PoloDriver

In a surprise reveal, the latest Volkswagen Polo has been awarded the Supermini of the Year title in the 2015 Auto Express New Car Awards. At a ceremony in London last night, the small VW beat off competition from the new Mazda 2 and its in-house rival, the Skoda Fabia to scoop the coveted industry prize.

Upmarket quality
The magazine stated that the closely-fought category was a ‘tough decision’. The Polo won out thanks to ‘its upmarket quality, grown-up driving manners and range of efficient yet responsive engines,’ according to the UK title. The Polo gained cosmetic exterior changes and more thorough interior and mechanical upgrades last summer.

Auto Express also praised the Polo for its ‘excellent mix of refined comfort and polished dynamics. Its suspension soaks up bumps with ease, while the cabin is hushed even at motorway speeds. In corners there’s plenty of grip, and the Polo is enjoyable to drive, thanks in part to the punchy delivery of its petrol and diesel turbos.’

The magazine’s top choice of its top supermini? The £14,410 1.2 TSI 90 SE five-door due to its performance and low running costs. Visit the Auto Express website to find out what other reasons made the small Volkswagen supermini champion. PoloDriver.com is running the exact same 1.2 TSI model as part of its long-term fleet. Catch up with owner Tom Goodlad’s running reports here.

VW UK factory-approved accessory navigation system
In associated news, Volkswagen UK has announced a factory-approved accessory touchscreen navigation option from Kenwood Electronics. The GVN-MIB1 navigation upgrade is suitable for Mk VII Golf, 2014-on Polo and 2015 Passat models and is an easily-installed Plug & Play upgrade. The system costs £599 including installation at a VW retailer and uses Garmin maps.

The revised Volkswagen Polo has won the 2014 Best City Car Award by Australian automotive website Carsales. ‘Volkswagen’s smallest model in Australia was our top city-car pick even before the comprehensively facelifted version brought more big-car safety and connectivity features in August,’ said Managing Editor Marton Pettendy.

‘The addition of a five-inch colour infotainment touch-screen and smarter electromechanical steering from the standard-setting Golf – not to mention fresh exterior cosmetics – makes the sharpest tool in the light-car shed more entertaining in more ways.

‘But throw in a lower starting price, benchmark fuel economy and the availability of class-exclusive technologies like driver fatigue detection, multi-collision braking and radar cruise control, and it’s easy to see why VW’s latest Polo is the clear winner of the City Car race,’ Pettendy continued.

The 2014 Carsales Car of the Year Awards use motoring’s 13-category Top 5 recommendations as shortlists and ‘combine critical expert evaluation with data from the automotive network’s Redbook and DataMotive divisions to refine and determine each winner’.

‘The carsales.com.au Car of the Year Awards bring an important consumer element to Australian automotive awards. Cost to run, retained value and affordability are all important factors for car buyers,’ said CEO and Managing Director, Greg Roebuck.

As part of the awards, Redbook calculates cost to run and retained value based on an ownership period of three years and a total mileage of 60,000km. Eligibility for price-defined categories is based on recommended retail price of the base model under consideration.

All expert evaluation, ownership costs and affordability calculations are based on the price, packaging and equipment of the respective top-selling variants. Editors then award the Carsales Car of the Year title to the vehicle determined to be the most deserving of the category winners.

Two more Volkswagens picked up Carsales 2014 Car of the Year Awards: the Best Family Car under $30K went to the Golf, while the Amarok pick-up took the Best Tradie Vehicle prize.

We are pleased to announce that PoloDriver.com has received a highly commended prize at the 2014 Guild of Motoring Writers’ Awards. The awards recognise the Guild members’ work but the prizes also encourage new motoring writers, and it was for the Breakthrough Blogger of the Year sponsored by Motoring Research that PoloDriver.com was entered.

Richard Gooding started the Polo enthusiast website five years ago, from the ashes of the VW Polo Register, the UK’s first and longest-running club-level organisation for Volkswagen’s small car. A former editor of the club’s newsletter, Richard has been writing for over 20 years for both the local and national specialist press and has been in editorial job roles for the past 15 years. He is currently writing a history book for Crowood Press on the Porsche 914.

‘Richard’s work made the decision really tough for us as his extensive and professionally-created site is an excellent example of publishing,’ said Motoring Research managing director Richard Aucock. ‘For this reason, we’re going to work with Richard and try to develop a work experience and exposure package with him too; we’d love to give him a platform to showcase and develop his own abilities as a motoring journalist,’ he continued.

Richard Gooding commented: ‘After a dedicated five years starting and promoting PoloDriver.com, it’s truly an honour for it to be recognised by the motor industry. From covering mainly UK-based Polo news, the content has grown alongside the car’s global career to include stories from around the world as well as regular coverage of the Polo’s participation in many motorsport arenas.

‘I’d like to take this opportunity to thank PoloDriver.com’s loyal readers, social media followers, as well as its contributors, who make the site what it is. It makes all the hurried lunchtime posts and more developed features worth the effort. It still aims to be the one-stop-shop for all things Polo, and while that may be some time off, I think we’re getting there!’

PoloDriver.com is delighted to report that contributor John Redfern took the top honour in the same category with his own website, engagesportmode.com.

Australia’s National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA) has awarded the Polo GTI and Jetta as two of the country’s most affordable cars. The most affordable cars to own in their respective classes, the Polo GTI came out top of the hot hatchback under $80,000 category. NRMA states that the small fast Volkswagen will set back drivers less than $170 per week, due to a fuel consumption of 6.5l/100km, which translates into an average weekly fuel bill of $32.56. NRMA compared Australia’s most comprehensive list of new vehicles in its Car Operating Cost survey. The ‘awards’ take into account the negotiated vehicle price, depreciation, opportunity interest, registration, comprehensive insurance, NRMA membership, maintenance and repairs, as well as fuel over a five-year period.

Editorial website motoring.com.au has recently named its recommended cars for 2013, and the Polo has triumphed in the city car category. Volkswagen did well in the Australian website’s list, with four recommendations from its passenger car and commercial vehicles ranges. The Polo won the award in 2012 and keeps it for 2013. It was the same story for the Touareg, which scooped the gong for best SUV over $50k, while the new Volkswagen Golf took the best family car under $30k win. The Amarok pick-up meanwhile was named best ‘tradie’.

The motoring.com.au recommended cars categories correspond with search options across parent company carsales.com Ltd’s network of websites which include carsales.com.au, CarPoint.com.au, Redbook.com.au and motoring.com.au. The awards are defined by Redbook data including factors such as price, size, and passenger capacity. motoring.com.au and carsales.com Ltd Editor in Chief, Mike Sinclair, said: ‘Volkswagen is one of the world’s iconic auto brands. It’s a measure of its models’ competence and competitiveness that four of them have again been selected in motoring.com.au’s Recommended Car awards.’