Polo is European Car of the Year

The new Polo received 347 points against 337 points given to the second placed Toyota IQ by 59 jurors from 23 countries in Europe.

The European Car of the Year competition is one of the oldest and most esteemed awards in Europe. The last time a Volkswagen won the award was in 1992 with the third generation Golf.

Hakan Matson, president of the jury, said: “It was the Polo's comprehensive safety equipment and its advanced range of engines that impressed us the most.”

It will be here early 2010

The 2010 European Car of the Year award caps what has been an extraordinary debut year for this Polo model which was launched in Europe in May 2009. Recently it was named by Auto Motor Sport magazine as the 2009 Best Car. It has also won the Grüne (“Green”) and the Goldene Lenkrad (“Golden Steering Wheel”) awards by publisher Springer Verlag.

To date, over 130 000 orders have been received for the new Polo in Europe.

By the end of 2009, Volkswagen of South Africa will have exported over 19 000 new Polos to the worldwide right hand drive markets such as Japan, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.

A further 55 000 new Polos are planned to be exported to these markets in 2010.

The world-beating Polo will be launched in South Africa at the beginning of February 2010.