Meet the original Polo, and that uncanny valley feeling you’re experiencing when looking at the photographs is a result of it occupying that liminal space between our beloved Mk1 Golf and the Audi 50 (on which its based) that we never got in South Africa.
From certain angles it even evokes the Passat of that era, covered in its original teal paint and welcoming you into its orange interior. It’s very disco, baby and I love it. We grabbed its key fob and pointed its adorable bonnet away from the Munich city centre and made our way into the green lanes for some twisty roads on which to enjoy it’s charming abilities.
Now look here, we only have 29kW at our disposal from the little one litre, but it only has a 685kg kerb weight to chuck about. There’s only four forward gears which made for some frustration on the highways, but proved more than suffice when the back roads got twisty. The helm was light but precise, with each left, right, left gleefully dispatched with a deft tug, a dip of the clutch and an enthusiastic right foot into the foot well.
The cabin was immaculate, the dashboard exhibiting the Intolstadt sophistication of the donor car – arguably more high end and contemporary than the Mk1 Golf. I loved it at once. And to think, it’s its 50th birthday. Which begs the question, where to next?
I didn’t fly to Germany to drive a 50 year old car, but to join VW at the IAA Mobility show in Munich where they unveiled an array of cars, but most notably the ID Polo and ID Polo GTI. They’re both electified, built for European markets and I was scared of them. I was afraid that South Africa will be left behind now that Volkswagen Global are moving into this digital direction while Mzansi continues to embrace coal, and our cars the internal combustion engine. At lunch with the CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Thomas Schafer, I plucked up the nerve to ask him directly if this marked the end of the road for us. To this he replied, “as long as there is Boney M being played in the shopping malls at Christmas time there’ll be a Polo built in South Africa”. So, forever it is.
With this reassurance and a teal classic Polo ticking itself cool in the shade of a tree behind me, I felt optimistic. That not only will we retain our connection to the Polo, but also to the viscera-stirring combustion engine that’s carried us this far.
Martina Biena (VWSA Managing Director) and Johan Kristoffersson (seven-time FIA World Rallycross Champion) standing in front of the ID Polo
Thomas Schafer, CEO of VW