Five decades of Polo: Volkswagen’s icon celebrates its 50th

Introduced at a time when Volkswagen had embarked on a renewal of its global line-up, 2025 sees the Polo celebrate its 50^th anniversary as Wolfsburg’s entry-level hatchback.

Icon still going strong

Although succeeded, briefly, by the Lupo, Fox and up! at various stages at the bottom of Wolfsburg’s product range, the Polo hasn’t experienced a generation interruption throughout its six iterations and global offset of 20-million units.

Devised as an affordable, modern and practical but smaller alternative to the Golf that premiered the previous year, the Polo has grown-up considerably, yet has also developed into a model of significant importance production-wise.

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Bar market specific versions in China and Brazil, global production, since August last year, has originated exclusively from the Kariega Plant in the Eastern Cape after the main plant in Spain produced its final unit at the end of July.

Already the only plant producing the Polo GTI in both left-and right-hand-drive, the facility smashed its own record in 2024 with the assembly of 167 084 vehicles, its highest in five years. Of these, 131 485 were Polos.

Set to continue till at least 2029, with a facelift planned for later this year, The Citizen looks back on five decades of Polo and how it effectively became South Africa’s new “people’s car”.

Mk I: 1975-1981

Shown on 13 March 1975, the original type 86 Polo came via sister brand Audi, who the previous year introduced the 50 as its smallest model.

Lightly rebadged with the same grille and lights as the Golf and Passat, the three-door only Polo measured 3.5 m in length and at its lightest, tipped the scales at 685 kg while being able to travel at more than 130 km/h.

Despite lacking certain features from the Audi, the Polo still proved a massive success with eventual sales of 1.1-million units.

Facelifted only once, the update not only brought interior and exterior changes, but also a two-door sedan known in some markets as the Derby, an efficiency-optimised model called the Formel E, and the first sporting model called the GT that produced 44 kW from its 1.3-litre petrol engine.

Mk II: 1981-1994

Signifying a massive change in the Polo’s history, the type 86C offered a wider range of bodystyles, comprising a three-door hatch known affectionally as the “breadvan”, the two-door sedan and a three-door coupe.

Longer than the original and weighing 770 kg in its most basic form, the type 86C would go on to become the Polo with the longest lifespan in Europe – its only update taking place in 1990.

Besides the sedan, the Mk II introduced several nameplate firsts, namely a diesel engine, a five-speed gearbox and, after its facelift, the usage of supercharging as in the Golf and Scirocco.

Reserved for the coupe, the GT G40, or G-Lader, replaced the conventional GT with the application of the blower seeing outputs from the 1.3-litre engine increase from 55 kW to 85 kW.

Able to hit a reported 195 km/h, the ancestor of the GTI lived on past the mentioned facelift but with reduced outputs of 83 kW as a result of emissions regulations.

In total, 2.2-million type 86C were made.

Mk III: 1994-2001

Known as the type 8N, the third generation Polo finally saw the introduction of a five-door bodystyle to go with a completely revamped interior and dramatically increased levels of safety.

The first Polo to offer anti-lock brakes, airbags, electronic stability control and other novelties such as a sunroof and a CD player, the type 8N also saw the introduction of the multi-coloured Harlequin edition, a Variant estate and a panel van that took the Caddy name from the Mk I Golf-derived bakkie.

Updated twice, the first brought the arrival of the GTI in 1998.

Billed as a limited edition powered by an 88 kW 1.6-litre engine, the replacement for the GT 40 became the first Polo to hit 200 km/h and get from 0-100 km/h in less than 10 seconds.

After the final update, power had increased to 92 kW, the claimed top speed to 205 km/h and 0-100 km/h reduced to below nine seconds.

A further innovation was the availability of 16 valves on certain engines, a first-time automatic gearbox option with four speeds, and a turbocharged diesel, namely the now iconic 1.9 TDI and later, the equally famous three-cylinder 1.4 TDI.

During its tenure, the Polo became available in South Africa, but with the Classic and later Playa suffixes – both rebadged versions of the Seat Cordoba instead of the actual Polo.

In total, 3.5-million type 8N Polos were made.

Mk IV: 2001-2009

The first “real” Polo to be offered in South Africa, the type 9N continued to be offered with three or five doors, but saw the estate being retired and the sedan renamed as the Polo Classic in some markets.

Following on from the Classic and Playa, assembly at the plant in the town previously known as Uitenhage continued, but as in Europe, with a decidedly more upmarket focus.

This included the fitting of features such as climate control, a multi-function steering wheel, power steering across all models, and, after its 2005 facelift, an MP3-enabled audio system with a CD player that replaced the cassette unit.

On the model front, the GTI remained the line-up’s flagship, but for the first time since the GT G40, with forced assistance in the form of the 20-valve 1.8-litre turbo-petrol from the Golf IV GTI.

Producing 110 kW, the GTI cracked 0-100 km/h in a claimed 8.2 seconds, which decreased to 7.5 seconds as a result of the 180 kW Cup Edition introduced in 2006 as a homologation limited run special of the racing version used in the German Polo Cup.

Further technical innovations included a six-speed Tiptronic gearbox that replaced the old four-speed auto and a novel six-speed manual on the Sportline that also became the first performance diesel Polo with outputs of 96 kW and a claimed top speed of 206 km/h.

On the engine front, the Mk IV offered a variety of 1.4 and 1.9 TDI engines as diesel popularity skyrocketed.

In addition, the Fuel Stratified Injection (FSI) technology became available, as did an efficiency-focused TDI called the BlueMotion.

Beside the debut of an SUV-styled variant initially called the Fun but later renamed CrossPolo, the end of the type 8N in 2010 led to its production being prolonged for South Africa as the Polo Vivo.

Supposed to replace the CitiGolf, the Vivo would be sold in tandem with the incoming Mk V, but with reduced equipment levels and powered by a 1.4 or 1.6-litre petrol engine.

It would remain in production until 2017, thus making the type 8N the Polo with the theoretical longest lifecycle of 15 years.

Total sales amounted to 4.1-million units, excluding the eventual 254 683 Vivos.

Mk V: 2009-2017

Described by Volkswagen as the “most dynamic” Polo ever made, the type 6R officially continued to introduce a number of firsts, but also lasts for the Polo nameplate.

Of the latter, the three-door bodystyle on volume-selling models received its marching orders, while the former involved the long awaited arrival of the much vaunted DSG dual-clutch gearbox with seven speeds as an alternative to the Tiptronic.

Updated in 2014, the 6R list of new features included a first-time touchscreen infotainment system, xenon and then later LED headlights, cruise control, heated seats, rear parking sensors and up to six airbags.

The first Polo to obtain a five-star EuroNCAP crash rating, the 6R also spawned a limited edition R variant as a step-up from the GTI, but only a limited number to celebrate the Polo’s short-lived domination of the World Rally Championship (WRC).

Mechanically, a dramatic downsizing in engine capacity took effect involving smaller displacement TSI mills of 1.0 and 1.2-litres and a reduction in diesels as a result of the infamous dieselgate scandal.

Going the other way, the GTI initially offered the twin-charged 1.4 TSI with both turbo-and-supercharging producing 132 kW, but switched to turbo-only 1.8 TSI from 2014 with outputs of 141 kW.

Besides the GTI, CrossPolo and a sedan called Vento (Polo Sedan in South Africa), the mentioned R Street served as the most powerful Polo ever made, an accolade it holds to this day.

Using the 2.0 TSI engine and six-speed manual ‘box from the GTI, but not the four-wheel-drive as in the WRC, the only true R-badged Polo produced 162 kW and got from 0-100 km/h in 6.5 seconds. In total, only 2 500 units were made.

For the second time, the 6R spawned a Polo Vivo for South Africa that debuted in 2017 and, therefore, is likely to extend its overall lifecycle similar to the 9N.

Revised last year, the Vivo is expected to remain in production until 2029, at which point, will become the Polo with the longest production life of two decades.

Breaking the record of the 9N, sales of the 6R, without those of the Vivo, amounted to 6.3-million units.

Mk VI: 2017-present

Debuting a specifically developed A0 version of the MQB platform used by, amongst others, the T-Cross, certain Seats and Skodas, the type 2G rates as the first Polo to exceed four metres long.

Exclusively marked as a five-door hatch, with some markets outside Europe being privy to a sedan called the Virtus (Polo Sedan in South Africa), the 2G’s substantial tech ramp-up involved a digital instrument cluster, removal of the CD player and integration of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Notable safety items include Adaptive Cruise Control, Autonomous Emergency Braking, Blind Spot Monitoring and Traffic Sign Recognition, to name a few.

Facelifted in 2021, the 2G’s biggest significance involved the production of the two-millionth model at the Kariega plant just over 12 months later.

In February this year, a further milestone got recorded in it becoming the 1.5-millionth Volkswagen exported from the factory.

Up front, the post-2021 refresh officially marked the end of the Polo’s usage of diesel engines, leaving a choice of four petrol engines; a normally aspirated 1.0-litre, the 1.0 TSI, the 1.5 TSI Evo and the 2.0 TSI from the Golf 6 installed underneath the bonnet of the Polo GTI.

The latter being a first sans the R Street, the initial output of 147 kW increased to 152 kW as a result of emissions regulations, though only in Europe and not in South Africa.

In its local guise, connected to the six-speed DSG and not the newer seven-speed, the Polo GTI will get from 0-100 km/h in 6.7 seconds and reach a top speed of 238 km/h.

At present, sales figures put the 2G at just under three million units.

Expanded gallery below

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