,987, 8th)
10 Peugeot 208: 6741

The 2012 year-to-date top 10 best-selling car absent from September’s sales figures is the Fiat 500 selling 26,480 units in tenth place.)

For the third consecutive month, the Polo Vivo is the top-selling car in South Africa. The evergreen entry-level best-seller sold 3386 units in September 2012, while the fifth-generation Polo was again in the runner-up position, with 2383 units finding homes. Volkswagen South Africa is the market leader in the country’s passenger car market for the ninth consecutive month, selling 8761 units last month, equating to a 22.2 per cent market share.

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 R107,200 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 traditionally-styled four-door Polo Sedan.

Autocar reports that the Volkswagen Up GT will – finally – become a production reality next year. Volkswagen Research & Design chief Ulrich Hackenberg confirmed the arrival of the sports-orientated city car at the 2012 Paris motor show. Accompanying the standard Up’s launch at the Frankfurt motor show last year, the Up GT will be powered by a 999cc, 109bhp three-cylinder engine with 120lb ft of torque.

A six-speed gearbox will also feature, as well as lowered suspension, alloy wheels, an aggressively-styled body kit, tartan seats and a part-leather-trimmed cabin. Prices and exact specifications have yet to be announced. Many hope the Up GT will be a modern incarnation of the Lupo GTI, Volkswagen’s last pint-sized hot hatchback, produced between 2000-2006 and powered by a 1.6-litre, 125bhp engine.

Just as the doors open on the 2012 Paris motor show, Volkswagen has pushed the newest version of its legendary Golf GTI into the world. Also public debuting the seventh-generation of the Golf at the event, the GTI has certainly made a splash, if the online coverage of the show at Porte de Versailles is representative of what the public thinks, too.

Officially a ‘concept’, Golf GTI VII looks ready to go, and although appearing not much changed from Golf GTI VI, a lot has been altered. Power is up for a start, with 217bhp (an increase of 10bhp) now developed from a new 2.0-litre, turbocharged direct-injection, and there’s still more to come. For the first time in the model’s long history, a ‘performance pack’ will be available, which, Volkswagen says, will boost power to 227bhp.

On the ‘standard’ car, maximum torque of 258lb ft is now the same as the current Golf R, helping the 0-62mph time of 6.6 seconds. Top speed is now 153mph. The more powerful performance pack car boosts top speed by 2mph, and cuts 0.1seconds off the 0-62 benchmark. Opt for the speedier car, and Volkswagen will also throw in larger front brake discs, and a front axle differential to help counter nasty understeer.

Both cars get a variable ratio steering system to reduce steering input (worryingly, seemingly needed on a sports model) as well as red brake calipers, smoked LED rear lights, twin exhausts, tartan seats, flat-bottomed steering wheel and red ambient lighting. Nods to the past include a Golf GTI golf ball gear knob, while slashes of the future include a red trimmed grille, which sees the red trim extending into the headlights – a neat trick.

As is the current trend, the newest Golf GTI (and indeed the standard Golf VII hatchback) is lighter than its immediate predecessor, which benefits fuel economy and emissions. Stop/Start now makes an appearance on a GTI, and fitted with a six-speed a manual gearbox, Volkswagen quotes a 47.1mpg figure (an 18 per cent improvement over the outgoing model) and a CO2 reading of 140g/km. A six-speed DSG ‘box is also available.

More details about the latest in the line of sports-orientated and driver-focused Golfs will be revealed nearer the UK launch date. Due to hit mainland Europe’s roads in early 2013 (most probably after a worldwide public reveal at the Geneva motor show in March), but if you can’t wait until then, visit Mondial de L’Automobile, Paris Expo – Porte de Versailles, Place de la Porte de Versailles, 75015 Paris before 14 October and see it for real.