First look: New VW Polo loses doors

VOLKSWAGEN has revealed the three-door version of its redesigned Polo hatchback, which will debut globally at the Frankfurt motor show on September 15 before going on sale alongside the all-new five-door model in Australia during the second quarter of next year.

Emerging with a more aggressive exterior stance than the fifth-generation five-door, which was first seen at the Geneva motor show in March, the three-door rides on the same platform and shares the same overall dimensions as its donor car, meaning a length of 3970mm, width of 1682mm and height of 1485mm.

Interior space is also identical, including boot space of 280 litres, and both cars will also come with electronic anti-lock brake and stability control systems as standard.

The five-door Polo has just been awarded a maximum five-star safety rating from Euro NCAP, leading Volkswagen to claim the new Polo is “the safest compact car in the world”.

But the new three-door, which currently opens Volkswagen Australia’s smallest model family at $16,990, sheds its rear doors and third side windows, adding a more pronounced rear kink in the lower edge of its glasshouse to create a cleaner, sexier C-pillar design.

Volkswagen says the European three-door will come with the same gains in quality, space, safety and refinement the five-door gains over its predecessor, as well as five-door’s seven new or new-to-Polo Euro V emissions-compliant engines.

It’s unclear, however, whether Australia’s three-door will come with the same three engines that our new five-door will offer: a 63kW/132Nm version of the Golf’s upgraded 1.4-litre inline petrol four-cylinder, the 77kW/175Nm direct-injection turbocharged 1.2 TSI and a 66kW/230Nm version of Volkswagen’s new common-rail 1.6-litre turbo-diesel.

The three-door Polo will be built at Volkswagen’s Pamplona plant in Spain, with right-hand drive production to commence in October before shipments to markets including the UK and Australia in the first half of 2010.