Volkswagen Polo at Frankfurt Motor Show
September 15, 2009 by Matt Brogan
As CarAdvice hinted a few weeks back, Volkswagen has premiered its youngest offspring of the Polo family at the Frankfurt International Motor Show.
The agile three-door shares the new styling cues as seen on Tiguan and Golf for a more consistant family look.
The new Polo will be available with a choice of six engines, ranging from 44 to 77kW, and in three model grades (Trendline, Comfortline, Highline) which include the new Polo BlueMotion which will also be available as a five-door.
The world’s most fuel-efficient car in its class, Polo BlueMotion develops 55kW from its turbo-diesel engine while managing 3.3 litres per 100km and 87 grams of CO2 per kilometre. Although on display at Frankfurt the Polo BlueMotion will not go on sale until midway through 2010.
Volkswagen is also offering the Polo with an automatic seven- speed dual-clutch gearbox (DSG) for the first time.
The model’s entry-level version will now be the three-door Polo 1.2 Trendline with standard ESC.
Engine selections across the range include three diesel and three petrol units as follows:
- 1.2-litre four-cylinder (44kW) petrol*
- 1.2-litre four-cylinder (51kW) petrol*
- 1.4-litre four-cylinder (62kW) petrol*
- 1.6-litre four-cylinder (55kW) turbo-diesel*
- 1.6-litre four-cylinder (66kW) turbo-diesel*
- 1.2-litre four cylinder (77kW) turbo-petrol*
*All engines comply with strict new Euro V emissions legislation.
Key dimensions of the Volkswagen Polo:
- Overall Length: 3970mm
- Overall Width: 1682mm
- Overall Height: 1485mm
- Cargo Capacity: 280/952 litres
No dates for the Australian market introduction have been confirmed yet.
Print it: 
Yet another win for VW in the race to be most fuel efficient.
Fantastic, and it doesn’t look boring either.
I don’t see why it needs so many different engine choices, that can’t be very cost effective, they all offer similar power anyway.
Look outside your backyard mate – the car is built to be sent to world-wide markets, many of which require tiny engines, and some that prefer diesels, and some where fuel is cheap. Some countries are dead flat, others are steep, some are ice cold, some are warm….
One engine does not fit all.
I’m waiting to see what the final engine will be – what will they put into the Polo GTI. Will the 1.8l Turbo continue on ???? Maybe with a 6 speed DSG since the 7 is not designed for that much grunt.
This looks so much better than the golf and the previous generation Polo.
That is not a nice looking car, wonder if it will have the usual VW gremlins??
What would they be? Ploise be pacific.
Jeez, Golfie … when will they learn?
you think this looks good, wait til you see the Blue Scirocco R they have on display at the show. You can find the latest pics if you google Frankfurt motor show live pics.
This is one good package… better looks than the Golf and the turbo 1.2 with 7 speed DSG should be a class leader. The only problem is, will it be reliable? My experience with 2 VWs to date has not been good and I’d hate to have the DSG box fail out of warranty. If VW can make their cars reliable, then I’ll take one… otherwise the bland and boring offerings at Toyota will still be a better long term option.
Great car. If they swap the steering wheel over to the other side it will be a winner.
After driving 2 Toyota’s, 2 Holden’s , one Mazda and one Honda, my next choice will either be a Big T or Honda as their reliability are so remarkable.
Get the Toyota.
True, Honda’s are hellishly expensive to fix compared to Toyota’s. Still you should check out VW.
I’m starting to appreciate the rear design, Volkswagen must have wanted to keep the symbolic rear look but to just make it more modern. Yes it will probably be less reliable than anything Japanese, but it has better safety and probably a more dynamic driving quality to make up for it.