PoloDriver

Six thousand readers of Autoflotte (Auto Fleet) magazine have awarded the Polo the Best Small Car award in the publication’s list of 2010 honours announced last week. Awarded at the AMI Leipzig 2010 motor show, the Volkswagen Group took 12 first place prizes, with the Golf awarded Best Compact Car and the Touran the Best Compact Van. Stefan Brungs, Head of Volkswagen Group Fleet International was pleased with the result: ‘We are delighted, especially as these awards are chosen by fleet managers. The Autoflotte awards underline the outstanding position of the Volkswagen Group’s economic and energy-efficient vehicles and the quality of our extensive service offering for our large customers.’

‘Polo Van – never has a small car been so great.’ So goes the marketing slogan on the Danish Volkswagen website. There hasn’t been a proper small commercial-type Polo Van since the model based on the Series 2 from the mid-1980s. With metal panels in the hatchback body where the rear windows would usually be fitted, the first Polo Van was a stripped-out special, complete with wooden rear deck and bulkhead just behind the front two seats. Trimmed similarly to a basic Polo Fox, it was a Volkswagen approved and made city commercial vehicle, ideal for scooting through urban landscapes.

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Last month Rich Gooding’s 1994 Polo GT Coupé came out of its dry home after a month-long stay. And although he’s not had time to find the source of the water leak, he has managed to hose some of the wet stuff underneath it

It’s April, which means only one thing. No, not a guaranteed soaking from the showers frequent at this time of the year, but the build up to the Stanford Hall VW event. Tradtionally the start of my show season calendar, Stanford Hall is arguably the UK’s longest-running Volkswagen event, and certainly one of the most laid back. Always enjoyable – and usually blessed with good weather – the show is held in the grounds of the country house with which it shares its name. An event which favours standard as opposed to modified cars, the concours d’elegance must rate as one of the best in the country, let alone VW circles.

So, with just over two weeks to go, it’s time to get L307 in some sort of shape. No, not that I’m entering any concours classes (the time has been and gone for that, but I did win a trophy), but I have got a club stand booked and I want the car to look its best. Or at least as best as it can be. So, all those jobs that I’ve been putting off for months have got to be done, or at least partly done, so that the GT can sparkle in the spring sunshine. First up, the wheelarches. I used to clean them out much more regularly than I do now, but armed with a bottle of degreaser, a brush and a hose, the job was easier than I had been expecting.

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Timed while it is showing the latest accessories for the Polo at the AMI Leipzig 2010 motor show – which ends this week – Volkswagen has recently introduced a promotion for German customers who want to add that little extra style to their new Polo, Golf and Scirocco. From 1 April to 30 June 2010, the ‘Enter low, get out large’ promotion (yes, the English translation seems to make little sense, we know, but all will become clear) enables customers who drive three of VW’s most popular models to get ‘attractive discounts’ on styling products and lowered suspension kits.

Official products for the Polo which qualify include front and rear aprons, side skirts, roof spoilers, racing pedals and lowered suspension springs. In addition, Motorsport-style multi-spoke 17” alloy wheels and carbon fibre-effect interior trim panels are also available. From what we can translate from the German press release, there is also an online ‘backwards’ auction, from which the winner with the lowest bid will receive a full body kit, a complete set of alloy wheels and a lowered suspension package, all to be fitted by a Volkswagen retailer. The promotion runs both in retailers’ showrooms and online. Visit Volkswagen Accessories’ German-language ‘Stylingaktion’ microsite for further details of the incentive.

Here’s some exclusive content for you on PoloDriver. Back in February we posted about the fifth-generation Polo’s ‘Expect Big Things’ TV commercial. Shot over three days in Cape Town in January for the car’s South African market launch, the typically hot and humid city was covered in snow, possibly for the first time. It was no ordinary snow, though; a fleet of five red Polos were towing snow-making machines, instantly covering everything with a dusting of the white stuff. The cars all end up on the top floor of a tall building, where the ‘Expect Big Things. New Polo.’ banner is unfurled.

A short time ago, we caught up with Matt Poolman, who works with MXFX Special Effects, the company that turned Cape Town into a winter paradise. Matt answered a few questions for us and explained what goes on behind the scenes at the shooting of a Polo TV commercial.

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