When all you thought possible in the world is inexorably tossed aside, it’s known as a paradigm shift. This past week, while you were settling down to another day of work in the new year, VW launched the new Polo. And things will never quite be the same again.
The new VW Polo is a phenomenon — there is no other word for it. Already the 2010 European car of the year, it seems poised to conquer the rest of the civilised world. This is not only the impression one gets from behind the wheel of this alarmingly impressive car, but from VW’s rhetoric as well.
Its talk of “taking over the world by 2018” isn’t dissimilar to rhetoric floating around Germany when the original Beetle made its first appearance. Proof that global, expansionist agendas are still alive and well in Germany, albeit no longer in the political and militaristic realm.
Levity aside, if this Polo were adorned in jackboots and full combat regalia, it would be goose-stepping through Poland right now.
The car carries immense economic significance for South Africa also. We are responsible for producing all Polos sold in right-hand-drive markets in the world. And the project is purported to be the most significant undertaking at the massive VW group in years, with VW boss, Martin Winterkom, and head of design, Walter de Silva, personally invested and constantly tangling over production costs against their commitment to research and design. Only a company with the scope and size of VW could pull off such a vastly ambitious project.
For instance: what other entry-level car has been tested on the Nurburg-ring to hone its ride and handling, has had its wing mirrors specifically redesigned to offer 20% less drag, has been crash tested to the point that engineers know it takes 180 000Nm of force to flex the chassis by 1%?
The practical result of this empirical sort of investment is impressive in every way — as though the value can’t help but ooze out from behind its metal. The new Polo is wider and longer to offer more cabin space, but lower to the ground to ensure improved handling. The body is reinforced to reduce crash impact intrusion and has two extra airbags as standard, yet is still 7,5kg lighter.
The overwhelming feeling in the Polo when driving it is less of excitement and more of sophistication. The ride is faultless for a small car and the directness of the steering could put other “sporty” cars to shame.
Even the gear shift in the manual feels impressive. Overall, it feels like a Golf VI, but better because it’s nimbler. All this in a new version of a car that has sold, 11-million units worldwide and has been the segment leader for the past seven years in South Africa.
A brand-new Polo would sell if it was made from cable ties and chewing gum — talk about VW refusing to rest on their laurels.
Unlike the European car of the year, Volkswagen South Africa has relied on locally manufactured and reworked engines from the previous generation Polo. We get 1,4-litre and 1,6-litre, 16-valve petrol motors and a new 1,6-litre TDI. There is no use as yet of the 1,4TSI engine.
VW claims the diesel will return 4,2-litres/100km with emissions of 109g, and the petrol models within 6,0-litres/100km.
Of the range, my pick is the 1,4-litre, 63kW motor because it’s the cheapest, but still adequately powered, with a rowdy engine note. A sixth gear on the manual gearboxes would have been nice and better for economy, however.
What impressed me the most, along with its quality, is the simplicity and elegance of its design. It’s like a deft scalpel cutting through the ornate designs of other modern cars, and the Scirocco DNA in the front end and wing mirrors is unmistakable.
I’ll put my head on a block right now and say the Polo will endure as a motoring icon well into the new decade purely on design alone.
Little wonder VWSA wanted it to be the first car launched for the next 10 years. It can be mentioned in the same breath as VW’s most iconic cars: the Beetle and Mk1 Golf.
If I was forced to find fault with the Polo, it would be that it could be more exuberant. It’s ever so slightly cold and calculating. For all its quality, it doesn’t have any under-dog factor built into it. The Polo is Germany, at home, by five goals to nil.
It’s Michael Schumacher leading all the way to the chequered flag. But that’s only if you force me to find fault, because the Polo has always been the yardstick and the new one has just blazed even further ahead. And from design to final manufacturing, it’s something South Africans can be proud of.
A three-year/120 000km warranty comes standard on all models with a five-year/60 000km service and maintenance plan offered as optional extras.
Model range and pricing
Petrol
1.4-litre (63kW) Trendline R144 900
1.4-litre (63kW) Comfortline R161 900
1.6-litre (77kW) Trendline R166 900
1.6-litre (77kW) Comfortline R183 800
1.6-litre (77kW) Comfortline Tiptronic R197 900
Diesel
1.6-litre (77kW) TDI Comfortline R209 900
From Prieska to Wolfsburg
Born in the tiny Karoo town of Prieska in the Northern Cape, a Cape Town Technikon graduate in graphic design, Oona Scheepers, has ascended to a dream job in the automotive design world: working for Volkswagen as a key team member under the world-renowned car designer Walter de Silva — the man who’s been responsible for the designs of hundreds of the models ranging across the vast VW stable that graces our roads today.
Before her permanent VW position she was head of colours and interiors at Audi AG. Not a bad reference considering Audi interiors are unanimously recognised as the best in the business at the moment, something we can thank Oona for. And she can count among her most successful projects in the past 18 years the Porsche Carrera GT and Cayman, and the Audi R8, A8, A5 and TT.
She was on hand at the launch of the new Polo to give insight into the Polo design philosophy. “The simplicity and longevity of the design was a clear part of the mandate from the start. After the first round of design submissions by the team, De Silva said he could see three cars in each designer’s drawings … and he only needed one. Simplify and refine, chisel away decoration and opulence became our mantra,” said Scheepers.
“With the Golf VI there was a strong determination to ‘continue the myth’ of Golf. That is to say, we felt the need to stay honest and responsible to the values of Golf.
“With the new Polo, however, Walter encouraged us to ‘destroy the past’,” said Scheepers.
She also acknowledges the vitally important role current Ferrari chief designer and former design head at VW, Flavio Manzoni, has had on the current VW design language. In her estimation he was the man responsible for VW’s reawakening as a design icon with his initial work on cars such as the new Scirocco, work that has acted as a genetic template to many VW products that have followed, undoubtedly incorporating the new Polo as well.
“My love, of course, will always lie with interiors and the amount of time we spent on the new Polo was staggering. I like to think the relationship you have with a car’s interior is the long-term relationship you have with the car so you mustn’t just see the Âquality, but you must feel it and hear it.
“We had to use a lot of plastics, but to satisfy Walter’s desire for absolute quality we went as far as inventing a new ‘slush technology’ for the soft plastic used in the dash. We went over the interior with magnifying glasses and even skew stitching was pulled up and redone,” she said.
The biggest challenge with any form of automotive design, she finally admitted, was achieving longevity. “A design, inside or out, has to be timeless, it has to be good now and it has to be good six, seven, eight years from now. A designer has to think about that. That is what we really hope we’ve achieved with the Polo,” said Scheepers.