Goodbye, marriage that lasted more than 40 years

Last Tuesday, July 2, the Volkswagen plant in Landabene (Navarre) said goodbye to the model that had been the reason for its existence for decades: the Polo, SUV born in 1975, when the global context forced us to look for small and economical cars, although Its premiere at the Navarre plant took place on March 20, 1984.

With petrol engines of up to 55 hp, it was capable of a top speed of 155 km/h, and advertising of the time encouraged people to buy it under the slogan Volkswagen Polo is already Spanish, try it. It was 3.5 metres long and was a cheap version of the Audi 50 on which it was based, costing 547,700 pesetas. (Today, adjusted for inflation, this would be about 16,200 euros.

More than 8.4 million.

The first unit was donated to the House of Mercy of Pamplona, ​​which returned it almost 20 years later. Today it is part of the factory museum.

Forty years, five generations and 8,422,160 units later, The cycle was closed by a blue model with a 95 hp engine, destined for Spain. Something not very common, since since 1992 Landaben has been producing exclusively for the whole world, about 90% of the annual production is sold abroad. In fact, for many years it was a car made in Spain Most of all it is exported.

Record of 2011

The first million units of Polo were produced this year, although the most popular model was its fifth generation, of which almost 2.6 million cars were produced between 2009 and 2017. That’s when the company reached its annual production ceiling: 356,356 vehicles in 2011..

During this time, the car grew in size, content and technology and became a kind of large-scale Golf. Three- and five-door bodies were installed, the so-called Classic with a separate trunk, and Pamplona also “gave birth” to very special versions, such as Harlequin with body panels painted in different colors. Or street Polo WRC which was to be produced when Volkswagen decided to enter the World Rally Championship, a championship the company won consecutively between 2013 and 2016.

Make room for electrical items

The turning point has arrived Two years later, when the Polo was no longer the only model produced in Landaben, the T-Cross was added, later followed by the Taigo. Increased demand for these two SUV models has left the Polo in the minority, so it has been sacrificed to make room for the Two electric SUVs are planned. One of them is for Skoda, which will once again transform the Navarre plant into a multi-brand plant. Between 1966 and 1984, it produced MG, Mini, Seat and even Lancia cars.

But Polo’s farewell to Pamplona is not his farewell letter. Now it will be produced in South Africa, where it has already been done..