PoloDriver

Volkswagen Group South Africa performs ahead of the passenger market year-to-date, with the entry-level Polo Vivo once again the top-selling brand in October 2010. Selling 2576 units, the car remains South Africa’s favourite passenger car brand. Meanwhile, the New Polo maintained a good sales figure of 723 units, despite low October opening stock. Overall, 30,752 new passenger cars were sold in South Africa during October 2010, a total up 2.6% on September, and a rise of 25.1% when compared to the same period in 2009. The year-to-date October market in 2010 is 30.1% above the same period last year.

‘The Polo Vivo was again South Africa’s favourite brand, while the New Polo, the only South African manufactured SA 2010 Car of the Year finalist, had a good result, considering low October opening stock as a result of the industry-wide strikes in previous months,’ commented Mike Glendinning, Director of Sales and Marketing, Volkswagen Group South Africa. ‘Volkswagen Group South Africa has increased passenger sales in the domestic market by 32% year-to-date versus 2009 – 1.9% ahead of the 30.1% total passenger market year-to-date growth, which is testament to our brand strength in a very competitive market,’ Glendinning continued.

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. Available as both a three or five-door hatchback and four-door saloon with 74bhp/84bhp 1.4-litre and 103bhp 1.6-litre petrol engines, two trim levels are available: base and Trendline. Costing from R104,065 for the most basic 1.4 hatchback to R156,220 for the 1.6 Trendline Sedan, the Polo Vivo is based on the facelifted version of the Series 4 Polo, built from 2005 to 2009. Changes include front and rear bumpers, as well as a revised front grille and other minor bodywork alterations.

Twice on the podium, with each driver having achieved one victory and one third place – the tally of Mathew Hodges and Kyle Barnes remained equal at rounds 15 and 16 of the 2010 Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa on 30 October. Hodges secured victory on the 3.921-kilometre track in the south-east of South Africa in the first race while Kyle Barnes finished third. In the second race Hodges and Barnes swapped positions. Second place in the first race went to Miguel Pasqualli and to Graham Donker in the second.

The season victory went to Hodges in the PG Glass Polo, marking a second consecutive national championship title in the single-make Polo series for Hodges. The 2010 Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa will contest its season finale Kyalami on 27 November. The series is similar to the other racing Polo championships run in Europe and India. Just as in those series, the one-make format highlights new young driving talent. As many as 30 drivers regularly take to the track in technically identical cars, full grids ensure close-fought races.

With the advent of the new 1.4 TFSI Polo GTI, UK VW magazine Volkswagen Driver is looking for owners of 9N3 Polo GTI (2006-2010) owners  to give short opinions on ownership for a forthcoming model profile. In production for four years, the 9N3 GTI had a 1.8-litre, turbocharged engine, good for 148bhp, 0-62mph in 8.2 seconds, and a top speed of 134mph. Only eclipsed by the continental market-only 9N3-based Polo GTI Cup Edition with 178bhp, the outgoing GTI was the most powerful series production Polo at the time. Interested 9N3 Polo GTI owners should email Volkswagen Driver editor Neil Birkitt as soon as possible.

The new Polo has been chosen alongside the Volkswagen Amarok Double Cab pick-up as a finalist for the 2011 Wesbank/SAGMJ Car of the Year competition in South Africa. The new Polo 1.6 TDI Comfortline 77kW will compete with the Amarok 2.0 BiTDI 4×2 Double Cab and eight other finalists for the country’s premier motoring award. Volkswagen is hoping that the new Polo or Amarok will make it two in a row for the brand, following Golf 1.4 TSI’s success in the 2010 competition. The winner of the 2011 WesBank/SAGMJ Car the Year will be revealed in March next year.

‘Volkswagen Group South Africa is honoured to have two of its cars as the finalists in this prestigious competition, especially the Amarok which has just been launched in South Africa and is the first Double Cab finalist in the CoTY competition. In the past three years, Volkswagen brands have made the final list of the competition. The nomination of our cars as finalists, is a strong endorsement of our brand strength,’ said Mike Glendinning, Director Sales and Marketing, Volkswagen Group South Africa.

The next step of the competition is a two-day test session in February 2011 at the Gerotek test facility near Pretoria, where the cars will be assessed independently by the CoTY jury members. In keeping with the broadened competition, the testing at Gerotek will allow the cars to be evaluated in conditions each vehicle would be expected to perform under. Jury members will pay close attention to the cars’ aesthetics, build quality and ergonomics, while considerations based on perceptions of value for money, cost of spares, safety features and environmental friendliness will be taken into account before scoring the top ten.

The BP Volkswagen rally team are celebrating their sixth consecutive national rally title after the Toyota Dealer Rally Gauteng on 15-16 October. The event was the final of an eight-round national championship that has proved one of the most punishing and challenging in recent memory. Not content with haranguing competitors throughout the year, the 2010 season had a final challenge and finish in store. The drama started early on day one when, in the third stage of the event, the championship leaders crashed out of contention. Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson were less than 500 metres into stage three, a reverse of the fearsome Gerotek Hillclimb course, when they went sliding off the stage into the bush, bringing their championship campaign to an abrupt end.

The focus of the event then shifted to Kuun and Hodgson’s rivals Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock in their S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris. With a 21-point difference between the two, Gemmell and Sturrock needed to win the event if Gemmell was to win the championship. Tension throughout the service park ran high as the stage reports came in. It wasn’t going to go Gemmell’s way though as the two Ford entries were fighting hard and eventually claimed a one-two podium with Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich claiming victory and Conrad Rautenbach and Peter Marsh in second place. Gemmell’s teammate Leeroy Poulter and his navigator, Robert Paisley, claimed third place while Gemmell and Sturrock finished fourth.

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