UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

dob-polo6n wrote:boo... if im looking at the dash on the fox correctly, the clusters aren't blue

Out of everything about the car that is what bugged me and still bugs me the most is the fact the dash isn't blue!! Now what the HELL is VW playing at !!

so i can buy 2 of them for the price of a new polo then?

I've posted about this car here in the past:

http://www.tigerstyle.co.uk/poloforum/v ... php?t=1282

http://www.tigerstyle.co.uk/poloforum/v ... php?t=1736

Well the 5-door has just been launched:









Romour has it that the 5-door won't be offered in Europe, but let's see...

Looks tidy, yeah shame about the red dash.

I'd have one. Looks too high though. And I think the 3 door would look a lot nicer

The 3 door was launched last October. Both look very tall and don't feel all that stable. Apart from that all's pretty much like the Polo.

The dash is red with yellow/orange lighting. The plastics are not up to Polo standards.

I've only driven the 3-door 1.6 and it's on a par with my Polo. The Fox is a lighter car but that HUGE frontal area dents the performance and fuel economy to the point that they're equivalent to what I get from the Polo.

Mind you, the Fox is being exported to Latin America as Lupo. VW couldn't use the name here because it's registered to a traditional men's underwear maker.

Cheers,

looks quite nice for £5k

Looks kinda cute Probably a very practical city car esp with the 5 doors (sliding rear seats & all - I reckon it could probably hold about as much as my mkIII, just with a half-sized engine bay). Bet it'll become the new Brasilia/Rio taxi to replace the Sedan/Bug
For the record 186k is 116mph (kmh div by 1.608 = mph) which is pretty damn poor for a 1.6 (similar to what i've heard claimed for a properly run-in 1.3 GT mkIII).. But as stated, it has a large frontal area ... to be more accurate, in the english article it mentions a steeply sloped windscreen (and steep hatch, of course) designed to maximise interior room, the angle of which is probably more of an aerodynamic nightmare than the pure area.

When it comes to city cars with such minimal exterior metal to spare - no space wasted on this one, look at it, the length is basically "bumper+front wheel+2 cramped rows of seats+rear wheel+bumper" - the styling is almost obligated to melt together across different models as there's not much playing room to make it individual. The basic shape will always be a brick with one edge cut off (or not, if you drive a bedford rascal). Personally I do think it looks like a Yaris morphed through a (mk2 with mk1 lights) Punto, and just different enough to be told apart. Just. The badge does most of it.
The Americans think so too - on VWVortex the old "Fox" discussion board (for the 3dr Jetta-like car with longitudinal engine and RWD) lit up with the news of a new model, and they were all highly baffled by this new dinky vehicle that "looks like an Echo!!". (The Toyota Echo - or Yaris, Vitz - is pretty much the only thing that looks similar or even the same size to hit Canada and the States). Most of them still want it imported though, along with the Polo (see, not all americans are complete petrolheads.. well.. um... tell a lie... they want 'em much the same as many on this board - cheap, efficient, lightweight platforms for making road-hugging, SUV-dodging speed machines out of)

And for five grand with the stated feature list, even given that it would be with the 53hp engine, I'd actually consider dumping my 'always buy used' future plans and having one from new.

PS Vaguely related sidenote.. Someone on my road has recently bought a MkIII Polo Fox-edition coupe. (Don't know who they are - too far up ). Looks pretty sweet. Similar navy colour to mine (so of course it looks good! ), PHAT alloys (14" i think?), has a custom exhaust from the sound of the one time I saw it running, possibly slightly lowered.
Probably still a 1 litre / 4sp with base spec inside, but hey, it's not ricing if you actually make it look *good* rather than tacky One day, if i had the time, money, expertise... the flying blueberry muffin-van will look that good.
Hell, the whole town has gone to the mk3s this week, they're out in force. Rock and roll!

Bet it'll become the new Brasilia/Rio taxi to replace the Sedan/Bug

Actually, by law taxis here need to have 4 or 5 doors, and can't be more than 5 years old. The Bug was sold in Brazil until 1986 - with a brief comeback in 1993 (special run).

So taxis are likely to be Corsa Sedans, Polo Classics, Santanas or Vectras.

(...) for the 3dr Jetta-like car with longitudinal engine and RWD

The 1980's VW Fox the yanks refer to was a notchback version of the 1980s VW Gol. It was called Voyage in Brazil and exported as Fox to the U.S. and Canada. Here's a picture of a 1984 Voyage/Fox:



These cars had longitudinal engines (as the Gol still has) but they were FWD and not RWD.

And for five grand with the stated feature list, even given that it would be with the 53hp engine, I'd actually consider dumping my 'always buy used' future plans and having one from new.

There are two engine versions for the (new) Fox: 1.0 8v with 70bhp and 1.6 8v with 101bhp (same as my Polo's). Both engines are dual fuel, which means they run on alcohol or petrol or any mix of the two.

The 1-litre Fox differs from the 1-litre Brazilian Polo in that the latter had a 16V head and 80bhp.

Europe versions will have airbags and ABS fitted as standard whereas they're optional in Brazil - and we pay £6k for the basic 5-door 1.0. So expect around £6k for the base European version with a 1.2 3-cylinder engine. Still a bargain given that the car is really nice if you're moving from an older small car.

For those wondering what a VW Gol is, here's a 1993 Gol GTI. Notice the bulge on the bonnet: that's in order to acomodate a longitudinally-mounted 2-litre 16V engine (150bhp).



I should also point out the long-range lights integrated into the main headlight assemblies, and the barely visible red seatbelts (look in the rear window).

These GTI's were very nice little cars but it's nearly impossible to find an intact one these days. VW heavily facelifted the Gol in 1999 (the bulge disppeared then) and the GTI was discontinued in 2001.

VW's slowly replacing the Gol with the Fox/Polo duo, and there are only a couple of versions still being made. However, it is unlikely that production will stop anytime soon as it's just been launched in China, where they assemble Gols from Brazilian-made kits. Besides, the Gol's the best-selling car in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, three countries that regard it as the real VW Bug replacement.

Are the Gol bonnets the same as the Golf one? someone could make a lot of money importing those........

Perhaps the red dash could be because this car is replacing SEAT's Arosa (which has red lights in the dash)?

KarlM wrote:Are the Gol bonnets the same as the Golf one? someone could make a lot of money importing those........

Hmmm... I don't think so, the Gol's is probably a bit longerand the headlights have a different shape too.

Perhaps the red dash could be because this car is replacing SEAT's Arosa (which has red lights in the dash)?

That makes sense, but then again VW Brasil went out of its way in many aspects of the Fox in order to cut production costs. Take the lights switch for example:

hhhmm I was just thinking that if you dont look at the wings or indicators the leading edge of the bonnet (and the lights imo) look the same. Its just those big polo style indicators put you off.

Longitudinally mounted AND front wheel drive?
That's just bizarre in my book

Tahrey1043 wrote:Longitudinally mounted AND front wheel drive?
That's just bizarre in my book

Yes I know, but that's what Audi has been doing since the 1960's! And all those Audi-based Volkswagens...