Polo Vivo strikes down rivals to remain South Africa’s biggest-selling car
Once again the Volkswagen Polo Vivo was the top-selling passenger car in South Africa last month, according to figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA). In three and five-door hatchback and four-door sedan (saloon) configurations, the Vivo claimed the sales top spot with a total of 2270 sales. November 2011 also saw the the fifth-generation Polo record impressive figures, too, once again in second place, with 1855 units. The Polo 6R was also the biggest export model for Volkswagen South Africa. The sole producer of right-hand drive current generation cars, its state-of-the-art Uitenhage factory exported 4421 units overseas last month from a total Volkswagen group-wide export figure of 4422 (a single solitary Mk 6 Golf made up the tally).
The Polo Vivo was launched in March 2010 as an entry-level model for the South African market, replacing the Series 1 Golf-based CitiGolf, and is available as a three or five-door hatchback and four-door booted saloon with 74bhp/84bhp 1.4-litre and 103bhp 1.6-litre petrol engines. Costing from R104,065 for the base-model 1.4 hatchback to R156,220 for the top 1.6 Trendline Sedan, the 2011 Polo Vivo is based on the revised version of the Series 4 Polo (9N3), built from 2005 to 2009. The new fifth-generation Polo (6R) is also available as both a three and five-door hatchback in addition to the traditional four-door Polo Sedan.
