As it turns out, the 3-door Volkswagen Polo is just as handsome looking at the 5-door Volkswagen Polo. Volkswagen has definitely got its baby B-segment hatchback’s styling sorted out nicely. Most importantly to me, the Polo now looks unisex, while its predecessor looked a little feminine to me.

6 engines will be available with the car, with the most fuel efficient being a 75 PS turbodiesel that uses only 3.3 litres per 100km and puts out only 87g/km of CO2. The most powerful engine so far is the 1.2 litre TSI, putting out 105 PS thanks to its direct injection and forced induction. Of course, that’ll only be until the Polo GTI hot hatch is unveiled, which could feature either a 150 PS or 180 PS engine, assuming it mimics what’s offered with the hot version of the Ibiza.

Look after the jump for a full hi-res gallery of the 3-door Polo.

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Volkswagen Polo: 5-door version.
Volkswagen Polo GTI 1.8T Test Drive Review
Volkswagen CrossPolo 1.6 Test Drive Review
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Volkswagen has converted its South American centric Volkswagen Gol into a front wheel drive car-based single cab pickup, or “ute”, whatever you prefer calling it. The Gol-based ute is called the Volkswagen Saveiro and is powered by a 1.6 litre inline-4 flex-fuel engine thats shared with the Gol, producing 104 horses at 5,250rpm and 156Nm of torque at 2,500rpm if you fuel it with ethanol (minus 2 horses and 3Nm if you use regular petrol). The Saveiro is not a new name – it’s traditionally used a old time ago for car-based pickups in the Volkswagen family, and the last model was based on the Volkswagen Fox if I am not mistaken.
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At first, the figure was said to be about US$47 million, but the latest is a whopping US$140 million! It’s heartbreaking I know but yes, we’re talking about Volkswagen’s investment in Indonesia to build an assembly plant there that will first only have CKD assembly and paint shops, but will later become a full fledged manufacturing plant complete with stamping and the whole works, if all goes well!

Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board head Muhammad Lutfi has revealed that US$140 million will be invested over the next 2 years on the 50,000 Touran a year factory, and the Indonesian government will support them with tax incentives.

Lutfi added that MPV manufacturing in Indonesia is on average 30% cheaper than any other ASEAN countries because of government incentives. Toyota and Honda also makes their MPVs there (remember the Toyota IMV project?), with the latest being the Honda Freed, which is being assembled at Honda’s plant in Karawang.

More and more automotive companies may be looking at Indonesia soon. Four Chinese brands have entered Indonesia in the last 2 years – Chery, Foton, Great Wall and Geely. Their economy is forecasted to grow 4% this year, and they are said to be the 3rd fastest growing economy in Asia after China and India. It’s also the world’s fourth-largest country by population.

Indonesian citizen earnings are slowly rising to point where a majority can abandon their motorcycles for cars, and proof of that is in the increasing gridlock problem in Jakarta. The buses and taxis share the same jam and there is no MRT. The first will only begin construction in 2011 and operational by 2016.

You can also look at P.T. Astra International’s stock prices and earnings – they are a large automobile conglomerate in Indonesia and have partnerships with Toyota, Daihatsu, BMW, Peugeot, Nissan Diesel, Isuzu, and Honda.

Previously a Volkswagen spokesperson said their Indonesian vehicle assembly plant is a first step towards Volkswagen’s long term ASEAN market development. Volkswagen can also use their Indonesian plant to supply CKD kits or complete vehicles to Japan, thanks to the Japan-Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement.

Source

Known has the Jetta Wagon in some other markets, the estate variant of the new Golf has been updated as per the Mk6 Golf hatchback. It’s alternate names are either the Golf Variant, or the Golf Estate. Like the rest of the Mk6 range unveiled thus far, it is largely based on the Mk5 but solves one major problem that the previous generation had – it was too expensive to build.

The Golf Variant starts from 18,500 Euros and is packed with features that can be considered high spec in Malaysia but is standard issue in the standard baseline Golf Variant as standard ESP stability control, 6 airbags, daytime running lights, roof rails, power windows all round, upshift indicator to help you optimise fuel consumption, power and heated outside mirrors, 1/3 to 2/3 split folding rear bench seat and seatback, and climate control.

Volkswagen is launching the new Golf Estate on the market with four gasoline and two diesel engine options, all complying with Euro 5, starting from 80 PS and 102 PS petrol engines, 122 and 160 PS gasoline TSI engines, and two TDI turbodiesels putting out 105 PS and 140 PS. The TSI and TDI engines may be ordered with a DSG transmission.

Look after the jump for a small photo gallery.
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