1.4-liter VW Vento is Polo Sedan for South Africa
After Polo Vivo and variants of the new Polo (CrossPolo, Polo GTI and Polo BlueMotion), Volkswagen South Africa has brought out the Polo sedan. To put in a nutshell, the Polo sedan is a LHD Vento with an additional engine. Marketed with the credo 'La Semplicita – the simplicity’ advertisements highlight the design of the Polo sedan as the distinguishing factor from other players its community.
In 2010, Volkwagen told IAB the Vento is exclusive to India and Russia (where it is sold as Polo) but that doesn't hold good in 2011 as in the last six months we have seen the Vento testing in China and Malaysia, two markets expecting the Vento in following months.
Volkswagen offers the Polo Sedan with two types of headlight, the “Trendline” has single headlights and “Comfortline” has twin headlights (on each corner, that is).
Coming to the interesting bit now, the Polo sedan' engine line-up is different compared to Vento. The starting variant has a pro-fuel economy 1.4-liter petrol engine producing 84hp and 132Nm of torque. It is paired to a 5-speed manual transmission while the bigger 1.6ltr can be bought with a 6-speed Tiptronic transmission in the Comfortline trim. The 1.6 TDI Comfortline variant is the range-topper with ABS, ESP and EBD.
Motoroids.com speculated last year on VW India planning a 1.4-liter petrol motor for Vento. This variant helps VW price the Vento better and grant them the liberty to position the Vento as an alternative to top-end variants of the Indigo Manza, Swift Dzire, Toyota Etios, etc.
To read further about the Polo Sedan visit the VW South Africa website.