PoloDriver

Two cars from the BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S2000 team finished in the top four places at last weekend’s (15-16 July) Volkswagen Rally. Highest-placed VW finishers on the Eastern Cape event were 2010 champions Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson, who crossed the line in third place after 12 gruelling stages. The Ford Fiesta S2000 of Mark Cronje/Robin Houghton won the event, with the Toyota Auris of Johnny Gemmell/Drew Sturrock took second. The Volkswagen Rally third place was, fittingly, Kuun/Hodgson’s third this season, and still puts them within reach of the 2011 championship, after the mid-way point of the season.

Below Kuun/Hodgson was the Polo Vivo S2000 of Jan Habig/Robert Paislay. Picking up a number of problems on the event – such as a broken exhaust – didn’t stop the duo, even though the mechanical maladies cost them precious time. Meanwhile, the Giniel de Villiers/Ralph Pitchford partnership picked up an eighth place finish on their maiden Volkswagen Rally. Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries were less lucky. A broken wheel forced them out from the event, just as their Polo was perched for a podium position. They slipped down the leaderboard to 15th.

It was a similar story for Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin. Their Polo Vivo S1600 retired in the first stage, due to engine damage. On the flipside, Megan Verlaque/Lirene du Plessis celebrated a S1400 class victory and a top 15 finish, even after a puncture cost them time. Other Polo finishers on the 29th Volkswagen Rally which took place around the Longmore Forest, Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth, included the team of Nicholas Ryan/Armand du Toit who placed seventh. Round six of the South African National Rally Championship takes place in the George and Knysna area of the Garden Route in the Western Cape, on 26-27 August.

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It might have taken a while to come on stream, but the smallest VW GTI seems to be impressing folk. Our Twitter feed has been littered with Polo GTI-related tweets over the last few weeks, so here’s a quick round-up of our content that you may have missed if you don’t follow us. And if you don’t, why not?

Polo GTI awarded Motor magazine’s ‘Bang For Your Bucks’ prize: http://goo.gl/fb/4fk54

The Volkswagen South Africa Date Drive results are in. And, a Polo GTI can make you sexier! Check out the infographic to see the evidence: http://twitpic.com/5melk6

Sam Wollaston of The Guardian newspaper in the UK writes about his all too brief encounter with the Polo GTI: http://t.co/kPEZ78a

Two Polo GTIs are also featuring in long-term test experiences. Ian Dickson, cars editor of MSN is running a five-door red model, and Stephen Dobie of evo magazine is running a three-door white car. Find out how they are doing by following @the_roadtester and @evoStephenDobie on Twitter respectively.

Finally, don’t forget you can read about our first drive of the 178bhp performance Polo here: http://ow.ly/5G2vc

For extra PoloDriver.com content, conversations and links that aren’t on the main website, remember to follow us at www.twitter.com/@polodrivercom

Once again, 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 chart top spot with a total of 2933 sales, according to the latest figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA). In a repeat of recent months, June 2011 also saw the the fifth-generation Polo do well, coming in second yet again, with 2097 units. A total of 9,219 new Polos were also exported to global markets from Volkswagen South Africa’s factory at Uitenhage.

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 booted Polo Sedan.

The new Polo Sedan seems to be a grown-up car for grown-ups. Or at least that’s the message Volkswagen South Africa seems to be promoting the car with. The latest two 30-second TV spots feature thirty-something males who seem to have left their wild days behind them. Voiceovers list their previous ‘incarnations’, exploits and younger selves, while the car gently comes into focus. The whole Polo Sedan launch campaign has used the ‘Ready When You Are.’ tagline, and these two commercials adhere to that marketing strategy perfectly. The Polo Sedan is the latest in a line of fifth-generation Polo models to be launched in South Africa, and costs from R159,900 for the entry-level 84bhp Trendline. The Polo Sedan is also available in Russia and India, where it is sold as the Vento.

We like technology at PoloDriver.com, especially any technology aimed for use on Apple’s mobile iOS devices. Last week car-buying website Auto Trader launched its first dedicated iPad app, introducing a new way for potential car buyers to find the wheels that will transport them to the next stage of their motoring history. It looks good, is fiendishly simple to use, and utilises all the great functionality of the Apple tablet. Based on an image-led interface, the cost-free Auto Trader app makes browsing for cars visually appealing, and meticulous search options let users narrow down their finds to the exact specification they require. A particularly useful element is the ‘garage’ function, which stores saved cars and results, letting buyers compare up to four cars side-by-side.

A ‘browse bar’ also allows users to navigate and jump to a point in their search results based on essential car-buying criteria, such as mileage, location or price. There’s also the ability to share found cars with friends and family by email, seamlessly integrating with the iPad’s ‘Mail’ application. Web links to dealers, contact details, extensive swiping galleries and even active maps are all useful tools which add to the Auto Trader app experience. ‘Our iPad app is a new way to search Auto Trader for your perfect car,’ said Nick Gee, Director of Mobile at Auto Trader. ‘Our main objective was to retain the essential search element of Auto Trader and yet enhance and redefine the user experience for iPad users. We will continue to improve the experience based on the feedback we receive.’

Autotrader.co.uk is the UK’s no 1 motoring website, with over 10.3 million monthly unique users, who carry out over 106 million searches on new and used vehicles (source: Auto Trader audit, January 2009), and the new app complements the website perfectly. In the days since this author worked at an Auto Trader local office, much has changed, and the dated-looking, flat ads I used to design have now given way to swiping, interactive media, and the Auto Trader app is genuinely impressive. Trouble is, it’s so easy to use and understand, that it could lead to all sorts of trouble and no end of potential dream purchases. Let me see, 2007-2010 Polo GTI in black, red, silver or white…