(first posted 6/30/2016) In 1994 Volkswagen introduced the third generation of the Polo, their B-segment (subcompact) model. Built at the Wolfsburg plant and still very common on the European roads. Its competition back then came from cars like the Ford Fiesta, Opel Corsa, Renault Clio and Peugeot 205~206.
Offering their cars with a wide range of gasoline and diesel engines is a good Volkswagen tradition; throughout its 1994-2001 production run the Polo III was available with gasoline engines from 45 to 125 hp and diesels from 57 to 110 hp. Worth mentioning is that the Polo III was the first Polo generation wearing a GTI-badge, 120 hp -later on 125 hp- from a 1.6 liter DOHC 16v engine.
Initially the Polo III was only available as a three- and five-door hatchback, Volkswagen completed the line-up with the introduction of the Polo Classic sedan in 1995 and the Polo Variant wagon in 1997.
You’ve heard of the Volkswagen Golf Harlequin, right ? Meet the Polo Harlequin.
The front wheels of this clean single color example are driven by a 75 hp 1,598 cc OHC 8v gasoline engine.
More powerrr….the Polo III GTI.
Oh yes, of course today’s subject has a trailer hitch, a fine Dutch tradition. The registered towing capacity of this 946 kg (2,085 lbs) Polo is 800 kg (1,764 lbs).
Volkswagen’s typical clean dash policy. A five-speed manual was the standard and most common transmission, this one is equipped with the optional four-speed automatic. There are two other Volkswagens in the background.
Just an example of the Polo Classic sedan. The four-door Polo sedan was fully based on the contemporary Seat Cordoba, the sedan version of the Seat Ibiza hatchback. Not a Classic in my book, it’s as dorky looking as any other modern-era subcompact sedan.
And the Polo Variant wagon, also Seat based.
Given its overall condition -and quality- this little Vee-Dub will just soldier on, no doubt about that. The Polo III was a commercial success, 645,000 of them were sold in its seven years’ production run.
The current fifth generation of the Polo was introduced in 2009. It’s about the same size as a 1983-1992 Golf II, just a bit taller. The car models I mentioned in the first paragraph are still the Polo’s main competitors, although Peugeot’s B-segment number is 208 these days.
I distinctly recall a Top Gear magazine comparison test (or maybe it was a different magazine) where one of the three subcompacts tested was a special edition Polo with GREEN taillight lenses. As a kid I just found that astonishing. Do you remember anything about those, Johannes?
These were easily the most distinctive Polo generation. All other generations have been either dorky or Golf-lite. Love the more recent Polo GTi though, doing a convincing imitation of the Golf GTI down to the plaid seats.
Baffling that VW US hasn’t brought these over.
Green taillight lenses, you said ? No idea if this is legal or not.
Yes, they are legal. Otherwise TÜV would not allow them to be used on German roads.
Right after VW Europe it became a fever in Brazil, the first one to use it was the Polo’s poor brother VW Gol. It was also made in blue, smoky and cherry red to mach with the same colors from Polo and Gol.
Though no match for the Gen 1 Golf, I have found each generation of the Polo to be attractive. The 2009+ versions are to my eyes better-looking than the same era Golf. However, unlike the very handsome Gen 4 Golf sedan (Bora in oz), the sedan and wagon Polos you show are just blechh.
Interesting that the latest model has been subject to ‘segment creep’ size escalation. Our Gen 4 Golf had a great ride, but I’ve never experienced a Polo from the inside.
I always liked the Cordoba/Polo wagons.
The featured car reminds me of my uni days. A Portuguese fellow student had a near identical one (but with 1.0 engine and 5 speed manual) and he used to drive it from Lisbon to Scotland every semester, carrying weed and “firewater”.
I was looking at one of these recently with a view of buying for my daughter it looked ok bright red with peeling clear coat but 5 speed we have one of those already, it went for $812 at auction a reasonable price for a late 90s hatch here. Easier if she learns manual for her restricted I think no more cars needed for a while that way.
I agree with William Stopford, these could be popular here in the USA in the 75 hp gas form for anyone longing for the good old days of small Accords and even smaller Civics circa 1982.
But that’s just my old guy opinion (and former owner of a 1982 75 hp Accord) and if I were right, the Mazda 2 would have had more success than it did. It does have a nice interior and dashboard layout.
It is always interesting to pine to the past, but strippers do not sell these days. Car makers have to offer them to get low prices, but the take rate is minuscule.
Volkswagen would be much wiser to come out with an “entry level” CUV. There is no real market for Econoboxes.
I too wish they had brought it to the USA but it probably would have been more expensive than a Mexican Jetta. A Mexican/Brazilian Fox/Pointer/ Gol would probably be a more realistic entry level car.
These days, I think VW is racking their brain to come up with an entry level CUV they could sell for cheap. Something like the Dacia Duster. Charging a premium for first world engineering and construction is getting tougher worldwide.
On the early Polos, wasn’t the sedan versions called the Derby?
Yes, it was the Derby! My friend’s mom had one of the first ones back in the day when we were little in Germany…
Our German cousin had in the late 70s a Polo has her first car while her mother had a Golf and her father had an Audi 80 that was a company car. Volkswagen was doing well by them.
In the 80’s the Fox was imported to the US and Canada
I am a fan of them, they really are a close continuation of the earlier Fox, the Audi (80). But without automatic or power steering it is amazing any were sold. They also did not upgrade to the digifant injection that added 15hp to the Golf/Jetta for 1988. This left the USA Fox with only 81hp next to the Golf’s 100hp from the same size engine. I guess they could have stuck with the 1.6 flat four some had in Brazil.
We had a fleet of these 1.6L auto Polos in barney purple as loan cars when I was working for a VW repair shop in NZ. They were all awful, with transmissions that failed around 60-70,000km, power steering that leaked, electric windows that stopped working and horrible single point injection that kept going wrong. Horrible hateful little cars.
It is interesting what is thought of as unreliable. In the USA it is usually considered best to stick with the NA 2.0 4 and 2.5 5 to avoid the troublesome ignition coil packs that plagued the light pressure turbos. Never heard of automatic troubles. Maybe a lighter duty transmission on the Polos?
It is a different trans on the polo autos, 4 speed 032 box from memory. First sign of problem was holding onto first till red line then slamming into 2nd.
Electronic throttle control on the injection unit used to fail and not move the butterly or cause it cut out on stopping. Completely different engine series to the Golfs (although the 1.4 Golf 4’s did get the Polo engine).
Looking at NZValiant’s comment brings to mind a question -I’ve always wondered why VW has such a great reputation in Europe and, well, a less great reputation in the States (and NZ?). Is it the driving conditions, the drivers, or something like the US GM syndrome where people simply accept some problems without thinking about it much ( GM cars run bad longer than most cars run at all ). I’ve always admired VW design; a friend has a black GTI that I just love, and I’d consider one myself except that another friend sold his Jetta and then did a little jig of happiness that it was gone.
Its weird, having worked at VW in NZ and here in the UK now, I find it completely different what people will accept as acceptable longevity in both places. The same things break on VW’s in both countries but people just seem to accept it in the UK and it doesn’t get called unreliable. Also, nobody drives auto Polos here (or autos in general) and that is usually the biggest repair on VW’s back in NZ. premature auto trans failure. Access to the right parts in the UK helps, in NZ it was unusual for anything to take red coolant and green power steering fluid. In VW’s if you use the more commonly available red power steering fluid and green coolant it can damage the systems and cause reliability problems (water leaks) and big repair bills (power steering failure) so the car appears to be a problem even tho it was user error.
I find it odd that Mexicans can get the Polo yet Americans never have, since I think they’re built there & thus should be at no cost disadvantage vs. the Fiesta & Spark.
When I visited Germany way back when, I got a ride in a 1st-gen Polo & was impressed.
Here in Austria those have a reputation as being indestructible and can still be seen on the roads, serving their owners who tend to be either very old or very young. I think another point which has to be born in mind is that these, like all VWs, are “native” car here, ones with which any local mechanic grew up with, so that any specific problems are well known and mostly sorted long ago. Parts are available and cheap – not so NZ (or, with other VWs, in the US or Canada). And yes, one hardly ever sees an auto; that was reserved for persons who need it due to a handicap perhaps or to markets like Israel where people cannot change gears.
What proportion of Israelis immigrated from America?
Neil, why don’t you do some research and find out?
I’ve no idea but I doubt it’s more than 5%. And if you imply that the love of the auto transmission has been imported from the US, well, in a sense there is something in it: back in the 40s-80s US-made cars were Israel’s chosen luxury vehicles, and many were equipped with auto transmissions; when such transmissions became available in smaller European and Japanese cars, there was a bit of prestige attached, so people ordered them. Also, think of Israel as one big US city – there are not that many roads where you can drive non-stop for hours, traffic jams are everywhere, and an automatic takes a lot of the strain of shifting. I grew up over there and hated the typical Israel-spec car available back then (mostly one fitted with the smallest engine available with an auto). Unfortunately this “disease” is creeping up everywhere due to – paradoxically – emission regulations, so that pretty soon there may be no more manual boxes available anywhere!
“these, like all VWs, are “native” car here, ones with which any local mechanic grew up with, so that any specific problems are well known and mostly sorted long ago.”
Excellent point.
The Brazilian VW tried to replace in 1996 tree cars with that Polo Classic, the Seat Cordoba, the lack of a second gen. Voyage (VW Fox) and the C segment VW Logus, which was indeed a Ford Orion with another design. It didn’t work very well, although Seat Cordoba also looked like a pyramid over wheels, it used be cheaper and more equipped than Polo and with a nice rear design if compared to the irritating lopsided tail lights in the Polo; Logus is a Jetta sized car and Polo is smaller, however VW priced it near to a Honda Civic. It disappeared as soon as it’s production was end.
I’m amazed that the Harlequin color assortment was an actual option! I saw a Golf done up like that once about 15-20 years ago, so I figured it was just one owner’s goofy project. Obviously it didn’t have a lot of takers here in the Midwest, as I’ve never seen one before or since that one example.
The last time I saw a Golf Harlequin was on my final farewell trip to Canada 4 years ago at this time. A ratty example abandoned on the side of Highway 2 between Edmonton and Wetaskawin. My friend couldn’t believe it was factory.
I’m sure the owner was hoping some hoodlums would trash it. Oh Oh Oh!, look what has happened!
Well, I learned something new today. I’ve seen one of these (or a replica thereof) around town but I just figured someone was having some fun with a beater. Never would have guessed it was factory (or based off of factory)!
I saw a Harlequin cruising down the highway several years ago.
Mark IIIs are getting long in the tooth, so I only see them at shows now. This one was at a VW show near Detroit this spring.
And this one was at a show on the other side of the state last year.
You’ve seen more Golf Harlequins than I have…
About the Harlequin Golf and Polo, I found this on the German Wikipedia site about the VW Polo III:
“Besonders bekannt geworden ist er als vierfarbiges Modell Harlekin – ursprünglich nur für Werbezwecke als Symbol für das Baukastenprinzip der Ausstattungsmodule gebaut, wurde es dann als Modellvariante realisiert”
I’m sure that Paul N / Jim K / Wolfgang / OliverTwist can find the correct English words for this, I can’t right now… 🙂
I’m Ibiza Guy because I used to own the Polo twin, aka Seat Ibiza. Same dash, same engines and most of the components were the same.
It doesn’t exist anymore. The 1.6 engine was also available in the Seat but mine was a TDI 90 HP and it looked like this one
Funny thing is that it had to go to the crusher because the fuel pump died because I didn’t drive it often… At 300000 km
Popular in my country too, especially among the younger folks. Before the nineties a Seat was an oddity. My niece drove Seats in the eighties, I remember her silver metallic Seat Malaga from that era, something like the one below. She drives a Citroën C4 Cactus these days…quite a change…
Terrible car, the Malaga. Awkward styling, sub-standard bult quality and unreliable “System Porsche” engines, in an old Fiat Ritmo based platform. A sales failure, too. Very hard times por Seat, those years; without VW, the brand wouldn´t be alive.
Oh yes ! “System Porsche”…or as my niece’s father said back then: “it has a Porsche engine”.
Between the Volvo modular, the Lada Samara engine, and the Seat engine, (Porsche) engines were getting around in the late 80s. Did the System Porsche engine survive into the Volkswagen based Seats? I assume they at least resembled the VW four.
As far as I know the System Porsche engines in Seats were all based on four-cylinder Volkswagen engines.
Nice car, this first gen. didn’t sold as much as the Cordoba in Brazil, but the second version got some popularity until Seat end it’s operation in early 2000. VW also sold the Ibiza in some Countries with the same nose from Polo Classic, the Polo Playa.
Living in the (US) west and driving bigger cars, I was not familiar with the Polo until I had rental experiences in Europe.
Hertz in Frankfurt rented me a hatch in 1984 for around 2,000 miles of driving in Germany, France and the low countries and Hertz in Prague rented me a hatch in 2007 for another 2,000 miles in Czech & Slovakia. Both cars were of different generations than the featured one but both were excellent.
I remember both cars as fun – manual transmissions with low capacity engines are not what we are used to but can be satisfying to use and were on European two lane roads.
Considering the 95% take rate of auto to stick here in the USA, the Polo’s transmission would have been yet another nail in the coffin holding VW’s reliability reputation. It’s a pity, I’d enjoy something smaller than the Golf with the same road manners and I don’t need anything bigger. A turbocharged model with a stick would be fast enough for our roads. I don’t know why VWoA hasn’t tried to certify the Polo for our market.
Only the TDI engines (from 75 to 110 hp) in the Polo III had a turbocharger. The top speed of the 75 hp 1.6 gasoline with a manual was 172 km/h.
Fast typically refers to acceleration not top speed
That may be true for the US.
“Fast” means that you can drive 130+ km/h without getting white knuckles and a sweaty forehead after driving 15+ minutes at said speed.
Who cares that you can beat a loaded concrete mixer truck at the traffic lights ?
Seems to be about the same size and weight as the MK1 Rabbit/Golf. Probably wouldn’t have made sense to sell this in the US. I do like it though. Better looking and probably better built than the Mexico built bloated MK3. Stick shift version for me, please.
My first thought in looking at this was the same as others: They should have brought this over here to the US.
But, as mentioned more than once, it wouldn’t have sold, and in all likelihood would have been priced out of competition with the Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio, Mazda 2, etc. For those of us who loved our late 80’s and early 90’s VW’s the Polo looks like a welcome nostalgia trip. I’d love to be driving the equivalent of an updated 1985 Golf, but I’m pretty sure that if I shopped it against its Japanese and Korean rivals in today’s market I probably wouldn’t buy it either. Poor VW, they really don’t seem to be on a course for “Getting it Right” in the US market at all lately.
Price-wise the Polo was and still is at the top of its segment. But as T. Turtle says above, the Polo III is a tough little car and is still very common. Heck, I still see plenty of Polos II on the road. And indeed, a Volkswagen in Northwestern Europe is as ordinary as a Toyota in North America.
True; it wouldn’t have sold here. And VW has been trying to push the brand up-market some for ages. Competing with the Koreans at the bottom of the market would have been futile.
For this they have Seat and, partially, Skoda in Europe but these are unknown brands in North America.
For this they have Seat and, partially, Skoda in Europe but these are unknown brands in North America.
VW Vortex is reporting that VW is registering the Skoda model names with the US Patent and Trademark Office. This has set off a lot of speculation that Skoda will be offered as a price leader brand here, possibly to recapture the sales momentum VW initially experienced when they cheapened the Jetta in 2011.
What is different now vs 2011 is C segment sales are weak. The only winners year to date in the segment are Civic (zoomy new model) up 19.9% Sentra up 16.2, Forte up 22%
Year to date Corolla down 4.2%, Mazda3 down 6.4%, Hyundai Elantra down 25%, Ford Focus down 11.9%, Chevy Cruze down 32.2%, Buick Verano (confirmed to be dropped this October) down 16.4%, Chrysler 200 (confirmed to be dropped) down 62%, Dodge Dart (confirmed to be dropped) down 41%
Against that backdrop, Jetta sales are down 13% and Golf sales are down 14.3%. The mainstream Golf hatchback is down 45.9% and is now outsold by the GTI and nearly outsold by the Golf wagon.
I don’t know what VW could hope to gain by offering more C segment products under the Skoda brand. The Yeti SUV looks as frumpy as the current Tiguan which has been a sales winner this year. And I don’t see how Czech production could be cheaper than VW’s existing plants in Mexico.
But they haven’t asked my opinion.
Here’s an article about the Skoda name registrations. Analysts from KBB and IHS Automotive both think it’s a nutty idea. VW can’t possibly think that the VW brand has been hurt worse by the diesel scandal than it was by their dreadful product quality and reliability in the 90s.
https://www.thestreet.com/story/13599446/1/volkswagen-mulls-bringing-skoda-a-czech-automotive-name-to-the-u-s.html
Regarding the Skoda Yeti, in a few months Skoda will introduce the bigger Kodiaq that probably looks like this:
in a few months Skoda will introduce the bigger Kodiaq
People have been snapping up the current Tiguan, in spite of it’s funky looks. When the new generation Tiguan comes out, the VW stores will probably be mobbed. In US tradition, ours will be extra long for more room, more size and just plain more, because more is what sells here. And it looks very much like the Kodiaq.
The Skoda Kodiaq is based on the new VW Tiguan and will be available as a 7-seater. Of course there’s also a Seat edition, the Ateca.
VW is tooling up it’s US plant in Chattanooga to produce a new SUV that is larger than the Tiguan. Little information about the product has been released, but it is said to be unique to the US and China markets, rather than based on European VWs.
VW product development has had a dilemma: they have generally been selling variants of what they sell in Europe, but European models are not what the volume US market wants. To build special US models would only be cost effective with high volume, but they can’t get the high volume without US specific models. Looks like they are finally throwing that “hail Mary” pass and bringing out the extra large products the US wants, and hoping they sell.
The Chattanooga plant has built it’s first test body to verify the tooling for the new SUV, so production is only a few months away.
http://www.businessinsider.com/vw-suv-mid-size-2016-5
The Skoda Kodiaq is based on the new VW Tiguan and will be available as a 7-seater. Of course there’s also a Seat edition, the Ateca.
The US Tiguan is longer than the EU version, with an optional 3rd row seat, so apparently the Kodiaq is a US spec Tiguan.
Looks like the SEAT version uses a rising beltline in the side windows behind the doors, which will impeade rear quarter visibility. Good rear quarter visibility is a feature I value, and is increasingly difficult to find with the growing popularity of Asian school styling with high beltlines and tiny windows.
My interest in VWs ended with the A2 Golf and Jetta. Everything since has either been horrendously unreliable, bloated, or both. And don’t even get me started on those Chattanooga built abominations.
No generation of Polo would have ever sold well in the US, but I always wonder why VW didn’t use it as the basis for a smaller, niche alternative to the 2012+ Beetle that has failed in the marketplace.
I am surprised vw never brought them to Canada. We seem to love small efficient hatchbacks and wagons unlike our American neighbors. I suspect the low Canadian dollar and small market had something to do with it…
Well, you got the Golf City, a Mk IV with a new front clip and taillights, for a few years. This one was clearly lost as it turned up in metro Detroit, still wearing it’s Ontario plates.
That’s true I remember when they came out the price was good and depending who you believe based on a fairly reliable platform. I tried to convince a buddy to get one but he bought a Kia Rio instead. Not sure how that worked out for him but I know 5 years later the city golf or Jetta had a better resale value…
I would love to have a city car with the manners and ergonomics of my Mk V based Jetta wagon. Problem is, in the US most seem to equate prices with size and electronic gadgets. The B segment is full of bottom feeders from Kia and Hyundai as well as the Daewoo built Chevy Spark and Toyota Yaris. A couple weeks ago, Chevy was running a special on their slow selling passenger cars (Spark, Sonic and Impala) that put the price of entry on a Spark at slightly above $11,000. Larger hatchbacks don’t sell well either. The Golf, all conquering in the rest of the world, is a niche model here. When Saturn imported the Astra hatchback, it was a stunning failure
For a better than penalty box car to sell in the B segment, it needs a gimmick, like the Mini, Fiat 500 and the Mk IV based New Beetle.
For my money the Polo, and Opel Corsa, are narcolepsy inducing. It’s really difficult to make 4 doors and a lot of interior space work on a platform that small.
The Corsa based Adam, especially in “Open Air” trim makes me burn with lust. Long enough to not look like a phone booth on casters, purposeful instrumentation, humungous sun roof. I’d be all over it, but I’m probably a cult of one.
Some other “high-end” B-segment cars are the DS3 (formerly known as the Citroën DS3), Audi A1 and Alfa Romeo MiTo. Fully loaded with goodies and with powerful engines, given size and weight.
Here a small car doesn’t mean it has to be a stripper / econobox / as cheap as possible, unlike the market for subcompacts in the US.
Great memories. My sister bought her first new car, a five door Polo 1.6, in 1997 (manual transmission). “Candy white” with those dowdy steel wheels. Small but spacious enough inside, very good bulit quality, and the old tech 1.6 engine had only 75 bhp but it was rather torquey, which is what you want for city driving.
The 3rd generation Polo was very succesful around Europe, and deservedly. My sister´s was very reliable, she sold it to a friend in 2002 with 110,000 miles on the clock and I believe the “Polito” is still running.
Fun fact: many 3rd generation Polos were made in the VW Landaben factory in the north of Spain; the same factory that built Minis, Austins 1100, assorted Seats and even the Lancia Beta HPE and Coupé…
These were rather ubiquitous during my university years in Niedersachsen. In the US, by this time, the economy was booming and the neat little mini-cars released during the end of the 1980s were being phased out of the market from a lack of buyers. Too bad too, because these were delightful little urban cars that held up very well. The Harlequin VWs were brightening up the streets around the city as well.
However, this size car simply couldn’t sell in the US. VW saw the trend lines and never shipped any Polo cars to this part of the world.