VW Polo gets ready to celebrate 50th anniversary

The Volkswagen Polo is already half a century old, and the company plans to introduce something special for the occasion.

The details aren’t there yet, so let’s take a look back at the compact bestseller. It arrived to us in 1975, rounding off Volkswagen’s new vehicle lineup at the time. It joined the company of the 1973 VW Passat and the 1974 VW Golf, forming a trio of compact and affordable cars for everyone. Rather than being completely original, the first Golf generation was actually based on a trimmed-down Audi 50 platform from the preceding year.

The Polo quickly rose to popularity and proceeded to change six generations. The company says it has shipped over 20 million units so far. The production in the EU came to a halt this summer, but the hatchback still lives on in Brazil, South Africa, Algeria, and China.