Russian made Polo Saloon starts from 10.000 euro

“Oh, those Russians!” – I cry when I see what Volkswagen’s marketing department came up with for the sedan liking Russian buyers! The rear end is second to none in its ugliness.
Hey, I know – they wanted to make sure none of the buyers of Jetta and Passat would opt for the smaller, but not as much less practical subcompact sedan.

The official marketing pitch goes like this: Polo has been developed specially for the Russian market, optimized for moderate pricing (from just a bit over 10,000€ for a Trendline trim), but offering global VW quality and reliability. Frank Wittemann, Head of the Volkswagen Brand in Russia put it this way: “The new Saloon extends Volkswagen’s range of vehicles und builds a bridge from our bestsellers in Russia, the Passat and the Jetta, to the small familiy car segment.

It will be a domestic Russian product, as production will take place in Kaluga (Russia) on a completely new assembly line. The world premiere took place before 200 high-ranking guests in Moscow yesterday.

The Volkswagen Polo Saloon is equipped with a new 1.6-litre 4 cylinder engine (77 kW / 105 HP). It can be combined with a 5-gear manual gearbox or a 6-gear automatic gearbox with sequential shift function (Tiptronic), which is a special sign of gratitude to Russian buyers.

The specific demands of Russian drivers and the climate and street conditions in Russia have both been carefully taken into account during the new Saloon’s development: long-term tests were conducted in different climate zones, and the street conditions in the most variegated regions in Russia were examined.

The available petrol qualities were tested repeatedly as well. Thus the vehicle has been equipped with an up-to-date and reliable engine that is ideally suited to those operating conditions prevailing in Russia, a galvanised, non-corrosive body and a wheel suspension geared to bad roads. Particularly robust paints were used for the car’s paint job, and the chrome parts are also highly resistant to aggressive agents.

A high level of safety is ensured by a pair of front airbags, head rests and three-point seat belts for all five passengers. From Comfortline and up, the Polo is equipped with ABS as standard. In the Highline top version, additional safety systems are integrated that are normally unavailable in this class—for instance: side air-bags and ESP.