#polo

From ancient times until the 20th century, horses were the fastest form of personal transportation on earth. If you had to get somewhere in a hurry, chances were you’d be riding one of these beasts.

The Up! GTI just became the latest hatchback to join the proud tradition of performance at Volkswagen, but for the foreseeable future, it will be the last.

A  Toyota earned the highest sales of any single vehicle in automotive history last year.

Some tasty forbidden fruit from Volkswagen is getting even sweeter at the Paris Motor Show.

Volkswagen will reveal a quartet of subcompact Polos at next week’s Geneva Motor Show. Naturally fuel efficiency is a top priority with these models but the company hasn’t forgotten about performance.

When dozens of manufacturers gather this March at the Palexpo for the Geneva Motor Show, Volkswagen is expected to display a Polo-based crossover.

Push the bookends a bit farther apart on the shelf where you keep the specification sheets for cars you can’t own because Volkswagen just released details for its Polo R WRC.

Small SUVs are heating up faster than a bunsen burner in science class and VW seems happy to provide the gas. According to German publication Handelsblatt, there will be two new models on the way that will be smaller than the Tiguan. 

Earlier in the month we reported that Volkswagen was testing their new WRC Polo R with Carlos Sainz behind the wheel, and now there’s video from Sainz’s testing sessions along with the official announcement of VW signing Sebastian Ogier as their first driver for the FIA World Rally Championship alongside Julien Ingrassia as his co-driver.

Volkswagen’s WRC entry in the form of a Polo R is out testing a little over a year before its official competition debut. The Polo R recently got its first bout of testing on a 1.5-mile tarmac track out in the vineyards in Trier, Germany.

Last year, Volkswagen stirred up some excitement by introducing the 2010 Polo GTI at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show, and this year they’re following it up with an announcement of two R-Line packages for the Polo in addition to an Exclusive Edition for the Passat.

Volkswagen has released three images of the 2010 Polo GTI, which will be introduced at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show in March.

One of Volkswagen’s premieres set for the LA Auto Show next week is the newly-launched Polo BlueMotion. Now VW has no plans to offer this European model in North America, but the automaker is using the debut to promote its message that diesel is an immediate solution to using less fuel, while continuing to test the U.S. market’s reaction to the sub-compact Polo, which fits in underneath the Golf in VW’s European lineup.

Volkswagen will debut a new set of ultra-efficient BlueMotion diesels at the Frankfurt Auto Show in just two weeks. Included in the list are the new BlueMotion versions of the Polo, Golf and Passat.

First up is the ultra-efficient BlueMotion Polo sub-compact, which is powered by a 75hp 1.2-liter diesel engine. Improving even on the already impressive Polo TDI that gets 56 mpg, this new car gets 71.3 mpg! Equipped with a 12 gallon (45 liter) tank the BlueMotion Polo has a theoretical travel distance of 847 miles (1,363 kilometers).

Next is the BlueMotion Golf, which gets 61.9 mpg, while still producing 105hp and 185 ft-lbs of torque, allowing it to hit 62 mph in 11. 3seconds and top out at 120 mph (190 km/h) on the German autobahn.

Finally, there’s the BlueMotion Passat, a mid-sized car that gets 53.5 mpg. It might not get up to speed very quickly, taking 12.5 seconds to 62 mph thanks to the same 105-hp engine as found in the Golf, but with a large 18.5 gallon (70 liter) tank it can travel 989 miles (1,591 km) at a time, which Volkswagen says equates to just seven fill-ups per year.

We’ll be sure to bring you more on VW’s new BlueMotion models from the Frankfurt Auto Show, starting September 15th.

Official release after the jump:

We’ve known for some time now that Volkswagen is planning to build a new mid-size sedan, but as details of the German automaker’s future product lineup emerge, it appears as though VW isn’t just interest in taking on the Camry, but the entire Toyota lineup.