More news from the upcoming Frankfurt Auto Show about the bound for the United States Polo from Volkswagen. The Polo, or some version of it, has been around Europe for quite some time. VW never brought it to North America because they felt it was “too small” for us. That might have been true, but times have changed and so has the Polo. The upcoming version is now about the size of the Golf from a few generations ago, and VW is supposedly bringing it to U.S.
Which is good on a number of levels. It should be small, tossable, fun to drive and economical to operate. It could also fill a nice niche for first time car buyers, and for those that use their car primarily for commuting or city driving, the Polo seems like a natural. And if VW is smart enough to bring the TDi diesel variant here, the gas mileage looks to be stunning.
The Polo version in questions is the Polo Three-Door. It’s a smaller and sportier version of the car, which has also been a bestseller of late. The latest iteration will be available this fall with six different engine options. Three of those plants will be “normal” gasoline fueled engines, and the other three will be diesels. The available power outputs across the range will be 59 horsepower to 104 hp.
The car in question here, the most fuel-conscious of the six, is the BlueMotion version of the Polo Three-Door. The most economical Polo returns a staggering 71 mpg, and yes, that’s in U.S. gallons. This is for the Polo equipped with the least powerful mill that puts out 55 kW / 75 PS (sorry, there were no U.S. power figures available). No, it’s not going to win you much at the bracket drags, but that’s not the point now, is it?
The new base Polo should start at around €12,150 in Germany, which works out to about $17,300 for Americans. There’s no official word on pricing, since that conversion represents the all inclusive price of German taxes and whatnot, but it will give you some idea what to expect if VW does end up bringing this Polo variant to our shores.
Source: AutoBlog
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If the 71 mpg figure is based on the European ‘extra-urban’ (i.e. highway) fuel economy test, it returns averages that are 30 percent higher than the US EPA highway mileage test. See ‘The Truth About EPA Mileage Estimates’ from Car & Driver, August 2009. If so, the Polo TDI would get approx. 50 mpg highway- still great but not a record.