The Volkswagen Polo is making headline news around the world as it finished 2011 as the second best selling vehicle in Europe. You must have already guessed the best selling vehicle, its without doubt the Polo’s elder sibling Golf that India unfortunately doesn’t have in its lineup.
The Golf has yet again proved that practicality tied together with fun can lead to impressive results. VW India has been spied testing the Golf in Pune but once told IAB that for its price, Indian customer is looking for a sedan.
Even if the title sums up the topic, aren’t you interested to know the best selling European car? Did you guess?
Yes it is the Volkswagen Golf that India isn’t getting anytime soon. The sedan variant based on the Golf, Jetta, is however available. When we visited Volkswagen’s Chakan plant last year, we spotted a Golf with European number plates inside the premises. Since then, our readers have seen silver color Golfs in and around Pune.
The Volkswagen Polo, with sales up by 1.2 per cent in October (compared to October 2010) is the second best selling European car followed by the Ford Fiesta came in third for 2011 selling 26,533 units.
Codenamed SK251, the C-Segment assault from Skoda has been spotted once again in outskirts of Pune. A contrasting aspect of this test mule is the swirl camouflage, a feature on test cars in Europe and America.
In India manufacturers usually cover up vehicles with black or blue cloth that doesn’t allow light to pass through. We’ve seen them test cars with black duct tape, surgeon’ white tape but with rendering specialist SRK and IAB around, companies are now forced to use new and improved methods of camouflaging and fake body parts to mask the design
Overdrive reports that the Skoda Rapid is expected to unveil the vehicle during the 2012 edition of Auto Expo and sales could begin in March 2012. Like the Vento, VW will take the Skoda Rapid to global markets. There is no doubt in our mind about the positioning strategy. The VW hierarchy will see the Rapid ranked below the Vento in the Indian line-up. Based on a slightly older Fabia platform, it is common sense to believe that a Fabia sedan will cost less to produce than a relatively new Polo-based sedan.
Sources have told Indian Autos Blog that the plan of using a rebadged A-Star for Volkswagen India’ entry-level car has been canceled. The option of using a badge-engineered A-Star was hotly debated internally last year. This option was formed after Volkswagen brought nearly a 20% stake in Suzuki late in 2009.
Volkswagen could however proceed with the plan of sourcing the rebadged A-Star for sale in some overseas markets.
As this plan is nixed, VW can explore two options -
Many international news sites are posting photographs of what they allege is VW’s next generation Polo. The pictures show a concept car of the Polo’s size. This could also be a design concept previewing the 4-door Lupo (sub Polo model under works), but that’s not scheduled for anytime before Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The second leak shows a much bigger hatchback. WorldCarFans predicts this could be the next generation [ Read More ]
TV Advertising is big among the auto makers. And the undoubted king of this segment is Volkswagen (or should we say used to be). Volkswagen commercials have always been class apart. Yes, we were initially a bit disappointed with their Indian efforts but they soon got it right with the new Vento commercial.
Turns out the king is starting to loosen his grip over the kingdom. The new Polo commercial is hardly anything to talk about. The chief reason being there is NOTHING about the car in it.
The old VW commercials used to make you “Oh, cool…now I understand”. This one makes you go “Ok ..What??”
The Ad called ‘Tough. Beautiful. Polo’ starts with the world championship tango dancers – Manuela Rossi and Gaspar Godoy doing a really fantastic and aggressive dance and end with the picture of the car. That is it!
Throughout the commercial there is absolutely NO car in it. I actually thought it was a commercial for ‘Dancing with the Stars’ until finally they showed the car.
The abstract meaning that (I THINK) the Ad is trying to convey is that just as the dance is tough and beautiful so is the Polo. But yea, this is not VW’s finest hour. Time to change Ad agency? I suppose..Yes!
We have started a second shift to scale-up production to meet the high demand for the Polo and Vento. We are gradually ramping-up production, but not rapidly, as we do not want to compromise on quality.
Volkswagen Group Sales India (Passenger Cars) Director Neeraj Garg tells reporters during the opening of its 61st dealership in India.
Just after Fiat unveiled their highly sophisticated two cylinder TwinAir engine on the Fiat 500, Volkswagen announced that they have ruled out the development & use of 2 cylinder engines.
Car companies across the globe are aiming at downsizing engine capacity, making them more efficient using methods like supercharging and turbocharging. They attain characteristics of bigger engines in the process but consume and pollute less. Volkswagen has been a pioneer in developing smaller engines and at the same time maintaining performance levels.
VW Officials said that the new city car ‘Up’ will carry a 3 cylinder engine and not a 2 cylinder one. They said that there is a limit to how much smaller an engine can get and they will be focusing on improving the performance & economy of 3 cylinder engines.
VW also said that 3 cylinder engines prove to be expensive (used on the Polo here in India) and at this stage they are not as refined as there 4 cylinder counterparts. The company wants to focus on pioneering the 3 cylinder technology before moving to 2 cylinder tech.
The Volkswagen Polo is making headline news around the world as it finished 2011 as the second best selling vehicle in Europe. You must have already guessed the best selling vehicle, its without doubt the Polo’s elder sibling Golf that India unfortunately doesn’t have in its lineup.
