VW Polo Saloon

Hey, what do you know, the German’s finally made it to Moscow. And they’re only 69 years later than expected, but I guess better late than never. If you didn’t quite catch that, well, no one can blame you for sleeping through high school history, so we’ll let it slide. Anyway, VW has unveiled the saloon variant of the Polo, in Moscow of all places. It is made in Russia, and even developed for Russians apparently, so I guess unveiling it in the frozen wasteland makes sense.

The Russian Polo saloon is only available with one engine, fortunately for the reds it’s the right one, the 1.6L 77kW petrol motor. There are however two whole gearbox options if you simply can’t bear having an identical car to the chop next to you, a five speed manual or six speed auto. The automatic is a Tiptronic box, a first in Russia in this class, which is surprising, for a nations first Tiptronic to be in a Polo that is.

So it is just a Polo, but what makes this particular Polo variant interesting is the localisation efforts made by VW. For starters, a wide sample of Russia’s varying fuel quality was examined and tested, thus ensuring that no matter where you are in vast Russia, your Polo’s motor will keep turning without corroding away. There was extensive climate testing done, and even the suspension design takes into account Russia’s many terrible roads. The paint too is more durable, not sure how one makes paint durable, but they’ve found a way.

So if you really, really want one, consider emigrating to Russia instead of Australia. Just be warned, it gets ridiculously cold there, as the German’s well know.

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