PoloDriver

Once again the Volkswagen Polo Vivo was the top-selling passenger car in South Africa last month, according to figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA). In three and five-door hatchback and four-door sedan (saloon) configurations, the Vivo claimed the sales top spot with a total of 2270 sales. November 2011 also saw the the fifth-generation Polo record impressive figures, too, once again in second place, with 1855 units. The Polo 6R was also the biggest export model for Volkswagen South Africa. The sole producer of right-hand drive current generation cars, its state-of-the-art Uitenhage factory exported 4421 units overseas last month from a total Volkswagen group-wide export figure of 4422 (a single solitary Mk 6 Golf made up the tally).

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 R104,065 for the base-model 1.4 hatchback to R156,220 for the top 1.6 Trendline Sedan, the 2011 Polo Vivo is based on the revised version of the Series 4 Polo (9N3), built from 2005 to 2009. The new fifth-generation Polo (6R) is also available as both a three and five-door hatchback in addition to the traditional four-door Polo Sedan.

Vishnu Prasad is the 2011 champion of the Volkswagen Polo R Cup India. Thanks to clinching fourth place at the final race at the Irungattukottai Race Track in Chennai, Prasad secured the title in front of his fiercest rival, Oshan Kothadiya, who finished fifth. In adverse weather conditions, the spectators witnessed an entertaining race at which the Danish guest entrant, Maiken Rasmussen, caused a surprise. The female racer from the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup stormed up the grid to second place, behind race winner Sunny Sidhu, after having started from position 18 on the grid. Mihir Dharkar completed the podium. The series is run by Volkswagen India Motorsport in conjunction with JK Tyres. The field of 20 young racers drive identical and centrally-prepared 129bhp TDI Polo R Cup cars.

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1 Vishnu Prasad: 388 points
2 Oshan Kothadiya: 376 points
3 Avdumber Hede: 359 points

Three months ago, Rich Gooding bought a 10 year-old Polo GTI, a (some would say much-needed) more modern foil to his 1994 Polo GT coupé. Is the new relationship in still in its first flush, or is the honeymoon period well and truly over?

I still can’t quite believe that I’m driving something so much newer than the small 18 year-old hatchback (despite what VW say, the Mk 2 Polo coupé is a decidely usual hatchback shape) that has been part of my life for the last 12 years. The first three months with Y464 GHJ have largely been spent getting to know the car, and, as a freelance graphic designer, have been spent on the UK’s A-road and motorway network. Buying the car must have been an omen; little did I know at the time of purchase that I’d be regularly spending time driving to jobs. Something which in the elderly coupé, while enjoyable, would have been much less relaxing.

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The season finale of the 2011 Engen Volkswagen Cup saw plenty of action at the South African Zwartkops circuit on 26-27 November, with Devin Robertson claiming the driver’s championship crown. Kosie Weyers took second place in the overall points table, while Kelvin van der Linde clinched third. Robertson has been a strong contender for season honours all year, and actually claimed the title two rounds ago. Even though his car lost fourth gear in race one, he managed to limp home and after running repairs were carried out to the Volkswagen Polo Vivo race car, Roberston made a strong comeback, taking third place in race two.

The 2011 Engen Volkswagen Cup series is similar to the other racing VW Polo Cup single-series championships run in both Europe and India. Just as in those series, the South African one-make format highlights new young driving talent. In the Engen championship, as many as thirty drivers regularly take to the track in technically-identical, 2.0-litre, 234bhp 2011 Volkswagen Polo Vivo racing cars. The Volkswagen Racing press release follows.

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The latest batch of sales figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), and it’s good news once again for the Volkswagen Polo. Climbing one place up the top 10 best-sellers chart, in November it was in sixth place, with a tally of 3306 units. It’s standing firm in the 2011 sales-to-date chart, in seventh place. While the supermini sector saw a modest fall in registrations recorded, the Ford Fiesta remains the UK’s best-selling car, with 6195 units finding homes last month. That’s a fair chunk of the supermini’s 34.6% of the new car market, up from 33.9% a year ago. The small Ford is also the best-selling car of the year so far (a title it has held for some time), shifting 90,701 units.

The latest set of figures released by the SMMT state that new car registrations are down just 0.9% in the last three months than at the same period last year, and that the closing figure for 2011 is expected to be 1.94 million units, exceeding expectations. Registrations in November at 134,027 units were down 4.2%. ‘While the November new car market saw a 4.2% dip, the fuel efficiency of new models broke all records with the average new car achieving 52.5mpg,’ said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive.

‘Despite the Chancellor delaying the 3p rise in fuel duty, our cost of fuel is still among the highest in Europe, so customers will welcome the 29.3% improvement in new car fuel efficiency over the last 10 years, a demonstration of industry’s commitment to delivering good value to motorists.’ The top 10 best-selling cars in the UK for November 2011 and the year-to-date (sales figure and position in brackets) are as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 6195 (90,701, 1st)
2 Vauxhall Corsa: 5324 (72,493, 3rd)
3 Volkswagen Golf: 4924 (59,337, 4th)
4 Ford Focus: 4910 (77,785, 2nd)
5 Vauxhall Astra: 4518 (57,719, 5th)
6 Volkswagen Polo: 3305 (43,250, 7th)
7 Nissan Qashqai: 3724 (36,826, 9th)
8 BMW 3 Series: 2898 (40,212, 8th)
9 Mini: 2834 (33,139, 10th)
10 Mercedes C-Class: 2540

(The 2011 year-to-date top 10 best-seller absent from November’s sales figures, is the Vauxhall Insignia selling 43,250 units in sixth place.)