PoloDriver

The best-selling car in South Africa received a boost today, as Volkswagen South Africa announced the new Polo Vivo GT. Based on the three-door version (which we’ve not seen until now) of the popular small car, the GT is based on the 1.6-litre, 104bhp Trendline, and as such has ABS, electric windows, radio/CD player with four speakers, alarm, remote central locking and ‘bee-sting’ aerial as standard. The R155,320 GT model adds lowered suspension, sports seats with ‘Rocket’ trim, red-stitched gear shift and handbrake boots, red-stitched three-spoke steering wheel with aluminium inserts, and 15-inch alloy wheels (similar in design to the 17” ‘Boavista’ rims fitted as an option to the Polo 6R). There’s also a tailgate spoiler, twin chrome tailpipes, ‘GT’ badges on the grille and tailgate, red seat belts, and gunmetal silver dashboard panels.

Basically a de-tuned cosmetic version of the European-market Polo GTI 1.8T produced from 2006 to 2009, the Polo Vivo GT adds a dash of style to the top of Volkswagen South Africa’s budget car range and is available in the traditional Volkswagen GTI colours of Deep Black, Candy White, Flash Red and Reflex Silver. The 1.6-litre engine gives 103bhp/77kW and 114lb ft/155Nm of torque, available from 5250rpm. A five-speed transmission will be standard, and the Vivo GT gets to 62mph from rest in just under 11 seconds, and has a top speed of 116mph/187km/h. The Polo Vivo GT comes standard with a 3 year/120,000km warranty and a 6-year anti-corrosion warranty. A service plan is optional.The service interval is 15,000km. Over 40,000 Polo Vivos (hatchback and sedan) have been sold since its market introduction in March 2010.

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The Polo climbed two places up the UK best-sellers chart to sixth place last month, while the Ford Fiesta was once again the nation’s favourite, with the Vauxhall Corsa in third, according to the latest batch of UK sales figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ (SMMT). New car sales in the plate-change month of September saw 332,476 new cars registered, just 0.8% down on the same period in 2010. September is the second largest single month for new car registrations, and 2011’s figures are just behind March 2011’s 366,101 units, representing 17% of the annual market. Despite declining 2011 volumes, superminis accounted for the largest proportion of this September’s figures, at 37.8%.

‘The all-important September market outperformed expectations and is less than 1% below last year at 332,476 units,’ said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive. ‘We expected 2011 to be a challenging year and we are on track for a full year total of around 1.92 million new car registrations, 5% below 2010. SMMT has revised down its 2012 registrations forecast to 1.96 million units; a reflection of the continued weakness in UK domestic demand and the uncertainty across European economies. It is important government acts to sustain an investment-led recovery and implements measures to encourage more private sector investment in R&D, skills, new plants and machinery.’ The UK’s top 10 best-selling cars in September 2011 and the year-to-date (sales figure and position in brackets) are as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 15,647 (77,198, 1st)
2 Ford Focus: 14,754 (67,672, 2nd)
3 Vauxhall Corsa: 14,339 (60,959, 3rd)
4 Volkswagen Golf: 10,628 (50,013, 4th)
5 Vauxhall Astra: 10,462 (49,042, 5th)
6 Volkswagen Polo: 8607 (36,655, 7th)
7 Vauxhall Insignia: 7323 (38,386, 6th)
8 Mini: 6903 (28,097, 10th)
9 BMW 3 Series: 6352 (33,650, 8th)
10 Nissan Qashqai: 6068 (30,763, 9th)

The fourth race weekend of the Volkswagen Polo R Cup India 2011 at the Irungattukottai Race Track, Chennai on 16-18 September 2011 handed two drivers victory. In the first round, Oshan Kothadiya took the chequered flag, with Munjal Savla coming second, while Rahil Noorani finished third. Noorani emerged victorious in the second race, ahead of Angad Singh Matharoo and Avdumber Hede. Although he crossed the line first, championship leader Prasad suffered a 30-second time penalty for failing to observe safety car regulations, snatching his pole place from him. The next rounds of the Volkswagen Polo R Cup India 2011 are once again at the 3.7km Irungattukottai Race Track, Chennai on 14-16 October. 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.

As has become customary, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo was the top-selling passenger car in South Africa last month. In three and five-door hatchback and four-door sedan (saloon) configurations, the Vivo claimed the sales top spot with a total of 3679 sales, according to figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA). In a repeat of recent months, September 2011 saw the the fifth-generation Polo do well, too, coming in second again, with 2528 units. These two models accounted for 16.4% of the South African September 2011 car market alone. ‘Volkswagen Group South Africa again topped the total passenger market with sales of 8495 vehicles, and a market share of 22.4%,’ said Mike Glendinning, Director of Sales and Marketing, Volkswagen Group South Africa.

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 is also available as both a three and five-door hatchback in addition to the recently-launched four-door notchback Polo Sedan.

It’s Friday, so here’s something fun. Having just bought our 2001 Volkswagen Polo GTI 6N2, our thoughts have often turned to the Super 1600 GTI version which took to the rally stages of the UK that same year. With pumped-up wheelarches and a larger rear spoiler, it looked the business, especially when we saw it in Ashford, UK, for the Rally of Kent stages of the Volkswagen Polo Rally Challenge, a one-make series especially for 130bhp VW Motorsport-prepared Group N-spec rallying Polos. That car’s not been seen for years, but here’s the next best thing: a tarmac racer built for hillclimbing. Thomas Klingelberger’s Polo 6N2 kit car apparently runs an original 1.6-litre VW Motorsport engine (related to the Super 1600 GTI’s we wonder?), and looks fantastic with its extended front bodywork and skimming-the-ground stance. Goes quickly, too…