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Following its Moscow debut, the new Polo-based Vento saloon has recently been unveiled in India. With an extended wheelbase and traditional three-box notchback profile, the latest booted Polo takes on a separate identity to the three and five door hatchback models, and is powered by 104bhp 1.6-litre petrol and diesel engines. As with the Derby of 1977, the Vento is one of Volkswagen’s more pretty and gracefully-styled saloon cars, with a tail which reminds us of the original Vento’s successor, the 1998 Series 4 Golf-based Bora. To be sold alongside the locally Pune-built Polo hatchbacks, the Vento completes the Polo line-up in India, fast becoming one of the fifth generation car’s major markets. Volkswagen Germany and Volkswagen India press releases and images follow.

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No sooner had the Polo Saloon been unveiled in Moscow, news filtered out that it is heading to India in the autumn of 2010, under the ‘Vento’ name. We’d suspected as much when news stories leaked the possible change of moniker a few weeks ago, and a market launch has always been on the cards for what many car manufacturers see as one of the world’s emerging sales markets. To be built in the company’s Chakan, Pune plant (the same factory where the local market Polo hatchback is manufactured), engine choice is to be the same as the Eastern European cars.

Two 1.6-litre engines will provide the motive power (we suspect both the petrol and diesel units to have 104bhp), while manual and automatic transmissions – the latter for petrol models only – will be offered. Positioned as a premium entry level Sedan in the country, and Volkswagen say that the car has been completely designed to the needs and expectations of the Indian consumer. Standard equipment includes air-conditioning, ABS and a raft of airbags, while like the Polo hatchback, the car boasts higher ground clearance for the Indian market over its European relatives.

The Vento (Italian for ‘wind’) will be the seventh model from the Brand Volkswagen for the Indian market and takes a name from Volkswagen’s past. The third-generation Golf saloon was called Vento in when it arrived in 1992, replacing the Jetta. The fifth-generation Polo is rumoured to be heading to the US (where, coincidentally, the Jetta name is still going strong) – is this the car that could take the Polo name Stateside? Indian motoring magazine Quarter Mile has a special preview feature on the Vento in their June 2010 issue. Download the magazine’s special online version here.

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After the GTI, the new Polo Saloon (the Sedan nameplate seems to have been dropped) is the one incoming fifth-generation Polo variant that has grabbed the most headlines. Both long-awaited and long-rumoured, Volkswagen has officially unveiled the car today in Moscow. Tailor-made for the Russian market and expected to be priced from €10,000 (a very modest £8300 at current exchange rates), only one 1.6-litre 104bhp engine is available, with either a five-speed manual or six-speed automatic gearbox.

To be built at Volkswagen’s brand new Kaluga factory in the traditional continental trims of Trendline, Comfortline and Highline, a version will also be sold in India later in the year. The biggest question of course, is whether this is the Polo model which will be heading Stateside? The latest in a line of European and global Polo notchbacks starting with the Derby in 1977, initial reports state that the new Saloon won’t be coming to the UK, where (unlike the US) buyers traditionally prefer hatchbacks. The full Volkswagen press release follows.

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US website Motor Authority has recently hinted that the Polo is still to appear Stateside, just a little later than Volkswagen’s initial plans. Now slightly more involved, the company’s plans for the federal Polo are said to include the new sedan (saloon, new rendering above) and a stretched iteration of the hatchback model on sale in Europe; something between a mini-van and a traditional hatch.

Production is rumoured to start in 2011 at VW’s Puebla plant in Mexico, and the US Polo will be aimed at competitors such as the Ford Fiesta and Honda Jazz/Fit. A sedan version of the car developed for the Indian and Asian market is already slated to go on sale later this year. Head across to Motor Authority to read more.

[Image: Motor Authority]

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Via a convoluted route courtesy of WorldCarFans, Indian Autos Blog and CarEdge Russia, we bring you this alleged new Polo Sedan design sketch has leaked all across the internet. Volkswagen is known to be developing a new booted version of the fifth-generation Polo for sale in Africa, Asia and possibly even the US, and this sketch certainly has a Polo-looking front end. Whether it’s official or not we don’t know, but from the mules out testing already, the final car will look much less swoopy than this rendering would have you believe.

Indian Autos Blog reckons that the new notchback Polo will be, in longstanding Volkswagen tradition, named after a wind (Typhoon is our current favourite) and go on sale in that particular country in the second half of this year. CarEdge Russia meanwhile reports that an official presentation will be held in June. Again, whether this is true or not is open to opinion, but if it is, the already expanding Polo V family will grow once again very soon.

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