Voici l'intégralité du communiqué de presse (en anglais, pas le temps de traduire maintenant) :
A first: a Polo specially developed for the Russian market
Moderate pricing: quality and reliability for a wide circle of
customers
Wolfsburg / Moscow, 2 June 2010 – While advance sales began for the
Polo produced in Kaluga, Russia, the world premiere took place before
200 high-ranking guests in Moscow today. For the first time in the
history of the brand, a vehicle has been developed specially for the
Russian market, bearing in mind its specific climate and street
conditions.
Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen
Brand with responsibility for Development, says: “The new Polo Saloon does
not only fulfil the highest standards of modern automotive engineering. The
efficient technologies, outstanding active and passive safety and the
traditional high quality of workmanship and materials are groundbreaking for
this class. In conjunction with the timeless design, a level has been reached
that is unprecedented in this segment and this market.”
Frank Wittemann, Head of the Volkswagen Brand in Russia: “The new
Saloon extends Volkswagen’s range of vehicles und builds a bridge from our
bestsellers in Russia, the Passat and the Jetta, to the small familiy car
segment. With it, an even greater number of friends of our brand can choose
a vehicle according to their taste and possibilities. The new vehicle complies
with the global quality standards of Volkswagen in every respect, while being
very attractive in terms of price: The Polo Saloon is being offered at a price
from just a bit over 10,000 euros and up.”
The new Saloon is being built on a completely new assembly line at
Volkswagen AG’s plant in Kaluga. The Volkswagen Polo is equipped with a
new 1.6-litre Otto engine (77 kW / 105 PS). It can be combined with a 5-gear
manual gearbox or a 6-gear automatic gearbox with sequential shift function
(Tiptronic). Hence Volkswagen is the first automobile manufacturer offering
their Russian customers such an up-to-date automatic gearbox in this vehicle
class.
A high level of safety is ensured already in the Trendline basic version—two
airbags, head rests and three-point seat belts for all five passengers. From
Comfortline and up, the Polo is equipped with ABS as standard. In the
Highline top version, additional safety systems are integrated that are
normally unavailable in this class—for instance: side air-bags and ESP.
The specific demands of Russian drivers and the climate and street
conditions in Russia have both been carefully taken into account during the
new Saloon’s development: long-term tests were conducted in different
climate zones, and the street conditions in the most variegated regions in
Russia were examined. The available petrol qualities were tested repeatedly
as well. Thus the vehicle has been equipped with an up-to-date and reliable
engine that is ideally suited to those operating conditions prevailing in
Russia, a galvanised, non-corrosive body and a wheel suspension geared to
bad roads. Particularly robust paints were used for the car’s paint job, and
the chrome parts are also highly resistant to aggressive agents.
