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The Polo has been announced winner of the 2011 Wesbank/SAGMJ Car of the Year, a title it shares with the BMW 530d. Both cars were declared winners at a gala dinner in Midrand on Tuesday 8 March. The Volkswagen Golf won the honour in 2010. ‘Volkswagen Group South Africa is delighted to have the new Polo named as the winner of the 2011 South African Car of the Year. This is an immense recognition of the Volkswagen brand following Golf’s win in 2010,’ said David Powels, Managing Director, Volkswagen Group South Africa (pictured centre, in photograph above).

‘We would like to dedicate this accolade to our employees at the Uitenhage plant where the Polo is produced for local and international markets. Their commitment to producing world class quality vehicles has been acknowledged by the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists,’ Powels added. The Uitenhage factory builds Polos for all global right-hand drive destinations such as Australia, Cyprus, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, and the UK. The Polo adds the 2011 South African Car of the Year award to its extensive trophy haul, which also includes the 2010 European Car of the Year, 2010 World Car of the Year, and 2010 Japanese Import Car of the Year.

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The Volkswagen Polo has been announced as Wheels magazine’s Car of the Year 2010, beating 21 other finalists from a total of 16 manufacturers. The Australian publication’s shortlisted top three included the Nissan Micra and Renault Megane alongside the Polo. A back-to-back win for Volkswagen, the Polo’s larger Golf sibling took the Wheels prize in 2009. Bill Thomas, Wheels editor, commented: ‘Volkswagen has elevated Polo’s quality, safety, performance, efficiency, refinement, practicality and value to the top of its class. Polo feels like a bigger car, and is also a great all-rounder. Spacious, safe, efficient, easy to drive and easy to live with, the Polo is a very worthy winner of Australia’s most coveted motoring prize.’ The Wheels judging panel thought that the Polo range represented outstanding value for the motorist, starting at $16,690 for the base-model Trendline, through to the performance-orientated GTI at $27,790.

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The Polo has added yet another prize to its Australian trophy cabinet, as Australia’s Best Car Awards 2010 named the Polo 66TDI the ‘Best Light Car Over $20,000’ at a ceremony in Sydney. Juries from both Carsguide and Drive have handed the Polo the Car of the Year 2010 award in their respective competitions last week. According to Australia’s Best Cars, the 89bhp Volkswagen Polo was a standout when it came to performance as well as smoothness and quietness, achieving 10 out of 10. ‘At our test facility the Polo proved to have the most responsive drivetrain of the trio,’ said Mark Borlace, Australia’s Best Cars Chief Judge.

Impressed, Borlace continued: ‘Volkswagen did well with the Polo winning the “Light Car Over $20,000” category and it was unlucky not to win both of the light car categories.’ Anke Koeckler, Volkswagen Group Australia’s Managing Director, expressed her delight at collecting these highly regarded awards: ‘After our very successful award season in 2009, we are particularly pleased to have repeated this success again in 2010,’ she said. ‘We obviously continue to hit the mark with our new models and in particular, the Polo has been embraced as another class leading product.’

‘Australia’s Best Car Awards’ are in their eleventh year as a co-operation between the seven State and Territory based car clubs of Australia. This is Australia’s most comprehensive and independent consumer focused vehicle testing and award programme. Alongside the Polo, the Volkswagen Tiguan 103TDI also took out a category win for ‘Best SUV Under $40,000’, while the Volkswagen Jetta 103TDI was awarded a trophy as ‘Best Medium Car Under $50,000’. The Jetta convinced Borlace with its features: ‘The judges were surprised that a model late in its life still had the right combination to win outright and we look forward to seeing the new model.’

[Image: Australia's Best Cars]

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The Polo has been awarded the title of Best Import Car of the Year 2010-2011 in Japan by a committee of 60 Japanese motoring journalists. The 1.2-litre TSI model in particular impressed the judging panel, with the jury describing it as having a ‘high-quality interior and exterior’, ‘good fuel economy and powertrain’ and ‘no compromise on safety equipment.’ Adding to the fifth-generation Polo’s World Car of the Year 2010 and European Car of the Year 2010 gongs, the Japanese award is just one of a number the car has picked up in recent weeks on the far side of the globe. Other 2010-2011 winners picked by the Japanese panel included the Honda CR-Z (2010-2011 Japan Car of the Year) and the Peugeot RCZ (Special ‘Future Balance of Innovative Design and Driving Pleasure’ Award).

[Source: Paul Tan’s Automotive News]

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Australian car website Drive have crowned the fifth-generation Polo their Car of the Year 2010. Also winning the Best City Car award, the Polo beat off competition from the Ford Fiesta, Hyundai i20 and Nissan Micra to take the tiddler title. Interior quality, an array of safety features, competent road manners and punchy turbocharged 1.2-litre 104bhp TSI engine, the judges from Drive agreed that, ‘In terms of being a city car, it sets so many benchmarks. The Polo is the first in this class to bring in six airbags, and it sets a standard the other city car competitors have to beat on both engine and gearbox,’ adding, ‘It’s in another land for refinement. It feels like a small car, not a city car.’

A best overall fuel consumption figure was only one of the values that made the Polo win the coveted Car of the Year 2010 title, though, the judging panel citing the ‘fun factor’ of the latest model and the way that, ‘the tiny Volkswagen Polo delivers so many rewards for enthusiastic drivers looking to reduce their carbon footprints.’ The newly-developed turbocharged engine was a major asset when the judges were considering their verdicts. Beating category winners from 14 other segments, the Polo and its larger stablemate the Golf fought for top honours, with the Polo securing leading votes from nine of the judges, who, according to Drive, ‘thought it shifted the goalposts of its class more than the Golf did – and for less of a premium over its competitors.’ Full coverage here.

In a similar prize, Carsguide has also awarded the Polo the ‘2010 Carsguide Car of the Year’, title, establishing itself as the benchmark in the light car class. It’s the second consectutive year Volkswagen have taken the award; last year’s winner was the Golf. Carsguide Managing Editor, Ged Bulmer, said the latest Polo was another example of the company delivering an extremely well-equipped and well-engineered small car at an affordable price. ‘Many of the attributes of the popular Volkswagen Golf have trickled down into the Polo, with the result that it looks like a scaled down version of that winning combination.’ Judging panel member Paul Pottinger said: ‘The Polo scored a convincing win, not because of its $16,690 starting price but because of its impressive safety, quality, comfort and driving enjoyment. The Golf’s little brother is the world’s best small car.’

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