The new VW Polo

With the new Polo, Volkswagen have brought a small car onto the market that has very little in common with the original (rather Spartan) model of the same name. Providing you can dispense with a couple of centimetres in length and a modicum of comfort, you are probably better off with a Polo than with big brother Golf – plus you are going to save a lot of money. The 1975 Polo was a makeshift solution adapted from the Audi 50. This infant came on by leaps and bounds, 10.6 million having since rolled off the production lines. After the Golf, the Polo stands on equal footing with the Passat as the third pillar of Volkswagen's success. This fifth edition is set to compete with the Golf (Europe's most popular car by sales volume) as never before. We present a historical record of how the VW compact has developed over the decades.